NY Times Invents Former Clinton Foundation Ban On Foreign Donations

The New York Times is urging the Clinton Foundation to reinstitute a ban that never existed on accepting donations from foreign governments.

The Times editorial board wrote on April 23 that now that Hillary Clinton is running for president, the international nonprofit “needs to reinstate the ban on donations from foreign governments for the rest of her campaign -- the same prohibition that was in place when she was in the Obama administration.” Likewise, an April 23 Times news article stated that the Foundation recently “limited donations from foreign governments,” but that the new policy “stops short of Mrs. Clinton's agreement with the Obama administration, which prohibited all foreign government donations while she served as the nation's top diplomat.”

In fact, the 2008 memorandum of understanding entered into by the Clinton Foundation and then-President-Elect Barack Obama did not ban foreign government donations. Instead, it stated that if Hillary Clinton were confirmed as secretary of state, the Foundation would “continue to perform” its activities “on behalf of existing foreign country contributors and in fulfillment of existing and on-going commitments.”

The Clinton Foundation's board agreed earlier this month to return to a similar policy given Clinton's run for president. They will “permit donations from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the U.K. -- countries that support or have supported Clinton Foundation programs on health, poverty and climate change,” according to the Wall Street Journal.