Think nothing else about Clinton Foundation could be shocking? You're wrong! How pay-to-play began.

[snagglepuss]

Ever heard about Doug Band? A power broker that most of us have never heard of but has been at the center of the Clinton System.


snip


Band had entered Clinton’s orbit as that lowliest of Washington archetypes: the body man. He was the all-purpose aide who carried the bags, provided the pen, watched the clock, kept the cigars close, and ensured the Diet Cokes were always chilled. And after the inglorious end of Clinton’s presidency, Band had stayed on. It was he who had engineered Clinton’s transformation into a philanthropist-king, and over the years, the pair had formed a bond that was more like father and son than boss and factotum. “The most important thing about Doug is that he sort of took control of President Clinton’s career at a moment when he was dropping from about sixty percent [favorability] to thirty-nine percent,” says Paul Begala, the former Clinton adviser. “You look up today and Bill is in a league inhabited only by himself and Nelson Mandela and the Pope. He’s one of the most beloved people on the planet and an American political colossus as well. That’s just astonishing—and Doug’s been central to that.”


Read on.


New Republic: Scandal at Clinton Inc.

https://newrepublic.com/article/114790/how-doug-band-drove-wedge-through-clinton-dynasty

[surrealAmerican]

6. Welcome to DU.

[nashville_brook]

2. i remember reading this when it came out.

this is the part that stuck with me...

From outward appearances, Band had transcended his body-man beginnings at startling speed. In 2003, he had purchased a $2.1 million condo in the sought-after Metropolitan Tower on West 57th Street. His salary from the Clinton Foundation remained relatively modest—$110,000 by the time he left in 2011, plus an additional payment from Clinton’s personal office. Yet his official salary didn’t account for the ways in which he benefited financially from his singular relationship with Clinton. According to The Wall Street Journal, Burkle’s Yucaipa had been supplementing Band’s income for some time, paying him via a Florida company Band created in 2001 named SGRD, for the four Band brothers’ first initials. (Band later established several more such partnerships.)

...

But there were signs that Band also sought out such opportunities independently. The longtime Clinton associate was approached by a company interested in having the former president speak at a conference and asked Band for guidance. (Between 2001 and 2013, Clinton received $106 million in speaking fees.) Band explained that the company should pay a certain sum to Clinton’s speaker’s agency and ideally contribute a certain sum to CGI or the foundation. Of course, he told the associate, the company should “also pay you for having made that happen”—as if that were simply the way things were done. “Doug has always been reasonably commercial, let’s just say,” says his former White House colleague. “He was a gatekeeper who charged tolls.”

[libdem4life]

3. Nobody who should care, cares. Oligarchy at its finest. n/t

[BernieforPres2016]

4. Is there anybody more full of shit than Paul Begala? Bill Clinton is a laughing stock.

<says Paul Begala, the former Clinton adviser. “You look up today and Bill is in a league inhabited only by himself and Nelson Mandela and the Pope. He’s one of the most beloved people on the planet>

[Major Hogwash]

5. And then she became the SOS and that was when the real wheeling and dealing began.

Awarding huge military contracts to foreign countries whose leaders would agree to donate generously to the Clinton Global Initiative.
As reported here yesterday, Clinton's foundation only paid out 6% to charities over the last decade.
The Panama Papers is only the tip of the iceberg whereas the Clintons are concerned.

[grasswire]

7. yes

They make the Bushies look like slackers.

[grasswire]

8. that article is very, very interesting

Now we know how the pay to play started.

And Monica Lewinsky asked this guy to a Congressional ball. That's very weird. She had the tickets, and she asked Bill's body man.