MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Bill Clinton funds at issue

Ex-President Clinton's loans to his wife's presidential campaign have raised questions about the sources and use of his income.

BY GREG GORDON

ggordon@mcclatchydc.com

In tapping some of that cash, ''the Clintons have effectively bypassed campaign finance reform in a manner that's ingenious -- using Bill Clinton effectively as a front for the fundraising,'' said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor.

Beginning days after he left the White House in 2001, the ex-president has been crisscrossing the globe, speaking about 250 times on tours that brought him more than $40 million in six years.

The sponsors have included investment banks that later suffered billions of dollars in losses in the subprime mortgage debacle and now have a big stake in any regulatory changes; an insurance group with an interest in any overhaul of the nation's healthcare system; a group that favors the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China; a Colombian business development group that backs a free-trade agreement; and more than two dozen Jewish groups, synagogues and museums.

Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson dismissed such concerns, saying: ``There are no conflicts of interest, and every dollar either of them [the Clintons] have made is all publicly available.''

However, said Jacobs, the director of the university's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance: ``There appear to be a number of prominent, wealthy corporations in the financial services sector, the healthcare sector and others that stand to gain considerably from the election of Hillary Clinton as president. If all of these groups were giving to her directly, there would be all sorts of questions raised.''

Questions about family income have also dogged the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The Democratic National Committee prodded McCain on Thursday to release the tax returns of his wealthy wife, Cindy.

On NBC's Today Show on Thursday morning, Cindy McCain said that she would never release her tax returns, not even if she becomes first lady. ''I'm not the candidate,'' she said.

When Hillary Clinton lent her campaign $5 million in early February, she made it clear that those funds came from her own money. That was plausible.

But her last-ditch decision to tap joint funds to remain financially competitive with rival Barack Obama exposes her husband's financial dealings over the last seven years to greater scrutiny.

On Wednesday, when Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson disclosed that she had lent her campaign $6,425,000 more since April 11, he said that ''legally, she is entitled to use up to 50 percent of their jointly held assets for her campaign, if she chooses.'' Jacobs, however, said that by drawing on her husband's earnings, Hillary Clinton is enabling sponsors who paid as much as $450,000 to hear him speak to ``funnel their funds through the Bill Clinton front.''

''It's an ingenious method for fundraising that bypasses campaign finance [rules], bypasses public disclosure and bypasses the limits placed on those contributions,'' he said.

While many of Bill Clinton's 250 speeches have been motivational or delivered to groups with no obvious agendas, others were to businesses and others with clear political or policy interests:

• Citigroup paid him $550,000 for three appearances in Paris and New York in 2004 and 2006, and Deutsche Bank paid $300,000 for two 2005 speeches. Both firms could be hurt further by proposed changes in federal regulations or laws now being considered amid waves of mortgage defaults.

• The Mortgage Bankers Association, facing new regulatory threats amid the subprime mess, paid Clinton $150,000 for a Chicago speech in 2006.

• America's Health Insurance Plans, whose 1,300-member group is one of that industry's strongest lobbying forces, shelled out $150,000 for a Clinton appearance in Las Vegas in 2005.

• Gold Service International, a business development group based in Bogotá, Colombia, paid Clinton $800,000 in 2005 for four days of appearances in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. The group favors the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. which Hillary Clinton has vociferously opposed.