Clinton Foundation admits accepting $1 million from Qatar during State Department years

The Clinton Foundation admitted in a Reuters story Friday night it accepted a $1 million donation from the government of Qatar during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. In October, the foundation refused to confirm such a donation occurred.

Clinton may have violated her ethics pledge to notify the State Department of any new or significantly increased support from foreign donors to avoid appearance of undue foreign influence on U.S. policy, because the agency says it was never notified of this donation. A foundation representative said Qatar supported the charity "at equal or lower levels" than its pre-2009 gifts but declined to offer any specific figures.

The Clinton Foundation has long been scrutinized over its acceptance of donations from corporations and foreign governments that had dealings with State while Clinton was in office. The foundation said it will stop accepting foreign money if Clinton is elected to avoid further allegations of unethical conduct, a promise that will eliminate more than half of the organization's high-dollar donors.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Qatar donation came to light thanks to an email published by WikiLeaks from the hacked email account of Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta.