Clinton charity to divulge overseas contributions

| The Associated Press

1/12/2009 - 1/12/09

WASHINGTON — Ethics officials at the State Department will be allowed to review overseas contributions made to former President Clinton's charity if his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is confirmed as secretary of State, according to a lawyer for the former president.

In a Jan. 5 letter to the State Department, David Kendall said the State Department also will be able to assess any plans Bill Clinton has for consulting work and speaking engagements.

The plan, which is outlined in an agreement between Hillary Rodham Clinton and President-elect Barack Obama, is intended to assuage concerns by lawmakers that Bill Clinton's work could pose a conflict of interest for her as the nation's top diplomat. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, as well as the State Department contractor Blackwater, have contributed to his charitable foundation.

Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are expected to press Clinton on the details of the arrangement in a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Sen. John Kerry, the panel's chairman, said he and other senators want to know which contributions might be excluded from the oversight requirement and exactly how the disclosure process will work.

But "there's no stumbling blocks," he said in an interview on Monday.

Kendall said in his letter to James Thessin, the State Department's deputy legal counsel, that the steps are voluntary and go "above and beyond" the law and ethics regulations. In a separate letter to Thessin, Hillary Rodham Clinton asked that she be advised on any further steps she can take to "avoid any actual or apparent conflicts of interest."

Thessin is the State Department's designated ethics official.