Bill Clinton, Big Money To Leave Foundation If Hillary Clinton Is Elected

Major changes would come to the Clinton Foundation if Hillary Clinton is elected president this fall.

Bill Clinton would step down from the foundation board and it would stop accepting money from foreign and corporate sources, the former president told staff on Wednesday. Information on the possible role of Chelsea Clinton in the foundation was not available.

The Clinton Foundation confirmed to NPR these details, which were originally reported by the Associated Press.

The Clinton Global Initiative will also be shut down next month. The hallmark of that is an annual gathering of international leaders, thinkers and philanthropists hosted by the Clinton Foundation. Its annual meeting is scheduled for September 19-21 in New York City.

The foundation, established in 1997, has been the focus of charitable work by the Clinton family since Bill Clinton left the White House in 2001. It's also been the focus of their charitable giving. The most recent tax returns released by Bill and Hillary Clinton showed the couple donating $1 million to the foundation in 2015.

Some of the priorities the foundation lists on its website include: "improving global health, increasing opportunity for girls and women, reducing childhood obesity and preventable diseases, creating economic opportunity and growth, or helping communities address the effects of climate change."

But there have been plenty of headaches brought on by the Clinton Foundation. It has taken money from governments whose policies are at odds with the U.S. More recently, questions about the relationship between the State Department under Hillary Clinton's leadership and the Clinton Foundation were resurfaced as emails revealed some efforts to make connections between donors or associates of the foundation and personnel or experts at the State Department.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus said in a statement on Wednesday, "If everything was above board while Hillary Clinton ran the State Department as the Clintons have said, then why change a thing?"

The statement from Preibus went on to criticize the existence of the foundation while Clinton is running for president: "But now that they have admitted there is a problem, the Clinton Foundation should immediately cease accepting foreign donations and return every penny ever taken from other countries, several of which have atrocious human rights records and ties to terrorism."

The Clinton campaign maintains that there was nothing improper about exchanges between longtime Clinton aides who were working at the Clinton Foundation and the State Department. Though this change in policies seems to be a tacit acknowledgement that the perceptions about the Clinton Foundation are a cloud hanging over her candidacy, which is beset by low ratings from the public on honesty.

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