It was revealed that a Saudi Arabian with ties to the royal family and embroiled in a domestic abuse court case is a major contributor to Hillary Clinton’s foundation.
According to a report by The Washington Free Beacon on Friday, Nasser Al-Rashid, listed by Forbes as one of the world’s wealthiest people and an adviser to the Saudi royal family, donated an estimated $1-5 million to the Clinton Foundation. Al-Rashid’s children have also donated almost $600,000 into Democratic campaigns over the past several years.
An unnamed senior political operative involved in tracking on the 2016 elections told Washington Free Beacon that the donations raise concerns about foreign influence in the American political system.
“Saudi Arabia is anti-Israel, anti-woman, and anti-human rights, yet Hillary Clinton’s Foundation takes millions from the Saudi government and well-connected billionaires like this Al-Rashid,” the source said.
“Now we have down ballot Democrats looking the other way and taking money from Al-Rashid’s sons, one of whom committed domestic violence. This from the party that uses divisive ‘war on women’ rhetoric at every turn.”
This recent revelation is nothing new for the Clintons. In August 2013, the New York Times published an investigative report that the Clinton Foundation, listed as a non-profit organization, collected over $492 million from 1997 to 2007. In 2007 and 2008, the Foundation ran a $40 million deficit. In 2012, it ran a deficit of over $8 million despite the Foundation and two subsidiaries generating $214 million in revenues. According to the report,much of that money came from foreign governments like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, and Oman.
Al-Rashid’s son, Ibrahim, convicted of domestic assault in 2014, donated $180,000 to The House Majority PAC run by Nancy Pelosi in 2012. Other Democrats who received money from Al-Rashid have either returned or given the money away, but Peolsi’s group has not.
“House Majority PAC received contributions from Ibrahim Al-Rashid in 2012, and those donations were spent in the 2012 election,” the group’s executive director Alixandria Lapp told Politico. “Ibrahim Al-Rashid’s disgraceful crime was committed long after we received and spent those funds. His crime is inexcusable, and we won’t be accepting donations from this individual in the future.”
