New York Times story claimed Bill Clinton tried to deny meeting linked to 'Clinton Cash' scandals
Apr. 23, 2015, Colin Campbell and Hunter Walker
Frank Giustra with former President Bill Clinton during a press conference announcing the Clinton foundation's new sustainable development initiative in Latin America, the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, to which Giustra pledged a minimum of $100 million, in New York, June 21, 2007.
-REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton, A Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter claims that former President Bill Clinton falsely denied hosting a meeting with Kazakh officials when she tried to write a story that involved his foundation several years ago. Jo Becker, who works on the newspaper's investigative desk, said Clinton only confirmed the meeting took place after she informed him there were photographs. Clinton's role in a deal that involved Kazakhstan, the Russian government, and a man who donated millions to the president's charitable foundation were detailed in a story Becker published on Thursday.
That article revisited some of her earlier reporting and included information from the upcoming book "Clinton Cash," which is generating widespread headlines amid a flurry of reportssuggesting it will raise serious questions about Clinton's family foundation. The donor in question is Canadian mining executive Frank Giustra, a longtime friend of the former president who has given tens of millions to the Clinton Foundation in the past few years. (A couple of hours after the NYT story was published, Giustra issued a defiant statement. We've included that below.) Becker initially wrote about the February 2007 meeting between Clinton, Giustra, and executives from the state-owned nuclear company Kazatomprom in 2008. The gathering took place at Clinton's home in Chappaqua, New York. "When I first contacted both the Clinton foundation — Mr. Clinton's spokesman — and Mr. Giustra, they denied any such meeting ever took place," Becker recalled in footage aired by Fox News on Thursday. However, Becker said Clinton and Giustra both changed their stories after she confronted them with evidence to the contrary.
"And then when we told them, 'Well we already talked to the head of Kazatomprom, who not only told us all about the meeting, but actually has a picture of him and Bill at the home in Chappaqua, and that he proudly displayed on his office wall.' They then acknowledged that yes, the meeting had taken place," Becker continued in the television interview. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev greets Clinton in Almaty September 6, 2005.
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Clinton arrived in the Central Asian state to sign an agreement admitting Kazakhstan into the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative Procurement Consortium.
REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov SZH/DH-----The purpose of the meeting, then Kazatomprom President Moukhtar Dzhakishev told The Times, was to discuss Kazakhstan potentially buying a 10% stake in Westinghouse, a US nuclear company. Becker's 2008 story also noted one of Giustra's companies secured a deal to buy uranium deposits from Kazatomprom in 2005. That agreement was made after Clinton accompanied Giustra on a trip to Kazakhstan. During the trip, Giustra and Clinton met with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Clinton issued a statement praising the Kazakh leader despite his questionable, antidemocratic record. The Times called the praise a "propaganda coup" for Nazarbayev. "Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton's charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month.
The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra's more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton's inner circle," wrote Becker and another reporter, Don Van Natta. A spokesperson for the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership told Business Insider they are "working on a formal statement" in response to a request for comment on Thursday. Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership is an initiative of the Clinton Foundation that was cofounded by Clinton and Giustra in 2007. A Clinton Foundation spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Fox News host Bret Baier spoke to Giustra before he aired the Becker interview as part of a broader look into the Clinton foundation's fundraising. Baier said the Canadian executive "considers this an old story" and claimed, "he's not interested in politics." On Thursday, The Times published another major report by Becker and Mike McIntire on Clinton, Giustra, and uranium interests. The new report is making waves in the 2016 presidential race because it said that Giustra's mining company, which is now called Uranium One, was only able to sell its US uranium deposits to a Russian state agency because the State Department, then headed by Clinton's wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signed off on the deal.
Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic front-runner in the presidential race, is not accused of any wrongdoing and her campaign has insisted that she wasn't even involved in approving the Uranium One deal. Her campaign spokesman further noted that other US government agencies also signed off on the sale. Clinton allies are also dismissing The Times report as part of a series of critical stories linked to "Clinton Cash." Her campaign team and related groups have noted that author Peter Schweizer has connections to conservative organizations and accused his latest work of being a partisan smear against Clinton. Schweizer hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment from Business Insider on these criticisms.
Update (7:28 p.m.): Giustra issued a lengthy rebuttal to The Times in a Thursday evening statement: A book that has not yet been published has caused the New York Times to publish a wildly speculative, innuendo-laced article about the Clinton Foundation and my role in contributing money to it. There is not one shred of evidence to back up the Times' conclusions. This is not about me, but rather an attempt to tear down Secretary Clinton and her presidential campaign. If this is what passes for investigative journalism in the United States, it is very sad. The facts do not comport with the story in the New York Times. The reporter, Jo Becker, wrote a similar piece in 2008, which was eventually debunked by Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/12/giustra-clinton-kazakhstan-pf-ii-in_rl_0912croesus_inl.html
1. I began working on financing the purchase of mining stakes from a private Kazakh company in early 2005. The purchase was concluded in late 2005.
2. In late 2005, I went to Kazakhstan to finish the negotiations of the sale. Bill Clinton flew to Almaty a few days after I arrived in the country on another person's plane, not on my plane, as the Times reported. Bill Clinton had nothing to do with the purchase of private mining stakes by a Canadian company.
3. I sold all of my stakes in the uranium company - Uranium One - in the fall of 2007, after it merged with another company. I would note that those were sold at least 18 months before Hillary Clinton became the Secretary of State. No one was speculating at that time that she would become the Secretary of State.
4. Other media outlets have insinuated that I influenced the decision by the U.S. to sign a free trade agreement with Colombia. At one point, I was an investor in Pacific Rubiales, a Colombian energy company. I sold my shares in Pacific Rubiales several years before the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which, I will note, was approved by several U.S. agencies and the White House. To theorize that I had anything to do with that is sheer conjecture.
I hope that the U.S. media can start to focus on the real challenges of the world and U.S. society. Focus on poverty, homelessness, infrastructure, health care, education, or fractious world politics. You are a great country. Don't ruin it by letting those with political agendas take over your newspapers and your airwaves. I am extremely proud of the work that we have done at the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership. Thousands of people, all over the world, have been helped by this initiative. I plan to continue that work long after the harsh glare of this week's media stories has faded. (via the Washington Free Beacon)