Report: Hillary, Boeing skirted State Dept. ethics guidelines
During Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, the State Department allowed aircraft manufacturer Boeing to skirt ethics guidelines that first prohibited solicitations of the company by the department and later capped gifts at $1 million, according to a published report.
The Washington Post reported Monday that in November 2009, Clinton announced that Boeing would donate $2 million to support the U.S. pavilion at the 2010 World's Fair in Shanghai, China on the same day she visited a Boeing hangar in Shanghai to address executives about the importance of the project.
However, State Department officials had originally prohibited the nonprofit tasked with building the pavilion from asking Boeing for a donation, claiming that the State Department's overseas lobbying on behalf of the company could present a conflict of interest. After an appeal from the non-profit, however, the department decided to cap a potential donation at $1 million, with the goal of ensuring that Boeing didn't dominate the exhibition.
A month earlier, the Post reports, Clinton had pressed Russian government officials to sign a multi-billion dollar deal to buy dozens of Boeing aircraft for use by a new state-owned airline.
"This is a shameless pitch for Rosavia ... to buy Boeing aircraft," the Post reports Clinton said while touring a Boeing facility in Moscow.
In May 2010, Boeing signed a deal worth $3.7 billion to supply planes for the new airline, Two months later, the Clinton Foundation received a $900,000 donation from the company, ostensibly to rebuild schools in Haiti.
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Report: Hillary, Boeing skirted State Dept. ethics guidelines