Eric Greitens: Bill and Hillary Clinton have made a mockery of America’s foundation system

Here is what a foundation should do: Collect money, distribute grants, and judge the work of its recipients. Here is what a foundation should not do: Give access to high-level government officials in exchange for gifts.

That is the simple and damning case against the Clinton Foundation. By now, it is clear that the Foundation operated as a vast and corrupt market for influence. With winks and nods, Bill and Hillary Clinton sold access to the Secretary of State’s office. And because donors were giving to a “Foundation,” all parties could quietly look the other way.

Let us call this what it is: graft masquerading as non-profit work. This story has many troubling elements, perhaps none more than this: By giving their donors a private line to the Secretary of State’s office, Bill and Hillary Clinton have made a mockery of America’s foundation system—and tarnished the reputations of the non-profits who received grants from them.

More