Bill’s Donors Got Hillary’s Senate Clout

As Hillary Clinton’s Senate confirmation hearing begins today, a major news organization reveals that the future Secretary of State intervened at least half a dozen times on behalf of her husband’s donors including the manufacturer of a controversial cervical cancer vaccine linked to 21 deaths and thousands of adverse reactions.

Clinton regularly used her power as a New York Senator to intervene in government issues directly affecting companies and individuals that gave hefty sums to Bill’s presidential foundation, according to the international news group that obtained official correspondence of the acts through a public records request.

Among those that benefited from the senator’s clout is pharmaceutical giant Merck, a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and manufacturer of Gardasil. The highly controversial human papillomavirus vaccine has been linked to the deaths of at least 21 young women and girls and nearly 10,000 adverse reactions including life-threatening effects such as paralysis, severe circulatory problems and seizures.

Judicial Watch has uncovered extensive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) records detailing Gardasil’s serious side affects and published a lengthy report outlining the crisis associated with the vaccine, a top seller that has generated more than $1 billion in revenue for Merck. The report as well as the FDA documents, obtained through the Freedom Of Information Act, can be viewed here. 

Incredibly, Hillary pushed the U.S. government to approve the use of Gardasil in females ages 9 to 26 by writing a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt in 2005. To purchase its coveted spot on the Clinton Global Initiative, Merck has dished out tens of thousands of dollars in the last few years. Company officials insist they never communicated with either Clinton about passage of their extremely profitable vaccine, however. 

Hillary also wrote to the FDA on behalf of another major Clinton Foundation donor (Barr Laboratories) that makes the emergency contraceptive known as the morning-after pill and the Federal Communications Commission to advocate for a benefactor who is the chief executive of a New York-based communications company.  

The Commerce Department and the Long Island Power Authority also received letters from Hillary pushing for the controversial projects of an energy company that gave her husband’s foundation at least $35,000 in just a few years. 

These alarming interventions by a powerful elected official at the very least raise ethics issues. They may also be predictors of Hillary’s future activities. There’s no telling what she may push for—on United States Secretary of State letterhead—on behalf of her husband’s wealthy donors.