Clinton says she's revealed plenty on husband's donors

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton, President-elect Obama's choice for secretary of state, rejected calls Tuesday for more details about donors to her husband's foundation, saying she has revealed enough to avoid even the hint of conflicts.

An Associated Press review found that Clinton took action at least a half-dozen times on issues involving businesses and others who later gave to the charity.

Richard Lugar of Indiana was among GOP senators on the Foreign Relations Committee pressing for full transparency about contributors to the William J. Clinton Foundation and one of its projects, the Clinton Global Initiative.

Under an agreement with Obama, Bill Clinton recently released the names of donors to his foundation, a nonprofit that has raised at least $492 million — including millions from Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments — to fund his library in Arkansas and charitable efforts worldwide on such issues as AIDS, poverty and climate change.

Lugar, the committee's top Republican, urged Hillary Clinton to immediately disclose donations of $50,000 or more; alert ethics officials when any gift of that size is pledged or given by a foreign entity, whether an overseas government, individual or business; and reveal the year a donation was made and the amount, or the range, of a donor's giving in that year.

Hillary Clinton noted that under the agreement, foreign government pledges will be submitted to the State Department for review. She said it was unprecedented for a former president to agree to the disclosure her husband has, and that she was confident the current arrangement would avoid even the appearance of conflicts of interest.

"I don't know who will be giving money," Hillary Clinton said. "When the disclosure occurs, obviously it will be after the fact, so it would be hard to make an argument that it influenced anybody because we didn't know about it."

The AP reported Tuesday that Hillary Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation.

The letters and donations involve pharmaceutical companies and telecommunications and energy interests; all said their donations to the Clinton foundation had nothing to do with Hillary Clinton's previous work on their issues.

Hillary Clinton wrote to the Federal Communications Commission in February 2004 expressing concern that changes to competitive local exchange carrier access rates could hurt carriers such as New York-based PAETEC Communications. PAETEC's chief executive is Arunas Chesonis, whose family and charity later contributed to the Clinton foundation.

Sarah Wood, executive director of the Chesonis Family Foundation, said the foundation was unaware of the senator's letter to the FCC on the PAETEC issue and didn't have any contact with her office.

Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. has been a member of CGI since 2006, when dues were $15,000, company spokeswoman Amy Rose said. Hillary Clinton wrote a November 2005 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt urging approval of Merck's human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil, and the vaccine was approved for use in females ages 9 to 26. Merck didn't communicate with Hillary Clinton or her office about its HPV vaccine and was unaware of her letter before it was sent, Rose said.