Clintons secretly accepted Qatar's $1mn gift

The Clinton Foundation has admitted that it took a $1 million gift from Qatar during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as the US secretary of state, without her informing the department, a leaked email shows.

The money was pledged by the Arab monarchy in 2011 to mark the 65th birthday of Bill Clinton, former US president and Hillary’s husband, a foundation official wrote in an email to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and top aide, John Podesta.

According to the new email, Qatari officials headed to America the next year to meet with Bill Clinton in person and hand him the check.

Hillary decided to not inform the State Department of the transaction, despite signing an ethics agreement with regards to the foundation when she became secretary of state.

According to the agreement, the former first lady was required to inform the State Department's ethics official of foreign donations to the family organization, whether it was from a new donor or an existing one, like Qatar.

Despite refusing to confirm the matter last month, Brian Cookstra, a foundation spokesman, confirmed the donation this week. He declined to say whether Bill Clinton had met with Qatari officials.

Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has made thousands of Podesta’s emails public since last month, exposing some of the well-kept secrets surrounding the Clinton family and Hillary’s bid for the White House.

Founded by Bill Clinton in 1997, the Clinton Foundation has come under bipartisan fire for accepting foreign donations in exchange for influence.

According to the foundation’s website, Qatar has so far given the Clintons a total of between $1 million and $5 million over the years.

Aside from Qatar, Saudi Arabia has also been one of the Clinton Foundation’s biggest donors. It became known in 2008 that the kingdom had given them between $10 million and $25 million.

Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said in June that Riyadh had funded as much as 20 percent of Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The FBI has been probing possible pay-to-play schemes at the family foundation for over a year now and is “likely” to press charges against it, Fox News reported Wednesday, citing informed officials.