On Saturday, Newsweek reported that the number one donor to the Clinton Foundation “may be in breach of US sanctions” on Iran due to his business dealings with the authoritarian regime in his capacity as the billionaire head of a Ukrainian pipe-making business. Since the article went public, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC have yet to even acknowledge this new development.
After being largely ignored since the article’s publication on Saturday, Wednesday’s edition of The Kelly File on the Fox News Channel (FNC) led with this story and devoted multiple segments to its possible implications as yet another chapter in one of the growing scandals involving the Clinton family.
Host Megyn Kelly declared that the allegations in Newsweek raises “serious new questions” about Clinton and Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk [emphasis mine]:
A report now released by Newsweek magazine, alleges that Mr. Pinchuk’s company may have violated U.S. sanctions on Iran, done business with Iran in 2012 and possibly beyond that year by delivering nearly $2 million worth of steel pipes to Iran for pipelines. That's a no-no. Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at that time and happened to be the person charged withholding foreign entities responsible for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. During that same time, between 2009 and 2013, the Clinton Foundation received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Pinchuk has pledged more than 20 million more and hasn’t been charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.
FNC correspondent Trace Gallagher provided more details on the matter, including the fact that “Pinchuk has known the Clinton’s for nine years and had reportedly become very close friends with Bill Clinton.”
As for how Pinchuk came into possession of the Ukrainian company known as Interpipe, Gallagher mentioned that he was sold the company by his father-in-law, who once served as the President of Ukraine and “was accused of corruption, nepotism, and murdering journalists.”
Shortly thereafter, Gallagher detailed more of what was in the Newsweek article [again, emphasis mine]:
Newsweek now claims it has documentation that confirms a series of shipments from Interpipe to Iran in 2011 and 2012 with invoices totaling millions of dollars. Now, some argue the U.S. sanctions laws not well defined and Interpipe may not be in violation, but Interpipe also have a subsidiary right here in the U.S. and that alone might qualify the company for crippling penalties like denying it access to the U.S. market and U.S. banks. Back in 2012, a Chinese oil company with no U.S. base of operations was penalized for ignoring U.S. foreign policy.
Later segments featured The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens, Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt, and FNC’s MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz, who noted how Newsweek itself buried the story as well as the next to zero coverage of the article and its allegations.
The Clinton Foundation scandal is not the only one being skipped by the liberal media. As the Media Research Center’s Geoffrey Dickens reported on Tuesday, the major broadcast networks have devoted scant coverage to Clinton’s e-mail scandal since she officially announced her presidential campaign on April 12.
The relevant portion of the transcript from FNC’s The Kelly File on April 22 is transcribed below.
FNC’s The Kelly File
April 22, 2015
9:00 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking Tonight; Rpt: Clinton Foundation Donor May Have Broken Iran Sanctions]
MEGYN KELLY: Breaking tonight, a big story involving Hillary Clinton and a powerful businessman who was funneling millions in donations to her family foundation while possibly violating the U.S. sanctions on Iran, sanctions Mrs. Clinton was supposed to enforce. Welcome to The Kelly File, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. There are serious new questions tonight involving Hillary Clinton and the man seen here. Victor Pinchuk. Mr. Pinchuk is the fourth richest man in Ukraine, the owner of a massive pipeline company and, reportedly, the man who gave more to the Clinton’s family foundation than any other individual.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking Tonight; WSJ: From 2009-2013, Pinchuk Gave $8.6M to Clinton Fdn)
A report now released by Newsweek magazine, alleges that Mr. Pinchuk’s company may have violated U.S. sanctions on Iran, done business with Iran in 2012 and possibly beyond that year by delivering nearly $2 million worth of steel pipes to Iran for pipelines. That's a no-no. Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at that time and happened to be the person charged withholding foreign entities responsible for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. During that same time, between 2009 and 2013, the Clinton Foundation received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Pinchuk has pledged more than 20 million more and hasn’t been charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. We have a big lineup tonight on this....But we begin with Trace Gallagher, we has more on Mr. Pinchuk and this story. Trace?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking Tonight; Rpt: Clinton Foundation Donor May Have Broken Iran Sanctions]
TRACE GALLAGHER: And Megyn, make no mistake, the Interpipe Group is a major player when it comes to manufacturing steel pipes, including those used in gas and oil distribution. The company, as you said, owned by 54year-old Victor Pinchuk, the fourth-richest man in Ukraine, the largest individual donor to the Clinton Foundation. Pinchuk has known the Clinton’s for nine years and had reportedly become very close friends with Bill Clinton. Victor Pinchuk is also the son-in-law of a former Ukrainian president who The New York Times says was accused of corruption, nepotism, and murdering journalists. The former president also sold a state-owned steel company to his son-in-law for what critics say was pennies on the dollar. Now, back in November, former Congressman Republican Steve Stockman raised a red flag with the U.S. Treasury Department over Interpipe’s dealings with Iran. Stockman was concerned that Interpipe was circumventing U.S. sanctions the prohibit any single invoice of more than $1 million to Iran’s oil and gas industry. Newsweek now claims it has documentation that confirms a series of shipments from Interpipe to Iran in 2011 and 2012 with invoices totalling millions of dollars. Now, some argue the U.S. sanctions laws not well defined and Interpipe may not be in violation, but Interpipe also have a subsidiary right here in the U.S. and that alone might qualify the company for crippling penalties like denying it access to the U.S. market and U.S. banks. Back in 2012, a Chinese oil company with no U.S. base of operations was penalized for ignoring U.S. foreign policy. Of course, the State Department is in charge of policing the list of foreign companies and, at the time, the head of the State Department was, of course, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Interpipe has responded to Newsweek’s story, calling it inaccurate and potentially libelous, saying, quoting her, “Interpipe has...complied with the sanctions to the letter. Any allegation to the contrary is completely wrong...The alleged ‘evidence’ of alleged ‘violations,’ is either falsified, or the authors have been misled in the interpretation.” Experts say, violation or not, this is why even some Clinton supporters believe taking donations from foreign companies is a bad idea.
