The New York Times said Bill and Hillary Clinton attempted to donate $100,000 to the paper’s charity arm in the middle of Clinton’s 2007 primary race, but the check was lost in the mail.
According to the Times, the Clintons replaced the lost check with a later donation in July 2008, one month after Clinton ended her presidential campaign.
The Washington Free Beacon reported late Sunday that the Clinton Family Foundation, a private foundation run by Bill and Hillary Clinton, contributed $100,000 to the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund in 2008. The charity aids underprivileged New Yorkers and is controlled by top Times executives, board members, and members of the then-publisher’s family. The donation preceded the paper’s endorsement of Clinton over Barack Obama on Jan. 25, 2008, in the Democratic primary.
Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy declined multiple requests for the date of the Clintons’ donation from the Free Beacon on Sunday and Monday.
However, Murphy told BuzzFeed late Monday that the Clinton check was received on July 24, 2008, six months after the endorsement. Clinton ended her presidential campaign in June 2008.
Murphy said the 2008 donation was actually a replacement for a $100,000 check written by the Clinton Family Foundation on June 22, 2007, which "was apparently sent to an incorrect address and never received."
Clinton announced her presidential campaign in January 2007, and at the time the check was sent the primary race was in full swing.
"I can only tell you that our records show a note attached to the July, 2008 check that says it should serve as a replacement for a check (with check #) dated June 22, 2007 and the address to which that check had been sent," Murphy told BuzzFeed. "We can only surmise that at some point it was noticed that the check hadn’t been cashed and some contact was made and a new check was issued."
Unfortunately, Murphy added, "the person to whom the check was sent is no longer with the company and there is no one else with this direct knowledge."
The 2008 check came six months after the Times editorial board endorsed Clinton in the Democratic primary over Barack Obama and John Edwards, a decision that was controversial at the time. The New Republic and Vanity Fair reported that spring that the editorial board had leaned toward endorsing Obama, but ended up backing Clinton after then-publisher Arthur Sulzberger intervened. The Times denied the reports at the time.
Murphy told the Free Beacon on Monday that there was no connection between the endorsement and the contribution to the Times’ charity project.
Times public editor Margaret Sullivan acknowledged in a column on Tuesday that, "at The Times, the publisher has the right to make the final call [regarding political endorsements], should he choose to exercise it."
However, Sullivan said the notion that a donation influenced the decision "is a real stretch."