With Secretary Clinton essentially disappearing from the campaign trail (focusing almost exclusively on fundraising), many people have noted an unusual scheduled event for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appearing on her calendar, a fundraiser in Amsterdam – North Holland, by former U.S. Ambassador Timothy Broas .

If, as the media continue to espouse, Hillary Clinton has an “insurmountable lead” in the presidential race, why so much emphasis on raising money for a contest her team claims is easily already won? What gives?… and why Amsterdam for a fundraiser?

Let’s take a look, beginning with the guy trying to raise the money for the campaign; the “speaker”, Timothy Broas.

Tim Broas was a former Ambassador to the Netherlands for less than two years. After initially seeing his diplomatic nomination derailed in 2012 –busted for a DUI and resisting arrest charge in June– Broas gained the support of the White House again in 2013 and took the diplomatic post in March 2014. He quit the assignment February 2016.

A look at his history as presented by allgov.com shows a Broas was well enmeshed in Democrat political circles for many years:

[…] A partner in the Washington, DC, office of the Chicago-based law firm of Winston & Strawn, Broas has raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s re-election efforts as a bundler…in other words, he raised the money from friends, family, or business associates. For Obama’s 2008 campaign, Broas bundled between $200,000 and $500,000.

[…] According to records released by the Obama administration, Broas has visited the White House 39 times since 2009, including eight visits with the president and five West Wing meetings with Pete Rouse, a top adviser who served as Obama’s chief of staff and is now the president’s counselor.

[…] He started his private practice career as an associate at two New York City law firms: Conboy, Hewitt, O’Brien & Boardman from 1980 to 1983 and Whitman & Ransom from 1983 to 1985. Relocating to Washington, DC, Broas was a partner at Anderson, Hibey & Blair from 1986 to 1995, when he joined the DC office of the Chicago-based law firm of Winston & Strawn, where he has specialized in white-collar criminal defense ever since.

Clients Broas has represented include UBS Securities, LLC; Legg Mason; Otsuka America Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Alstom Holdings; Ingersoll-Rand, Ltd.; and Papa John’s International, Inc. He also represented the left-leaning group Citizen Action until it was shut down because of its involvement in funding a Teamsters election campaign, and Neil Volz, chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), during the unfolding of the Jack Abramoff scandal in 2005-2006.

In 2005, Broas was appointed to the Board of Visitors of Mount Vernon by Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and was reappointed in 2009 by Governor Tim Kaine; both are Democrats. He was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (also a Democrat) to the Board of Trustees of St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2011. In 2010, President Obama appointed Broas to the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan think tank created by Congress in 1968.

Timothy Broas is married to fellow attorney Julie Broas, who practiced labor law for two decades at the Washington, DC, office of the Jones, Day law firm and now works at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless as the Jones Day Senior Fellow. (link and more)

Tim Broas, the Ambassador/Clinton fundraiser, also serves on the board of trustees for an organization called “Partners in Health” (PiH). (Link)

PiH is part of the larger Clinton network, the Clinton Global Initiative.

The co-founder of Partners in Health (PiH) is Paul Farmer who also has close ties with the Clinton Foundation. (link)

Partners in Health, Farmer and Broas, (PiH) operate clinics and hospitals across Haiti (link)

… and has close ties with another notable member of PiH, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

It would appear that Mr. Timothy Broas is leveraging his prior 20 month experience in the Netherlands (as an official U.S. diplomat) in conjunction with his experience with the Clinton Foundation, and all the varied domestic and international interests therein, to gather up money for Hillary Clinton campaign.

The Clinton Global Initiative (international partners) able to deliver funding to the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton by using Tim Broas as “the loyal bagman“.

* footnote * I’m sure this is just a coinkydink name, but there’s a name on the PiH board of trustees that might also be familiar.