For months we've been told that the Clinton Foundation, and it's various subsidiaries, were simple, innocent "charitable" organizations, despite the mountain of WikiLeaks evidence to the contrary. Well, if that is, in fact, true perhaps the Clintons could explain why wealthy foreign governments, like Norway, are suddenly slashing their contributions now that Hillary's political clout has been erased?

As the Norwegian newspaper Hegnar points out, Norway is expected to slash their contributions to the Clinton Foundation by 87% now that Hillary has lost the presidency. After contributing roughly $5mm per year to the Clinton Foundation between 2007 - 2013, the Norwegian government decided to boost their donations to ~$15mm and ~$21mm in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Ironically, that boost in contributions corresponded with Hillary's decision to run for President in 2016...but we're sure it's just a coincidence. That said, it is fairly interesting that, since Hillary's loss, Norway has decided to scale back their contributions by 87% in 2017...hmmm.

After a record contribution from Norway to the disputed Clinton Foundation before the election year, is the contribution now in freefall. Financial newspaper can tell that next year's contribution is down 83 percent from the peak year of 2015. For 2016, the planned payments to Clinton Health Access Initiative totaling 35.9 million kroner, writes communications advisor Guri Solberg at the Foreign Ministry, in an email to Finance newspaper. It is one-fifth of last year's contribution, when nominating election campaign before the US primaries was in full swing, and the Clinton Foundation came under the spotlight in the US press. According to Finance newspaper lay the annual Norwegian contribution of NOK 40 million on average from 2007 to 2013. In 2014, the contribution more than tripled, to 129 million. And in 2015 they increased to 174 million. The money has gone to two of the Foundation's programs, primarily Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), but also the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI). For 2017 it is planned payments to Clinton Health Access Initiative 23 million, Solberg wrote in an email to Finance newspaper. It is further down 36 percent from the current year. By comparison, ran this program 169 million in 2015.

As Hegnar further notes, Norway was the third largest contributor to the Clinton Foundation after Saudi Arabia and Australia, followed by a number of Arab Gulf states, which is confirmed by the Foundation's website:

But, as the NY Post points out this morning, wealthy foreign governments aren't the only ones backing away from the Clinton Foundation as overall donations plummeted 37% YoY in 2015 just as the "pay-to-play" scandals started to surface.

Donations to the Clinton Foundation nose-dived last year amid Hillary Clinton’s presidential run, pay-to-play allegations, internal strife and a black mark from a charity watchdog. Contributions fell by 37 percent to $108 million, down from $172 million in 2014, according to the group’s latest tax filings. The cash plummeted as Hillary Clinton left the nonprofit in April 2015 after announcing her ill-fated candidacy. The foundation became a major issue in the race, with Donald Trump vowing to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate it. Not only did contributions drop, but so did revenue the Clintons brought in from speeches. That income fell to $357,500 from $3.6 million in 2014. By the time the foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative held its annual conference in September 2015, many donors had bailed, including Samsung and ExxonMobil.

With their power base eroded, the Clinton's will need to double down on their efforts to get Chelsea elected to that NY Congressional seat asap.