Re: Hillary Rodham Clinton

From:jake.sullivan@gmail.com To: seizenstat@cov.com CC: huma@clintonfoundation.org, pverveer@aol.com, tom.nides@morganstanley.com, John.Podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-02-26 17:07 Subject: Re: Hillary Rodham Clinton

Stu - how would you craft the first statement so it doesn't look like a rebuke of potus, bibi, or both? > On Feb 26, 2015, at 2:02 PM, Eizenstat, Stuart <seizenstat@cov.com> wrote: > > Dear Jake, > Thanks. It might be worthwhile to touch base on two issues with a short-term tail. > > First is the deteriorating U.S.-Israel relationship, with the increasingly bitter Obama-Bibi tiff; his March 3 speech to Congress (both the improper process used, but also his likely message on more Iran sanctions); and the AIPAC conference where Bibi will speak the day before (and Hillary may also be speaking). Here a simple call from Hillary that it is important to stop the downward spiral of events with our close ally, notwithstanding mistakes, so we can focus on the key issues of Middle East peace and preventing Iran for acquiring a bomb would be a welcome positive, “adult” statement. > > Second, we need to prepare for the likely announcement of a framework agreement toward the end of March between the U.S. and Iran. Hillary will have to make a statement. I would be glad to work with you on it. As I mentioned, I have chaired the Iran Task Force for the Atlantic Council for three years, and am in touch with the Administration. > > Best wishes, > > Stu > From: Jake Sullivan [mailto:jake.sullivan@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, February 13, 2015 2:08 PM > To: Eizenstat, Stuart > Cc: Thomas (Tom) R. Nides (tom.nides@morganstanley.com); Huma M. Abedin (huma@clintonfoundation.org); Huma M. Abedin (huma@clintonemail.com); Melanne Verveer (pverveer@aol.com) > Subject: Re: Hillary Rodham Clinton > > Stu -- apologies for my delayed reply, and thank you for your willingness to lend your talents and experience to the HRC mission. We are just now at the beginning stages of putting together the policy architecture for the campaign. I'd love to connect by phone in a couple of weeks after things are a bit clearer, so that we can talk about how to make this work well. Does that make sense? > > Thanks, and all my best, > Jake > > On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 4:38 PM, Eizenstat, Stuart <seizenstat@cov.com> wrote: > > Dear Jake, > > I hope you are well. I have talked with Melanne Verveer and Huma Abedin about helping in the potential presidential campaign. Most recently, I met with Tom Nides at the World Economic Forum in Davos to ask him the best way to plug-in to the policy side. He told me that you would be heading the policy and issues side of the campaign. > > I have been privileged to work for all eight years of the Clinton Administration as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business & Agricultural Issues; and as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. During over six of those years, I also served as Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust Issues, negotiating over $8 billion in recoveries in negotiations with the Swiss and French banks, German and Austrian corporations for slave and forced labor, European insurance companies for unpaid insurance policies, and with over 40 countries for the Washington Principles on Nazi-looted art, which has led to the restitution of thousands of stolen art works. In this work, I was strongly supported by both President Clinton and then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who frequently asked to be briefed. > > My relationship with her continued when she (as President Clinton had done) graciously agreed to speak to my Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture series in Atlanta at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue, before over 2500 people. In her term as Secretary of State, she appointed me as her Special Adviser on Holocaust Issues, and in that capacity, I negotiated a $50 million agreement with Lithuania, and headed the U.S. delegation to the 2009 Prague Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets (which produced the Terezin Declaration) and the 2010 Prague Conference on Best Practices and Guidelines for the Restitution and Compensation of Real Property Confiscated by the Nazis and their allies from 1933-45. > > My late wife Fran and Hillary worked at the Children’s Defense Fund, and Hillary was especially kind to her over the years. When Fran passed away in 2013, she and President sent moving, handwritten notes of condolence, which I cherish to this day. > > Because every word she utters is put into a campaign context, permit me to suggest areas in which I could be helpful, even now, before any formal campaign may be announced, and thereafter, if there is a formal announcement. > > 1. IRAN > > As President Carter’s Chief White House Domestic Policy Adviser, I helped shape the original hostage-related sanctions against Iran. > > As Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration, I took the lead in imposing the first sanctions against Osama Ben Laden and al Qaeda. For the past three years I have chaired the Iran Task Force of the Atlantic Council (the first year as co-chair with Chuck Hagel, before he became Secretary of Defense) We have put out over a dozen published reports on all aspects of the Iranian situation, for the nuclear talks to their internal political and economic challenges, and have organized scores of conferences with leading experts. In this capacity, I have met with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif in small, private meetings at their UN Mission in New York in 2013 and 2014, on the margins of the UN General Assembly and have reported the results to senior people in the Administration. > > Our Task Force has been generally supportive of the Obama Administration’s negotiations. Needless to say, if and when an agreement is reached on a nuclear deal, which I anticipate, this will become a political “hot potato”. I can be helpful in shaping a response. > > 2. SANCTIONS AND GENERAL FOREIGN/DEFENSE POLICY > > During the Clinton Administration, I was the “sanctions-meister”, successfully negotiating sanctions issues with the European Union under the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, the Helms-Burton Act, and the Religious Freedom Act. As I mentioned, I was involved in Iran sanctions issues from the Carter through the Clinton Administration, and now with the Atlantic Council. > > But I have also become very knowledgeable in my private practice with the Ukraine-Russia related sanctions. > > I am on the Defense Policy Board (appointed by Secretary of Defense Hagel), and we have focused on issues like Russia/Ukraine, ISIS, Iraq, and Syria. > > 3. INTERNATIONAL TRADE > > I was involved as President Carter’s Domestic Policy Adviser and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff, with the completion of the Tokyo Round of the WTO in 1977, led by Special Trade Represented Bob Strauss, and then the Uruguay Round in 1994, as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, led by Special Trade Representative Mickey Kantor. I also served under Mickey as his Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, where I traveled around the world promoting American trade and investment, and then as Under Secretary of State, working on many of the same issues, but from a broader diplomatic perspective. I was involved in the China MFN issue. > > As U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, I created, along with then Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), which remains the officially recognized business voice on transatlantic trade issues by both the U.S. government and the European Union. To this day, I am the American chair of the Transatlantic Business Council (TABC), of which TABD is a part. > > I chair the international trade and finance practice at Covington & Burling, LLP, and was selected recently as Trade Lawyer of the Year by the American Lawyer magazine. I have testified several times on international trade issues, particularly the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). President Obama’s Trade Representative Mike Froman and I meet frequently, most recently at the TABD/TABC meeting in Davos. He asked me to provide advice on the regulatory reform part of TTIP, along with a few other trade experts. > > The Transpacific Partnership (TPP) will come before TTIP, as will Trade Promotion Authority (fast-track). All of these to one degree or the other will be opposed by labor and consumer groups. I believe I can help you shape positions on these. > > 4. EUROPEAN UNION > > Having been U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (1993-96), negotiating with them frequently during the Clinton Administration, co-chairing the TABC, and writing articles on the EU (e.g. with our current U.S. Ambassador to the EU Tony Gardner in the 2010 Foreign Affairs Magazine), I believe I understand the EU as well as almost anyone. The EU is an increasingly important economic and political partner (e.g. Iran and Russian sanctions). I am well known in Brussels and can be helpful as an informal emissary there. > > 5. CLIMATE CHANGE > > I was the head of the U.S. delegation, as Under Secretary of State, to the Kyoto Protocol negotiations, and played a central role in its negotiations, including aligning the positions of the EU, Japan, and other major industrial democracies with that of the U.S. I worked closely with then Vice President Gore and senior people in the White House, including Gene Sperling. I have continued to stay engaged in climate change issues. With the December 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference coming up, this issue will receive a great deal of visibility going into the 2016 election year. > > 6. ISRAEL, MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS, JEWISH ISSUES > > During the 2008 campaign, I served as a frequent surrogate speaker for the Hillary Clinton campaign on Israel and Jewish issues. > > As Under Secretary of State and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, I was responsible for dealing with the economic aspects of the peace process, while Dennis Ross led the political side. I negotiated some half dozen times with Yasir Arafat, worked on the QIZs in Gaza and Jordan (which I visited), the airport in Gaza, getting Palestinian workers and VIP Palestinian business leaders into Israel, and on other economic initiatives. Of course, this was done in close coordination with senior Israeli officials. As Under Secretary of State, I also negotiated with then Finance Minister Jacob Neeman, the phase-out of the economic assistance program for Israel, in return for increased levels of military assistance. > > I also headed the U.S. government side of the joint U.S.-Israel Economic Dialogue during the Clinton Administration. > > As a result of co-chairing with Dennis Ross, the Jewish People’s Policy Institute of Jerusalem, a think tank created by the Jewish Agency and supported by major UJA Federation heads and major Jewish donors, Dennis and I meet for up to two hours annually with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Cabinet to present our Assessment of the State of the Jewish People, for which Dennis and I do the Introduction. I have worked with the Prime Minister since his years as Finance Minister, and we have maintained a close relationship, despite our contrary views on settlements. I know most of the major figures in the Israeli political firmament. I travel to Israel two to three times a year, and have a vast array of friends and relatives there. Both my grandfather and great-grandfather are buried in the Petach Tikva cemetery. > > For the past several decades, I participate in a small, off-the-record breakfast group, with the Israeli Ambassadors to the U.S., all of whom I know personally, most recently with Ron Dermer. Fran and I were so close to Ron and his family, that we went to his bar mitzvah in Miami, and remain a frequent guest at private events at his home. I have a close relationship with Howard Kohr of AIPAC, but at the same time, I am respected by the J Street group. Indeed, before he created J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami came to seek my advice, and I urged then Ambassador Michael Oren to end the Israeli Embassy boycott of J Street, which they did, up to a point. > > I could serve as a formal or informal emissary to Israeli government officials. I could also help with drafting and/or reviewing speeches on the Middle East peace process. I also know Palestinian officials. At Davos, for example, I participated in an off-the-record session “Breaking the Impasse” with the deputy prime minister and finance minister of the Palestinian Authority, and leading Palestinian and Israeli business people. I proposed to him the creation of QIZs in the West Bank, for example. Remarkably, while there was one in Gaza, that was very successful before the second intifada, and over a dozen in Jordan, there are none in the West Bank. > > > I have a great deal of visibility in the American and world Jewish community due to my ongoing Holocaust work; my co-chairmanship with Dennis of JPPI; two books (“Imperfect Justice; Looted Assets, Slave Labor and the Unfinished Business of World War II” on my Holocaust negotiations, in 2003 an later translated into four languages; and in 2012 and a new version in 2014, “The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting on the Jewish People, Israel, and its Relationship with the United States”); frequent articles in Jewish publications, and speeches to Jewish audiences in the U.S. and around the world, from college campuses to federations to the General Assembly of the Jewish Agency to the upcoming AIPAC conference; my ongoing Holocaust negotiations; and my chairmanship of the Defiant Requiem Foundation, which has sponsored a concert-drama around the world (Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Jerusalem, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, etc.) called “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin”, which honors a Jewish prisoner chorus at Theresenstadt concentration camp and the documentary “Defiant Requiem”, which likewise honors the broader courageous artistic and musical performances at Theresenstadt. Our documentary was nominated for two Emmy awards in 2014 (best full-length documentary and best script), has been shown on PBS on Yom Hashoah day in 2013, and has been purchased by Netflix and BBC. > > I continue to serve as Special Adviser on Holocaust Issues to Secretary of State Kerry, as I did for then-Secretary of State Clinton. On December 8, 2014, I signed in the State Department’s Treaty Room a $60 million agreement with the French government for those current non-French citizens in the U.S., Israel, and around the world, who were involved in the deportations from France to the death camps, their spouses, and heirs. It was a widely-heralded breakthrough 70 years after the end of World War II. I am also working on the Gurlitt looted art case in Munich, and have met with the German Minister of Culture on this matter, with signficant results. > > In my private capacity, since 2009, I have headed the negotiating team of the Jewish Claims Conference in their annual negotiations with the German Finance Ministry. Since 1952, the Claims Conference the official body for negotiations with the German government on behalf of Holocaust survivors. During that time, I have negotiated over $1.5 billion in benefits, including a landmark 2013 agreement for $1 billion in home care through 2017. > > 7. BUSINESS COMMUNITY > > As a result of my corporate boards (UPS, BlackRock Funds, Alcatel-Lucent, Globe Specialty Metals), advisory boards (Christie’s, GML Holdings, and formerly chair of the Coca-Cola International Advisory Board), co-chairmanship of the Transatlantic Business Council (with some sixty U.S. and European companies), and joint projects with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, I could help the campaign as a liaison/spokesman with the U.S. business community. > > 8. GENERAL POLITICAL AND POLICY ADVICE > > I have been involved in senior capacities in presidential campaigns since the 1968 Hubert Humphrey campaign, for which I served as his research director, and the 1976 Jimmy Carter campaign, for which I was policy director. I have helped with policy issues in the Dukakis campaign, and Bill Clinton’s campaign. I have a keen sense of the combination of policy and political factors. > > Due to my work in the Carter and Johnson White Houses (my first job after Harvard Law School in 1967-68), and as Deputy Treasury Secretary, I am knowledgeable on a wide range of domestic issues, including job training (I recently co-authored an article on an apprenticeship program for the U.S., modeled on the German and Swiss models) health care, tax policy, as well as international economic policy. > > I am sorry to have gone on so long, but wanted to give you the fullest menu from which you can feel free to enlist my assistance. I practice law full-time, and serve on four corporate boards, as well as chairing the Defiant Requiem Foundation and co-chairing JPPI and TABC. But, I am prepared to give you considerable time. I am also prepared to contribute a substantial amount financially, and to help raise more, although I know this is not your jurisdiction. > > > Thanks for your consideration, and good luck on your important work, > > Best wishes, > > Stu Eizenstat > > > > > > > Stuart Eizenstat > > Covington & Burling LLP > One CityCenter, 850 Tenth Street, NW > Washington, DC 20001 > (202) 662 5519 (tel) | (202) 778-5519 (fax) > seizenstat@cov.com > www.cov.com > > <image001.png> > >