From the Desk of  Judicial Watch

Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign - controls the media with threats and avoiding  access to most news interviews and reporters.

Two stories hit the press that highlight the Clinton campaign’s obsession with secrecy and control, especially when it comes to their public image.

According to ABCNews.com:
“Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is running perhaps the most media-controlled and media-obsessed campaign in presidential history. Her aides carefully screen access to the candidate, generally avoid news conferences on the campaign trail and have been known to throw around the Clintons' considerable weight to block negative stories and influence coverage of the candidate they're protecting and promoting.”

And then there was this from Politico.com:
“Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland. So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton.”

It was also reported that the Clintons spiked the release of the DVD version of “Path to 9/11,”
an ABC television docudrama that highlighted the Clinton administration’s failure to address the threat of terrorism. They felt it might cast Hillary’s presidential campaign in a negative light.

The Clintons have always been controlling, paranoid and secretive. That’s the way they operate. The real shame of it all is the fact that the media allows it to happen! Hillary was on Meet the Press last weekend. To his credit, Russert did ask one question about disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu. He even asked a question about Johnny Chung and the first Clinton administration’s illegal fundraising practices. But instead of holding Clinton’s feet to the fire, Russert allowed her to spin the questions into a three-minute commercial for public financing of campaigns.

For their part, executives from GQ and ABC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the Clintons to bully them into submission.

Truth fears no inquiry. If the Clinton campaign and Hillary were operating honestly, they would have nothing to hide. If the media was doing its job, they wouldn’t be able to get away with it.

Bill Clinton Tied to Shady Business Deals
One of the reasons, of course, that the Clintons have to be so secretive is because of the company they choose to keep.

Former White House intern Douglas Band, who now effectively serves as Bill Clinton’s “right-hand man” and travel companion, was linked this week to a couple of shady business deals gone bad. Here’s the scoop according to The Wall Street Journal:

“Two years ago, Mr. Band befriended a handsome and charming Italian businessman named Raffaello Follieri. The young Italian, now 29 years old, had moved to New York in 2003 to launch a business buying and redeveloping Roman Catholic Church properties. As a gatekeeper to the former president's web of business and charitable enterprises, Mr. Band helped Mr. Follieri get into business with Mr. Clinton, according to people involved with the three men. In 2005, Yucaipa Cos., a Los Angeles investment firm where Mr. Clinton has been a partner and a senior adviser, agreed to invest up to $100 million in Mr. Follieri's church-property venture.”

(You may recall that Ron Burkle has contributed large amounts of money to the Clinton campaigns, the Clinton Legal Defense Fund and Clinton Presidential Library. Yucaipa also hired Bill Clinton as a consultant in a business deal that could net the former president – and his wife – tens of millions of dollars with little risk or investment.)

Band also reportedly helped broker another multimillion dollar business deal between Follieri and Toronto realestate mogul Michael Cooper.

What did Follieri offer the Clinton camp in return?
With his supposed Vatican connections, Follieri said he would help deliver the Catholic vote to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The Follieri Foundation also contributed $1 million to a vaccination program sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative. Follieri also gave to Band a $400,000 “finder’s fee” for the Cooper deal. (Band claims he did not keep the money, but rather gave half to Mr. Cooper, and the other half to another person who helped broker the deal.)

It appears, however, that what began as a potentially lucrative business relationship has quickly soured.

Yucaipa CEO (and Bill Clinton’s boss at that firm) Ron Burkle has filed a lawsuit against Follieri, charging him with misappropriating more than $1.3 million. The lawsuit claims Follieri used Yucaipa’s money “to fund a lavish lifestyle that included a Manhattan penthouse, five-star meals and private jets for Mr. Follieri and his girlfriend, actress Anne Hathaway.” Michael Cooper wants his money back because Follieri did not keep up his end of the bargain.

The Clintons have been forced, once again, to distance themselves from one of their allegedly corrupt business associates. According to the WSJ, when asked about Follieri, “Jay Carson, Mr. Clinton's spokesman, said in June that while the former president had met Mr. Follieri a few times, ‘he obviously meets hundreds of people every day, and does not know him well.’” (Never mind the photos of Follieri and the former president arm in arm, or the time Bill Clinton brought Follieri onstage to thank him for his contribution to the Clinton Global Initiative.)

Why is all of this important? Because Bill Clinton’s business deals are Hillary’s as well. When a company throws money at and uses Bill Clinton, they are throwing money at and using Hillary. When Bill Clinton makes a promise, it is Hillary’s to keep. This latest news story also speaks to the Clintons’ judgment. Just a few weeks after Hillary’s largest fundraiser was outed as a fugitive from justice, another Clinton associate is in trouble for alleged shady and corrupt business practices

2007 From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton: http://www.JudicialWatch.org
Clinton Campaign “Media-Controlled, Media-Obsessed”