North Korea

Producer Funded Clinton's Mission

Steve Bing bankrolled travel and reception.

Bill Clinton may have been a hero this week, but on whose payroll? “Former president Bill Clinton's central role in the return of two journalists detained by North Korea has once again cast a spotlight on his vast web of financial and political contacts, a network that troubled senators who weighed whether to confirm his wife as secretary of state,” according to The Washington Post. “Dow Chemical, which has contributed as much as $50,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation, provided the plane that ferried the former president from his home in Westchester County, N.Y., to Burbank, Calif. There, he boarded an all-business-class Boeing 737 jet provided by wealthy Hollywood producer Steve Bing.” Not only did Bing foot an estimated $200,000 on fuel, but the New York Post adds that “Bing's Shangri-La entertainment firm also funded a major logistical effort to carefully showcase Clinton's arrival in Tinseltown—which featured Ling lauding the former president while almost in tears.”