Failure to disclose finances an embarrassment for Clinton

US: Hillary Clinton suffered an embarrassment in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday after it …

US: Hillary Clinton suffered an embarrassment in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday after it was reported that she did not fully disclose her finances in her annual Senate ethics report.

The Washington Post reported that Ms Clinton had failed to include a family charity she operates with her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea, in her report to the Senate for the last five years.

The Clintons established the charity in 2001 and have donated more than $5 million over the years, deducted from their taxable income.

The foundation, which lists Ms Clinton as treasurer and secretary, has given $1.25 million to their church, universities, the Unicef tsunami fund, charities in memory of Jordan's King Hussein and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin, and a women's development organisation.

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The family charity is separate from the Clinton Foundation, which has helped raise more than $10 billion to fight Aids.

Ms Clinton's office said the failure to disclose the existence of the foundation was an oversight and had been corrected immediately on learning of the omission from the Post.

The lapse could provide ammunition to her opponents in the race for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

"She is in the spotlight, a very bright spotlight, and every little omission will be scrutinised by the media and her political opponents," said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the Centre for Responsive Politics, an independent monitor of campaign finance.