ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos has given $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, charitable contributions that he did not publicly disclose while reporting on the Clintons or their nonprofit organization, the On Media blog has learned. 
 
 In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Stephanopoulos made $25,000 donations to the 501 nonprofit founded by former President Bill Clinton, the foundation's records show. Stephanopoulos never disclosed this information to viewers, even when interviewing author Peter Schweizer last month about his book "Clinton Cash," which alleges that donations to the foundation may have influenced some of Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state. 
 
 In a statement to the On Media blog on Thursday, Stephanopoulos apologized and said that he should have disclosed the donations to ABC News and its viewers. 
 
 "I made charitable donations to the Foundation in support of the work they’re doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply," he said. "I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record. However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation. I apologize." 
 
 Stephanopoulos is the chief anchor and chief political correspondent for ABC News, as well as the co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America" and host of "This Week," its Sunday morning public affairs program. Prior to joining ABC News, he served as communications director and senior adviser for policy and strategy to President Clinton. He also served as communications director on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. 
 
 In its own statement on Thursday, ABC News said it was standing behind its star anchor. 
 
 "As George has said, he made charitable donations to the Foundation to support a cause he cares about deeply and believed his contributions were a matter of public record," the network's statement read. "He should have taken the extra step to notify us and our viewers during the recent news reports about the Foundation. He’s admitted to an honest mistake and apologized for that omission. We stand behind him." 
 
 ABC News later told the On Media blog that it would not take any punitive action against Stephanopoulos: "We accept his apology," a spokesperson said. "It was an honest mistake." 
 
 Sources with knowledge of Stephanopoulos' charitable giving said he gives to dozens of charities every year and that the total sum of these annual contributions is in the millions of dollars. Those sources said that the Clinton Foundation contributions represent a very small percentage of the total. 
 
 On the April 26 edition of "This Week," Stephanopoulos interviewed Schweizer and challenged the author's assertions that Hillary Clinton may have committed a crime because there was a "troubling pattern" between donations to the foundation and Clinton's actions as secretary of state. 
 
 "We've done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action," the host told Schweizer. "An independent government ethics expert, Bill Allison, of the Sunlight Foundation, wrote this. He said, 'There's no smoking gun, no evidence that she changed the policy based on donations to the foundation.' No smoking gun." 
 
 Later in the interview, Stephanopoulos said, "I still haven't heard any direct evidence, and you just said you had no evidence that she intervened here." He also noted that other news organizations that used Schweizer's research "haven't confirmed any evidence of any crime." 
 
 Among the more notable revelations to come out of Schweizer's research is the relationship between the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One, a former Canadian mining company that was taken over by Russia in 2013 with U.S. government approval. From 2009 through 2013, Uranium One’s chairman donated $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation. 
 
 Hillary Clinton has said that there is "not an inherent conflict of interest" between the foundation donations and her decisions at the State Department. Her campaign has consistently dismissed the accusations as partisan attacks. 
 
 CORRECTION: ABC News initially stated that George Stephanopoulos had given a total of $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation. In an interview on Thursday afternoon, Stephanopoulos said he actually gave $75,000 over 2012, 2013 and 2014. 
 
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 Read more about: Hillary Clinton, George Stephanopoulos, Clinton Foundation, Hillary Clinton 2016 ||||| Older version of the story: 
 
 George Stephanopoulos, the chief anchor of ABC News, apologized on Thursday for not telling viewers or his bosses about $75,000 in recent donations to the Clinton Foundation. 
 
 The revelations shocked many in the television news industry and prompted stern reactions from a number of prominent Republicans. Within hours, Stephanopoulos came out and said he would recuse himself from ABC's planned Republican presidential primary debate, scheduled to take place next February. 
 
 "I don't want to be a distraction," he told CNNMoney, "so I'm not going to moderate that debate." 
 
 However, Stephanopoulos said, "I am going to continue to cover the 2016 campaign." 
 
 In a phone interview -- perhaps intended to stem the damage done by the revelations -- Stephanopoulos called the donations a mistake and reiterated his earlier apology. 
 
 Stephanopoulos was one of Bill Clinton's closest advisers during Clinton's first term as president. He is now one of the most-respected and best-paid anchors at ABC News. 
 
 The network is not taking any disciplinary action against him. 
 
 "He made charitable donations to the foundation to support a cause he cares about deeply and believed his contributions were a matter of public record," the network said in a Thursday morning statement. 
 
 "He should have taken the extra step to notify us and our viewers during the recent news reports about the Foundation," the network continued. "He's admitted to an honest mistake and apologized for that omission. We stand behind him." 
 
 The existence of the donations was first reported by Politico and the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday morning. 
 
 ABC initially said Stephanopoulos had donated a total of $50,000 to the foundation, once in 2013 and once in 2014. 
 
 Later in the day, he said he'd forgotten about a third donation of $25,000, back in 2012, so the total is actually $75,000. 
 
 All the donations were a matter of public record, and represented only a small slice of the anchor's annual charitable giving. 
 
 In an initial statement of contrition on Thursday morning, Stephanopoulos said he made the donations "in support of the work they're doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply." 
 
 "I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record," he said. "However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the foundation. I apologize." 
 
 After the initial news reports, two Republican candidates for president, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, said they thought Stephanopoulos should not moderate any 2016 debates. 
 
 A number of other Republicans went further and said he should not be involved in any election coverage while Hillary Clinton is a candidate for president. 
 
 Conn Carroll, the communications director for Senator Mike Lee, tweeted, "I'm not letting my boss go on ABC until" Stephanopoulos "recuses himself from all 2016 coverage." 
 
 As criticism mounted, Stephanopoulos said he regretted not just the lack of disclosure, but the donations themselves. 
 
 "I gave the donations for the right reasons, for the best of intentions, to support causes I believe in," he said in the phone interview. "In retrospect, I realize that even though that falls within our guidelines, I should have gone above and beyond that, just to avoid anything that would even raise any possible appearance of a conflict." 
 
 "That's why it was a mistake," he said, "and that's why I'm sorry -- to our viewers and to my colleagues." 
 
 With regards to his 2016 campaign coverage, he said, "I think I'll be able to prove every single day that I do it with intelligence and fairness, just as I've done for the last 17-plus years." 
 
 After stepping down from his White House post in 1996, Stephanopoulos gradually became one of the best-known television news hosts in the United States. 
 
 He is currently the co-host of ABC's most lucrative news program, "Good Morning America," and the moderator of the Sunday morning public affairs program "This Week." 
 
 Stephanopoulos said he did not recall whether any of his donations were actively solicited by the foundation. 
 
 He said his only remaining relationship to the Clintons is a journalistic one. ||||| George Stephanopoulos says he should not have donated money to the Clinton Foundation and that he will not moderate the ABC News-sponsored Republican primary debate in February after failing to disclose those contributions. 
 
 In an interview with the On Media blog on Thursday, Stephanopoulos said that while he made the donations "for the best reasons," he now realizes he should not have given. 
 
 "In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have, even though I did it for the best reasons," he said. 
 
 Stephanopoulos also said that he has given a total of $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation. That figure represents charitable contributions of $25,000 in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. ABC News initially said that Stephanopoulos had given a total of $50,000 to the foundation. 
 
 The "Good Morning America" co-anchor and host of "This Week" said that he would not moderate ABC's GOP debate, which is scheduled to take place in February in New Hampshire. Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that Stephanopoulos should be prohibited from moderating any debates during the 2016 presidential campaign. 
 
 "I won't moderate that debate," Stephanopoulos said. "I think I've shown that I can moderate debates fairly. That said, I know there have been questions made about moderating debates this year. I want to be sure I don't deprive viewers of a good debate." 
 
 But Stephanopoulos said that he would not recuse himself from coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, despite urging from the office of Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, which said Thursday that Sen. Lee would be advised not to go on "This Week" unless the host "recuses himself from all 2016 coverage." 
 
 Throughout the interview, Stephanopoulos apologized profusely for failing to disclose his contributions to viewers, including during an interview with author Peter Schweizer, whose book "Clinton Cash," alleges that donations to the foundation may have influenced some of Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state. On Thursday, Schweizer accused Stephanopoulos of a "massive breach of ethical standards." 
 
 "At the time I did not perceive the problem, but in retrospect, as much as I support the very good work that's been done by the foundation, I should have gone above and beyond any guidelines to make sure that there wouldn't be any appearance of any conflict," he said. 
 
 Stephanopoulos would not say whether it had crossed his mind to disclose the issue earlier. Instead, he said he "believed that the donations already were a matter of public record" because his name is listed among donors on the Clinton Foundation's website. 
 
 "But I should have gone the extra mile and disclosed [the donations] to the viewers," Stephanopoulos reiterated. "I now realize I should have done that." 
 
 ABC News has issued a statement of support for Stephanopoulos and said it would take no punitive action against him. Stephanopoulous would not say whether he believed he deserved any sort of punitive repercussion. 
 
 "I'm sorry to both the ABC viewers and to my colleagues, but I intend to move forward and prove that I can do the job every single day," he said. 
 
 The host also said he intends to address the issue on this Sunday's edition of "This Week." 
 
 Stephanopoulos is the chief anchor and chief political correspondent for ABC News, as well as the co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America" and host of "This Week," its Sunday morning public affairs program. Prior to joining ABC News, he served as communications director and senior adviser for policy and strategy to President Clinton. He also served as communications director on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. 
 
 Sources with knowledge of Stephanopoulos' charitable giving said he gives to dozens of charities every year and that the total sum of these annual contributions is in the millions of dollars. Those sources said that the Clinton Foundation contributions represent a very small percentage of the total. ||||| On Thursday, the question of Mr. Stephanopoulos’s political leanings and his future as a leader of the network’s campaign coverage spilled out into the open as he acknowledged donating $75,000 to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation over the past three years. He withdrew from playing any role in a planned Republican primary debate on ABC and called his donations an “uncharacteristic lapse.” 
 
 “I’m sorry because I don’t want anything to compromise my integrity or the standards of ABC News,” he said. “I don’t want to do anything that would raise questions in the minds of our viewers. I’m sorry all of that has happened.” 
 
 But his disclosure of the contributions — made after the conservative Washington Free Beacon started asking ABC News questions — seemed only to deepen Republicans’ distrust in the most recognizable political journalist at the most-watched news network in the country. 
 
 Criticism from both party leaders and news media experts was more acute, because Mr. Stephanopoulos had just last month conducted an aggressive interview with Peter Schweizer, the author of a new book about the Clinton Foundation. During the interview, Mr. Stephanopoulos seemed to dismiss Mr. Schweizer’s reporting about conflicts of interest among donors to the charity who also had matters pending before the State Department. “We’ve done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action,” he said. 
 
 Conservatives have a long list of grievances against Mr. Stephanopoulos dating back to when the American public first caught a glimpse of him as a scruffy caffeine-addicted and fiercely partisan strategist for Bill Clinton in “The War Room,” a documentary about the 1992 campaign. ||||| Fourth Estate The Great Stephanopoulos Mess ABC anchor proves to be his own worst enemy. 
 
 Former Clintonland insider George Stephanopoulos, who has excelled at both politics and journalism, appears to have failed both professions with a single transgression. 
 
 As my POLITICO colleague Dylan Byers reported today, ABC News’ “This Week” and “Good Morning America” host Stephanopoulos has donated a total of $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, something he had not previously disclosed to viewers or his employers. In a statement to Byers, Stephanopoulos apologized for not disclosing the gifts. ABC News called the oversight an “honest mistake,” a sentiment Stephanopoulos amplified in an afternoon interview with Byers. 
 
 “We stand behind him,” the network also offered, which is corporate-speak for we will bind George in barbed wire and dump him into a surging storm sewer and drive off into the night the minute he becomes an intolerable distraction. 
 
 The donation corrodes much of the journalistic credibility Stephanopoulos has labored so carefully to build since joining ABC News as a correspondent and analyst in December 1996. Stephanopoulos critics were many at the time of his appointment, predicting his crack-up even before he completed his first assignment. The Los Angeles Times’ Howard Rosenberg spoke for many when he prophesied that Stephanopoulos would not be able to “shed his intense loyalty for Clinton in his new role.” Stephanopoulos worked hard to do just that through his 1999 memoir about his time as an adviser to President Bill Clinton, “All Too Human: A Political Education.” In the book, he distanced himself from the president, much to the disparagement of Clinton loyalists like Mandy Grunwald and to the disappointment of Clinton himself. 
 
 In transmogrifying from politician to journalist, Stephanopoulos defied the pundits’ predictions, drawing only the occasional charge that he was in the bag for the Clintons, as Byron York writes today in the Washington Examiner. 
 
 One reason Stephanopoulos made such a graceful switch from pol to pressie is because there isn’t much to making the switch. As long as you can do the work, the journalism profession doesn’t care if your last port of call was a federal penitentiary. Other politicians who have successfully crossed over to the TV news racket include Mike Huckabee, Joe Scarborough, Tim Russert, John Kasich, Jerry Springer, Susan Molinari, Diane Sawyer, Mary Matalin, Chris Matthews, Bill Moyers, Bay Buchanan, Al Sharpton, Bill Bradley, Dee Dee Myers, Dana Perino, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace, Karl Rove and others. 
 
 Most politicians cross over to media with the understanding that they will continue their partisan ways. But others, such as Stephanopoulos, Sawyer and Russert agree implicitly and explicitly to leave that baggage behind. In shelling out $75,000 to the politically identified Clinton Foundation, Stephanopoulos has betrayed that compact, torched the journalism-cred he has acquired in the past two decades, and obviously forgotten the lessons in political savvy he learned as a member of Bill Clinton’s inner circle. He knew going into ABC News that his reporting and his personal actions would be extra scrutinized for bias. I find it implausible that he did not understand in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (the years he gave the Clinton Foundation cash), that his contributions would be an issue with his employers and his viewers once discovered—even if they were just sitting there buried on a website for anyone to stumble upon. 
 
 As we conduct the dumb, dumber and dumbest inventory of Stephanopoulos’ humiliation, we must ask why it was necessary for him to give anything to the Clinton Foundation? In his first statement to Byers, he said he gave to the foundation because he believes so deeply in the AIDS and deforestation programs administered by the Clintons. Surely, a politically neutered foundation that does equal or superior works in those areas would accept his philanthropy. Surely, when Stephanopoulos cross-examined Peter Schweizer, the author of the Clinton Foundation exposé “Clinton Cash,” on the April 26 edition of ABC’s “This Week,” the meta aspect of the segment must have occurred to him! But, no! Stephanopoulos bowls right through the interview without any acknowledgment of his cash endorsement of the Clinton Foundation! 
 
 Wounded by the revelation of his donation, will Stephanopoulos survive in his role as ABC News chief anchor and chief political correspondent? Already he has agreed to forfeit his role as moderator of the GOP primary debate in February, but the demands for additional concessions are a certainty. Both parties love to run against the press, but the Republicans take special glee in it. By donating so handsomely to the Clinton Foundation, Stephanopoulos has handed the Republicans a cudgel that they won’t stop using against him and ABC News until he exits the arena. You can’t be your network’s chief anchor and a late night punchline at the same time. Just ask Dan Rather. 
 
 A worthy side note to the Stephanopoulos exposé is contained in its genesis. The story appears to have originated at the Washington Free Beacon, which asked ABC News for comment about the Stephanopoulos contributions last night. The next thing the Free Beacon knew, POLITICO had broken the story this morning. Free Beacon writer Andrew Stiles and site editor Matthew Continetti accused Stephanopoulos’ office and ABC of shipping the scoop to POLITICO. I sent email to ABC News seeking clarification on this point and did not hear back. I also asked Byers about the origin of his scoop to which he responded, “I’m not going to be able to talk about matters related to sourcing.” 
 
 If ABC News shopped the scoop, as the Beaconites claim, it wouldn’t be the first time that a news organization has been so preempted. Government and business play this retaliatory game all the time when journalists surprise them with a request for comment. What’s unbecoming is that a news organization might engage in this practice. 
 
 Come to think of it, that’s precisely the type of thing you could imagine the Stephanopoulos-era Clinton administration doing without compunction. 
 
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– George Stephanopoulos is engaging in damage control today after acknowledging that he donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation but didn't disclose that fact even while reporting on the foundation in his capacity as an anchor at ABC News. (Politico and the Washington Free Beacon first reported the donations.) The first hit: He's bowing out of ABC's Republican debate. "I'm sorry because I don't want anything to compromise my integrity or the standards of ABC News," he tells the New York Times. The newspaper notes that Republicans in particular have long accused Stephanopoulos—who co-hosts Good Morning America and moderates Sunday's This Week program—of a bias going back to his days as an aide to Bill Clinton. ABC is not taking disciplinary action. Stephanopoulos tells Dylan Byers of Politico that he now regrets the donations, "even though I did it for the best reasons." And though he's recusing himself from the February debate, he tells CNNMoney that he'll continue to cover the 2016 election. One particularly vocal critic is Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer, who accused Stephanopoulos of a "massive breach of ethical standards." Stephanopoulos previously interviewed the author about his book, which alleges that donations to the foundation influenced Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Plenty of other criticism is surfacing, however: In another post at Politico, media writer Jack Shafer asserts that Stephanopoulos, "who has excelled at both politics and journalism, appears to have failed both professions with a single transgression."