Pence blasted Clinton over those meetings, telling Tapper: “The simple fact is, this is becoming more and more clear through direct evidence in these emails that State Department officials under Secretary of State Clinton were extending access and special favors to major donors of the Clinton Foundation”, Pence said.
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Still, Minassian insisted the foundation’s work isn’t being reduced.
Seven months after a federal judge ruled that the State Department must release Clinton’s detailed daily planners in monthly batches, an attorney for the State Department told the Associated Press on Thursday that the release of the approximate 2,700 pages of remaining emails will not be finished until well after the November election.
Almost two weeks later, Band followed up specifically about Rodin, emailing Abedin: “Can we get her at Biden’s table?”
A representative for McCann told ABC News he did not attend the lunch, while a representative for Ersek said he doesn’t have a “record” of the event. A spokesman told CNN it is working diligently but “must assess our ability to respond to each FOIA request against our commitments in a large number of other FOIAs”.
A State Department spokeswoman, Elizabeth Trudeau, declined to discuss the ongoing case and noted the agency is struggling with thousands of public records requests.
In one of the email conversations, which were released as part of a lawsuit filed by the conservative group, Citizens United, the two spoke about passing on a message from a generous foundation supporter to the US ambassador to Malta, ABC News reports.
Republicans vilify the foundation and some even want it shut down for tawdry political gain and out of their histrionic disdain for the Clintons – unfortunately to the considerable disadvantage of the world.
In January 2011, Band at the Foundation forwarded an email to Abedin on behalf of Gerardo Werthein, a South American businessman who has donated more than $1 million to the Foundation, according to its website.
Abedin passed on Band’s message to another State Department official asking for delivery to the ambassador’s assistant, writing, “Just want to pass along for info”.
“I think there’s legitimate questions about the Clinton Foundation”, former Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, though he added that Trump’s business dealings are more problematic and the foundation has done good work.
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Donna Brazile, the interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman, defended Clinton from criticism over the foundation’s influence Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation”. “I think they’ve … shown over and over again that they’re willing to be transparent and that they have gone beyond the letter of the law, to show that they’re trying to make sure there are bright red, green, purple lines that will separate them from any type of conflict”. Unfortunately, the connections between these meetings and subsequent donations by those with whom she met are giving the public the impression that Secretary Clinton was running a “pay-to-play” operation when it came to giving individuals her time and attention.
