Clinton Foundation: Half of Hillary Clinton's Nongovernment Meetings at State Department Were With Donors

More than half of the people outside governmental agencies who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state were also donors to the Clinton Foundation, adding weight to Donald Trump's long-standing claim that the Democratic nominee ran the State Department as a "pay-for-play" operation.

At least 85 of those 154 people who met or had phone conversations with Clinton while she led the State Department had donated to the Clinton Foundation either directly or through companies or other groups, according to an Associated Press investigation published Tuesday.

The 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million, with at least 40 of them donating more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million. The 154 did not include U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives.

While the meetings do not appear to violate any legal agreements, they do call into question Clinton's ethical judgment at a moment when the Clinton Foundation is under increased scrutiny. The foundation announced last week that it would no longer accept foreign or corporate donations if Clinton becomes president, though Trump has called for the Clintons to shutter it immediately.

"No issue better illustrates how corrupt my opponent is than her pay-for-play scandals as secretary of state," Trump said on Monday, using the bulk of a speech in Akron, Ohio, to attack Clinton.

"I've become increasingly shocked by the vast scope of Hillary Clinton's criminality. It's criminality. Everybody knows it," he said.

"The amounts involved, the favors done and the significant numbers of times it was done require an expedited investigation by a special prosecutor immediately, immediately, immediately," Trump said. "After the FBI and Department of Justice whitewash of the Clinton email crimes, they certainly cannot be trusted to quickly or impartially investigate Hillary Clinton's new crimes, which happen all the time."

Also on Monday, Trump released a statement calling on the Clinton Foundation to shutter altogether.

"Hillary Clinton is the defender of the corrupt and rigged status quo. The Clintons have spent decades as insiders lining their own pockets and taking care of donors instead of the American people," Trump said in the statement. "It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history. What they were doing during Crooked Hillary’s time as Secretary of State was wrong then, and it is wrong now. It must be shut down immediately."

In recent national polling, Clinton leads head-to-head match-ups against Trump, with the Democrat holding 47 percent support compared to 41.5 percent for the New York businessman, according to averages compiled by RealClear Politics.

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