RNC to Clinton Foundation: Release Hillary’s State emails

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is demanding the Clinton Foundation release all of its formal communications with the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s time there.

“As I am sure you are well aware, a spate of recent news reports involving the Clinton Foundation’s relationship with the Clinton State Department has renewed serious concerns about conflicts of interest and whether donors to the foundation benefited from official acts under then-secretary Clinton,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday in a letter to Clinton Foundation President Donna Shalala.

{mosads}“The Clinton Foundation can play a vital role in filling important gaps in the public record by demonstrating its commitment to transparency and making public all correspondences its officials had with the State Department during Secretary Clinton’s tenure,” he added.

“This should be done by an independent, neutral third party so the public can have confidence in the findings. The American people have the right to see a full picture of Secretary Clinton’s record, which she claims to be proud of, before they go to the polls to choose their next president.”

Priebus added that Clinton’s use of a private email setup makes her claims about her family foundation’s ethics hard to verify.

“Given Secretary Clinton’s exclusive use of an illicit private email server, we cannot even now be certain the entirety of her official public records are in the proper custody of the federal government,” he said of the Democratic presidential nominee.

“Because we know that federal records are incomplete through Mrs. Clinton’s failure to comply with federal records retention policies, the records in the foundation’s custody have the unique ability to buttress or undercut her assertions on this matter.”

The Associated Press reported last week that foundation donors accounted for more than half of the meetings Clinton held with people outside of government.

At least 85 of those 154 people, whom met or had phone conversations with Clinton, also donated to her family’s charitable organization either directly or through companies or groups.

Critics have seized on the report to suggest potential conflicts of interest between the Clinton Foundation and State.

Clinton last week denied using her time at State for personal gain, adding that the AP count excluded nearly 2,000 meetings she had with U.S. government officials and world leaders there.

“I know there is a lot of smoke, and there is no fire,” she said during a phone interview with CNN on Aug. 24. “My work as secretary of State was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policy decisions based on what I thought was right.”