Rand Paul: ‘Constitutional question’ over foreign donations to Clinton Foundation

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said that beyond recent reports that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conducted business as the nation’s top diplomat exclusively via personal email, there is a constitutional question over foreign governments giving money to her foundation.

“Not only is it the emails and directly flouting the law — I think there’s going to be a constitutional question of whether or not she was receiving foreign gifts while in office,” Mr. Paul said Wednesday on “Fox and Friends.” “They’ve been receiving millions of dollars in their foundation.”

“Now, they’re gonna say, ’That’s not us, me directly,’ but do they profit in any way from their foundation? Does it pay for their travel? Does it pay for any of their expenses? She’s got a lot of questions she’s going to have to answer,” said Mr. Paul, a possible 2016 GOP presidential contender.

Mrs. Clinton, the presidential frontrunner on the Democratic side, has been dogged in recent days by the news, first reported by The New York Times, that she used the off-the-books email account as secretary of state, potentially violating federal record-retention requirements. A spokesman has said she complied with the “letter and spirit” of the law.

As Mr. Paul also alluded to, the Clinton Foundation has been on the defensive recently after disclosing it had accepted millions of dollars from a handful of foreign governments while Mrs. Clinton was serving as secretary of state, including a $500,000 donation from Algeria for the foundation’s earthquake relief effort in 2010.

Algeria had been accused of human rights abuses at the time and was petitioning the State Department for relief.

“As the Clinton Foundation did with all donations it received for earthquake relief, the entire amount of Algeria’s contribution was distributed as aid in Haiti,” the foundation said in a statement. “This was a one-time, specific donation to help Haiti, and Algeria had not donated to the Clinton Foundation before and has not since.”