The Obama administration said Wednesday that it didn’t know too much and didn’t care to look into the latest scandal to hit Hillary Clinton’s campaign: the release of documents that appear to show she gave several donors to the Clinton Foundation special access to the State Department when she ran it.
Several questions were asked about whether there were fears at the White House or State Department that Clinton operated a “pay-to-play” system, or whether it even looked bad enough to warrant further investigation.
But at each turn, officials said they simply didn’t know enough about it to comment, and indicated they wouldn’t be doing much to look into it further.
At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest was asked if Clinton took appropriate steps to ensure her foundation business didn’t overlap with her duties at the State Department. But Earnest essentially said he didn’t know enough about it.
“I think in order to draw a final assessment like you’re asking for requires a detailed understanding of the minutia that, frankly, I don’t have,” he said.
Earnest did assure the press that Clinton was subject to broad ethics rules, and said President Obama is “quite proud” of how he’s run his administration over the last seven and a half years. But on the details of latest scandal, Earnest said he’d leave it up to the press to sort it all out.
“I know all of you are closely covering this story, as you should, and the American people will ultimately consider the facts and draw their own conclusions about these kinds of questions,” he said.
When asked if Obama is curious about the scandal, and whether he wants to find out more about it, Earnest deflected and said those pursuing it are “looking for an opportunity to score some political points.”
He then repeated that it’s up to the “American people” to “sift through all this and draw their own conclusions.”
The State Department’s spokeswoman seemed to dismiss the issue entirely, by saying the secretary of state routinely meets with outside experts, and that Clinton’s meeting with those types of people shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said that sort of stuff is “normal.”
“As we’ve said previously, State Department officials are in range with a range of outside experts – individuals, organizations, nonprofits, foundations, academics,” she said. “This is normal. This is part of how the State Department gathers information and informs our thoughts, pro and con, on any particular issue.”
The Associated Press reported that of the 154 non-government people Clinton met with during her first few years in office, more than half of them, 85, were donors to the Clinton Foundation. But Trudeau dismissed those figures by saying she “would dispute the idea of preferential treatment,” without any further explanation.
As to whether Clinton’s meetings with foundation donors had an effect on U.S. foreign policy, Trudeau said simply that the department wasn’t “aware” of any such influence. But she didn’t say how hard officials looked.
“The department’s actions under Secretary Clinton were taken to advance administration policy as set by the President and in the interests of American foreign policy,” she said. “The State Department is not aware of any policy decisions influenced by donations to the Clinton Foundation.”
