Hillary Clinton used her time as secretary of state to meet with top Democratic fundraisers, Clinton Foundation donors, and corporate donors ahead of the 2016 election, according to State Department calendars obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Associated Press reported:
The woman who would become a 2016 presidential candidate met or spoke by phone with nearly 100 corporate executives and long-time Clinton political and charity donors during her four years at the State Department between 2009 and 2013, records show. Those formally scheduled meetings involved heads of companies and organizations that pursued business or private interests with the Obama administration, including with the State Department while Clinton was in charge. The AP found no evidence of legal or ethical conflicts in Clinton’s meetings in its examination of 1,294 pages from the calendars.
One of the individuals Clinton met with repeatedly at the State Department was Randi Weingarten, the chief of the American Federation of Teachers who is also on the board of Priorities USA Action, a Super PAC supporting Clinton in 2016. The teachers union endorsed Clinton earlier this year and has contributed between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
In response, Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill refused to directly address the former secretary of state’s meetings with donors and fundraisers.
"Secretary Clinton turned over all of her work emails, 55,000 pages of them, and asked that they be released to the public. Some of that will include her schedules. We look forward to the rest of her emails being released so people can have a greater window into her work at the department," Merrill stated.
Planning schedules revealed by the batches of Clinton emails released by the State Department have thus far only comprised 7 percent of the calendar days covered by the emails. There are also at least 12 differences between those Clinton planning schedules and the State Department calendars specifying meetings, which the campaign could not explain.