State Department spokesman John Kirby deflected a question Tuesday about whether the Moroccan government received special treatment while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state because it donated to the Clinton Foundation.
"Can you tell us during Secretary Clinton's tenure at State that the government of Morocco was not provided with any special treatment or gifts, monetary or otherwise?" a reporter asked during the State Department daily press briefing.
The question comes amid leaked emails from WikiLeaks that show Clinton solicited a $12 million donation from King Mohammed VI of Morocco to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for the foundation hosting a conference in his country, with Clinton as the keynote speaker. An email released last week showed top Clinton aide Huma Abedin describing that Clinton knew hosting the conference in Morocco just months after her presidential announcementĀ could hurt her White House bid.
Kirby did not answer the question directly and instead referred the reporter to State Department budgets from Clinton's tenure.
"I can't speak for every action or decision made during that time frame," Kirby said. "You can go on and look at the budget and what sort of aid and assistance Morocco gets."
Kirby also said he "did not want to speak to the veracity of leaked documents."
The WikiLeaks documents came from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta's hacked email account. The U.S. government has formally accused Russia of infiltrating American political networks to influence the 2016 election.