Pay-for- Play scandal under Hillary threat to democracy: Donald Trump

Amid reports that donors to the Clinton Foundation met Hillary Clinton at the state department when she was the secretary of state, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has alleged that the "scandal" is a "threat to the foundation of democracy".

"She (Hillary Clinton) is bought-and-paid-for by the special interests. This corruption relates closely to another corruption scandal that strikes at the heart of our Democracy.
Every day more and more alarming facts come out," 70-year-old Trump said at an election rally in Austin, Texas. "The scandal I speak of is the State Department's Pay-for-Play Scandal under Hillary Clinton. If our Secretary of State can be bought, or bribed, or sell or trade government favors, then the whole American system is threatened," he said.

"It is a threat to the foundation of Democracy itself. This is what happens in a Third World country it's the failed conditions people flee when they come to America," Trump alleged. "America can never elect a candidate who, like Clinton, did government favors for those giving her family and her foundation massive amounts of cash. The new revelations about Clinton's email scandal make clear we have only seen the tip of the iceberg," he said. Trump alleged that 68-year-old Clinton is "desperate" to cover-up her crimes and that is the reason why she deleted 33,000 emails. That's also why she lied repeatedly to Congress and the public.

"She said she never sent or received classified materials. That was a lie, proved over and over again. She claimed she used an insecure email server for the convenience of using only one device. But she used multiple devices. Another lie," he said. "She said her server was secure, and had no breaches. But we know now it was completely unsecure, and the FBI Director said it could easily be hacked by our foreign enemies. Clinton said her lawyers reviewed all of her emails before destroying them," he said.

A day after Trump sought investigation by special prosecutor for alleged wrongdoings by Clinton, Former New York City Mayor and US Attorney Rudy Giuliani joined the chorus of voices calling for action against the former secretary of state. "In other words, they merged the two into the Clinton Family racketeering enterprise. The need for a Special Prosecutor to investigate these apparent crimes mounts with every passing day and each new revelation of e-mails and phone logs. "I'm sure all we've seen is the tip of the iceberg and there will be more to follow," alleged Giuliani. 

Trump said that Clinton is "unfit" to hold public office. "It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins. It is now abundantly clear that the Clintons' set up a business to profit from public office. They sold access and specific actions by and to them for money," Trump said.

The Republican presidential nominee alleged that this goes back to the Arkansas days, and it continued during the White House days with the sale of the Lincoln Bedroom to large donors.
The e-mails and phone logs show that the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Department of State were one and the same, he charged. "If you donated to the Clinton Foundation or paid massive speaking fees to Bill, you got an entry to the Department of State. Together they constituted the most scandalous and certainly most profitable sale of public office since the Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s," he said.

"The fact Clinton's official schedule was full of meetings with Clinton Foundation donors is further evidence of the pay-to-play politics at her State Department. No one is above the law," said Indian Governor Mike Pence, who is the vice presidential nominee of the Republican party. "The Clinton Foundation must be immediately shut down and an independent special prosecutor be appointed to determine if access to Hillary Clinton was for sale. It would be a dereliction of duty by President Obama and his Justice Department if they fail to act on these startling new facts right now," he demanded.
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus demanded that it is time a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate the growing proof of pay-to-play at Hillary Clinton's State Department.

"This is among the strongest and most unmistakable pieces of evidence of what we ve long suspected: at Hillary Clinton s State Department, access to the most sensitive policy makers in US diplomacy was for sale to the highest bidder," he said. "By not appointing a special prosecutor, President Obama is endorsing the actions of a secretary of state who broke ethics agreements regarding foreign donations to her family foundation, took a majority of her non-governmental meetings with donors to that foundation, and who exclusively conducted all of her correspondence while in office over a secret server housed in a basement. Before voters go to the polls, there needs to be an investigation," Priebus said.