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As Media Matters for America has pointed out, Trump is pushing, and CNN’s Jake Tapper is buying, a bogus claim about “stolen emails released by WikiLeaks shows former secretary of state Hillary Clinton engaged in ‘pay to play’ with the Moroccan government.”

Here is Jake Tapper claiming that there “is a concern” about “pay to play”:

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On Friday, Trump said at a rally in North Carolina that,

“Now from WikiLeaks, we just learned she tried to get 12 million (dollars) from the king of Morocco for an appearance. More pay for play.”

This was Trump’s tweet Sunday:

Media Matters provides three points that mark Trump’s claim as dubious:

“First, there is no evidence that Clinton offered Morocco’s leadership any government action. In fact, she was in no position to do so, as the summit was scheduled for more than two years after she stepped down as secretary of state.

“Second, in spite of Abedin’s concerns, Clinton did not actually attend the summit and it went forward anyway.”

Finally, according to ABC News,

“Clinton Foundation records do not show any direct pledge of funding from the king or government of Morocco to the charity.” ABC suggests that this is because the $12 million pledge was actually a commitment to CGI, which are “agreements only to aid the program’s international projects, not to directly fund the Clinton Foundation itself.”

Even CNN pointed out,

The accusation is just the latest Trump has leveled against Clinton as he’s argued she engaged in “pay for play” schemes involving the Clinton Foundation during her time as secretary of state. But the Clinton Global Initiative summit in Morocco that Clinton was set to attend in exchange for the $12 million pledge took place in May 2015 and was discussed in emails by Clinton’s top aides in November 2014, after her tenure as secretary of state ended.



Clinton did not end up attending the summit.

So the speech Trump attacks her for giving was never actually given.

Even then, the money would not have gone into Clinton’s pocket, or even to her Foundation directly, which unlike Trump’s Foundation expenditures on expensive toys for his personal use, uses donations for charitable purposes around the globe.

Here are the facts then: the summit took place two whole years after Clinton stepped down as Secretary of State, she did not attend, gave no speech, and received no money.

Thus, no pay to play, whatever Trump and a woefully misinformed Jake Tapper claims. This lie is just another example of Trump’s projection of his own deplorable actions onto his enemies, the media’s willingness to still go along with his lies.