Dan Nowicki

The Republic | azcentral.com

Arizona State University in 2014 paid the Clinton Foundation $500,000 to host a Clinton event.

The three-day Clinton Global Initiative University event featured Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who participated in a panel, said the event was not worth $500,000.

Arizona State University gave $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation last year, money school officials say represents its investment in the Clinton Global Initiative University event it hosted in 2014.

Former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State — and now 2016 Democratic front-runner — Hillary Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, headlined the March 21-23, 2014, proceedings at ASU's Tempe campus. The event, which since 2008 has been held at sites around the United States, attracted "1,100 innovative student leaders," according to the CGI University website.

While ASU maintains the event provided big benefits for students, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said it wasn't worth the university spending half a million dollars. McCain participated in a panel discussion moderated by Bill Clinton as part of the event.

"Frankly, if I had known that that was the situation, that they were being paid $500,000, I would have spoken up at the time that I thought it was outrageous," McCain told The Arizona Republic on Friday.

The $500,000 from ASU, made in two payments, was first reported in April by the news website Vox on a list of "81 Clinton Foundation donors who lobbied Hillary's State Department."

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The publication this month of Peter Schweizer's book "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich" has intensified scrutiny of contributions to the Clinton Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit, and raised questions about whether some donors sought to buy influence with Hillary Clinton in her role as secretary of State.

In a web video, Brian Fallon, the Clinton campaign's press secretary, denounced the Schweizer book as partisan and "full of sloppy research and attacks pulled out of thin air with no actual evidence."

Separately, the Clinton Foundation on Thursday released some financial details on speeches by the Clinton family since 2002 that could have generated as much as $26 million in donations. The exact amount is not clear because the foundation did not provide the actual figures it was paid for the speeches, instead categorizing the donors in broad dollar ranges. The list includes numerous universities and colleges, but none from Arizona.

The Clinton Foundation by Friday afternoon had not responded to The Republic's questions about the $500,000 payment from ASU.

However, ASU emphasized the $500,000 in 2014 was a payment and not a contribution. And while federal lobbying disclosure records indicate ASU has lobbied the State Department, ASU officials note the money went to the Foundation long after Clinton stepped down as secretary of State on Feb. 1, 2013, and so can not be construed as an attempt to curry favor with her over State Department business.

"ASU played host to the CGI University in March 2014, which featured former President Bill Clinton and former secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a program aimed at bringing together college students to find practical, innovative solutions to global challenges," ASU spokesman Mark Johnson told The Republic in an e-mailed statement. "The report you cited reflects the fact that the university co-invested in this educational and promotional opportunity, which was co-produced for our students, and for students from around the world. No state funds were used for this purpose."

ASU gets only a portion of its annual budget from state taxpayers. This year, the state's contribution amounts to about 14 percent of the university's budget. ASU maintains the money used for CGI University came from other parts of its budget, which can be funded by a variety of sources such as tuition, private donations and grants.

"It's just regrettable that they did it, and I think most citizens of Arizona would think that the money could be better spent on scholarships for young citizens of our state who do not have the money to pay the tuition," said McCain, who also has a relationship with ASU as the namesake of the McCain Institute for International Leadership that he helped establish in 2012. "The fact is the money comes from somewhere, and that money could have been spent on far better purposes than an appearance by the Clintons."

Tyler Bowyer, the Maricopa County Republican Party chairman who as an ASU student served on the Arizona Board of Regents from 2011 to 2013, characterized the decision to pay $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation as a head-scratcher.

He said he has heard from a couple of state legislators about the issue and would like to know precisely where the money ASU paid to the foundation came from.

"That's really concerning," Bowyer said. "I know a number of individuals, particularly on the more conservative side of the political spectrum, who were totally in the dark on this and had no idea that it was a half-a-million-dollar party that we were throwing for the Clintons."

Lobbying reports on file with the secretary of the Senate indicate that from the fourth quarter of 2013 through 2014, ASU lobbied the State Department on "Funding for Title VIII, Russian and East European Research and Training Act of 1983." ASU characterized its advocacy as "a routine appropriation request" for a program that provides funding research and language training to U.S. scholars and students studying Eastern Europe.