Climate change group "350 Action" filmed front-runner Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton denying that she took money from fossil fuel companies, and posted a video of her remarks on their Twitter account. Answering an activist's question on the issue, she accused candidate Bernie Sanders' campaign of lying.

"I do not take money from people working for fossil fuel companies," Clinton said on the video, "I'm so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about it. I am sick of it."

However, the former State Secretary has repeatedly been the subject of environmental organization investigations exposing her ties to numerous people who either work with, or lobby for, fossil fuel companies.

A lengthy list of her contributors can be found at the Greenpeace website. Original research by this environmental organization estimates Clinton's earnings from the fossil fuel industry to be around $4.5 million.

Another investigation, published at FactCheck.org in December 2015, provides more modest numbers, but points out that no donations have been made to the campaign by corporations directly, as would violate electoral law. However, there are donations from people who work for said corporations, regardless of rank, and those are estimated to total less than $1 million. Most donations, estimated to be in the "millions of dollars," went to the Clinton Foundation, a charity unaffiliated with the campaign.

After deeper review, Clinton can be said to stay, on a technicality, within her campaign's pledge of not taking any money from fossil fuel companies, but, as reports suggest, her people consistently find workarounds to bypass any odor of illegitimacy.