A senior Tennessee Republican congresswoman told Breibart News Saturday the dealings between the State Department led by Hillary R. Clinton, Russia, and the Clinton Foundation are a prime example of how the Clintons established a unique business model that brokered government decisions and made them fabulously wealthy.

“They’re the ones who have been dealing with the Russians,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R.-Tenn.) to Breitbart Radio host Matthew Boyle in a live interview on the SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 program.

Blackburn was referring to the attention the media has given supposed ties between the Russian government and Clinton’s GOP rival Donald J. Trump.

An example of how the linkage came to be is seen in an Dec. 21, 2015 email from former Democratic Capitol Hill aide and columnist Brent Budowsky to John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign:

Odds that Putin agrees to remove Assad are only slightly better than the odds the College of Cardinals chooses me to someday succeed Pope Francis.

Best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin, but not go too far betting on Putin re Syria.

Brent

Sent from my iPad

The claims by Clinton that Trump was a puppet of the Russians were more than a media spin–it was also a kind of confession, she said.

“I have finally figured it out,” she said. “If you want to know what the Clintons have inappropriately done, just listen to what they rail against, because that is the path that they will have traveled.”

The congresswoman, who is the vice-chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that when Clinton was the secretary of state, she approved the Uranium One transaction that gave a Russian company up to 25 percent of America’s deposits of that vital mineral. “They now have control of part of our uranium.”

Blackburn told Boyle to look at the dealings of Frank Giustra, who is a member of the Clinton Foundation board of directors and a shareholder in Uranium One. Giustra gave more than $30 million to the Clinton Foundation.

There have been other arrangements, Blackburn said, such at President William J. “Bill” Clinton’s $18 million contract to serve as the honorary chairman of the Laureate International Universities, a for-profit college.

The Clinton’s even leveraged their role in supporting victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, she said.

“Then, you look at the Haiti Relief Corporation, which I thought it was quite interestingly was named the H-R-C–the email traffic shows that they sought favors for ‘Friends of Bill’s,'” she said. “Even the head of the Haitian Senate during that time accused Mrs. Clinton of trying to seek favors in ‘the gold rush,’ as they described it in Haiti.”

Correspondence revealed by hackers and other sources demonstrate the way the Clinton Foundation acted as the go-between and cash window, facilitating State Department policies and decisions for interested parties, she said. Many donors to the Clinton Foundation were also given access at the State Department.

Originally, the Clinton Foundation was set up to support the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, she said.

But, in its actual operations, the foundation took on its international programs without proper changes to status approved by the IRS, which oversees non-profits, she said.

The pay-for-play arrangements come after Clinton told Congress upon her nomination to lead the State Department that she promised President Barack Obama that she would avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest, she said.

Sixty countries made donations to the Clinton Foundation, who were also dealing with the State Department, which was a direct violation of the pledge Clinton made when she took office, she said.

“They just did not abide by that,” she said.

“All of that, Matt, is substantiated,” she said. “It is not hearsay. It’s not conjecture. You see the emails. When you look at the emails that have been released and then you look at who has donated to the Clinton Foundation. You look at who had appointments with Mrs. Clinton and you see the evidence that there was a pay-for-play-type structure.”

The Tennessean told Boyle if you look at the record of the former first lady, wherever you look, you find deceit. “There is lie after lie after lie.”

All of it comes together as Clinton says one thing in public and in the shadows pursues her own quest for power and wealth, she said.

How else? she asked, could a couple, who invented nothing, built nothing, invested nothing, nor offered in the private market any product or service become so wealthy?

“In a period of 14 years, they went from being self-described as ‘dead broke’ to being worth a quarter of a billion dollars?” she asked.

“That’s what my constituents want to know.”