At least two dozen different companies, groups or foreign governments paid former President Bill Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees at the same time that they had issues pending with the State Department that was being run by his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, alleges a new report this week.

More than $8 million was eventually paid out to the former president - and 15 of the organizations also donated as much as $15 million to the family's charity, The Clinton Foundation, according to the report published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal.

The detailed disclosure is the latest example of the increased scrutiny that has come of Hillary Clinton's tenure as the nation's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013. She is currently the Democratic presidential front-runner.

A Clinton campaign spokesman told the paper that 'no evidence exists' of any quid pro quo between the companies' interests at the State Department and the fees they paid the former president - and the Journal itself 'found no evidence that speaking fees were paid to the former president in exchange for any action by Mrs. Clinton.'

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Former President Bill Clinton received more than $8 million from companies that had business with his wife's State Department between 2009 and 2013, a new report says

Clinton is the founder and leader of The Clinton Foundation, a New York-based global charity group

The Journal said based its report on 'financial-disclosure forms, lobbying records and emails released by the State Department' and specifically at Bill Clinton's speeches 'given or arranged while Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state.'

Some of Clinton's speeches came on foreign soil. He was paid $1 million for two speeches sponsored by the government of Abu Dhabi, for example, around the same time the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security were negotiating with the city to build a U.S. diplomatic mission aimed at easing visa restrictions on travelers.

Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman, said 'no evidence exists' that the former president's speaking fees were tied to any actions taken by the State Department to the organizations that paid him.

Likewise, representatives of most of the companies and groups also denied any such connection, but spokespersons for Abu Dhabi as well as several of the companies declined to comment.

Alec Gerlach, a State Department spokesman, noted that ethics offers at the department reviewed Bill Clinton's speaking fees and the department's actions at the time Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. But he also emphasized that some actions at the department simply didn't involve the secretary.

'Her commitments did not equate to an indiscriminate prohibition on former President Clinton from working with any entity that interacted with the State Department, which would have encompassed an excessively broad range of companies, governments and NGOs [nongovernmental organizations],' Gerlach said.

The former president in New York on Dec. 26

All in all, according to the Journal, Clinton gave more than 200 paid speeches while his wife headed the State Department, according to financial disclosure forms. Five speeches were rejected by the department's ethics officers during their review, including potential appearances sponsored by North Korea, China and the Republic of Congo.

In May, Bill Clinton told NBC that he would continue giving paid speeches while his wife campaigned for the presidency, saying, 'I've got to pay our bills.'

But in June, he told Bloomberg TV that he would likely stop if Hillary Clinton actually won the presidency.

'I don’t think so,' he said at the time. 'I will still give speeches, though, on the subjects I’m interested in.'

The former president's Abu Dhabi speech came as U.S. officials were negotiating with the city over a 'letter of intent' for the visa-processing facility. Clinton sought permission to give the speech to the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative, a group created by the head of the United Arab Emirates and the emir of Abu Dhabi.

State Department ethics officer Katy Youel Page, in an August 2011 email, asked the department’s United Arab Emirates desk officer, 'Would it be any harm to foreign policy to associate with this?' The officer replied, 'No concerns here,' according to the Journal.

The letter of intent was signed on Dec. 6, 2011 - a week before Clinton gave a 20-minute talk on climate change to the Abu Dhabi group. He was paid $500,000, according to Hillary Clinton’s disclosure report.

Fallon said any suggested connection between the speech and the U.S. facility was 'farcical.'