State Dept: 'Not aware of any actions' influenced by Clinton Foundation

After newly released emails from Hillary Clinton raised questions about connections between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as secretary of State, the State Department came to her aide.

“We are confident that our hiring decisions are made in the best interest of the department and the U.S. government,” State spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a briefing with reporters Thursday.

"The State Department is not aware of any actions that were influenced by the Clinton Foundation," she later added.

Trudeau was asked about a specific email that was found in the release. The email showed a Clinton Foundation staffer, Doug Band, lobbying on behalf of someone for a position. He said, it was “important to take care of” that person.

Huma Abedin, Clinton's deputy chief of staff, responded: “Personnel has been sending him options.”

Critics questioned whether such a move was acceptable, given that the government organization and the foundation were not supposed to overlap.

“At the beginning of an administration we receive recommendations for aspiring employees from a great many places and sources. The Department does not believe it was inappropriate for Mr. Band or any other individual to recommend someone be considered for employment at the State Department,” Trudeau said. “We also do not believe it is inappropriate for someone recommended in this manner to be potentially hired in so far as they meet the necessary qualifications for this job.” (Although for privacy reasons she could not confirm if the person had actually been hired.)

“Former Secretary Clinton's staff have stated that this individual was not a Clinton Foundation donor or employee, but even such a history would not have precluded an individual from employment with Department,” she continued.

Thursday, a CNN report found Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department, Cheryl Mills, had voluntarily helped the Clinton Foundation recruit for a high-level position in 2012.

Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee have blasted recent reports as evidence of a “pay for play" system.

Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC, has called on the State Department or Clinton herself to release the rest of the emails before the election.

“If the State Department continues to withhold these emails, Hillary Clinton should demand they be released, or release them herself. Anything less than a full release of these public records before voting begins will only further prove that we have a rigged system that has one set of rules political elites and another for everyone else," Priebus said in a statement.