Clintons Should Distance Themselves From Family's Foundation Ahead of Elections

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A number of US Democratic Party members believe the Clinton family should cut its ties to the Clinton Foundation in light of the ongoing presidential campaign, a US newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Earlier in August, the legal group Judicial Watch stated that a batch of 725 US State Department emails supported claims that the Clinton Foundation provided big donors with special access to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton while she was in charge of the agency.

"The foundation has become a distraction, politically speaking. Cut the ties to the family. What’s at stake is the big prize. The big prize is not the Clinton Foundation. It’s the presidency of the United States," Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva told The Wall Street Journal.

Some Democrats who are close to the campaign and the Clinton family told the newspaper, on condition of anonymity, that Hillary Clinton could appear to be influenced by the charity's donors if elected to the post and that ties between her family and the foundation would cause a conflict of interests.

The Clinton Foundation was established by Bill Clinton in 2001 after the end of his presidency as a nonprofit organization to raise funds to provide grants and carry out charitable projects. The funds raised by the foundation are estimated at $2 billion.

Earlier in August, Bill Clinton said that he would vacate his chair on the foundation's board should his wife prove victorious in the presidential elections.