Sen. Cotton: Clinton Foundation a 'Money-Laundering' Operation

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton on Tuesday described the Clinton Foundation as a "money-laundering" and "influence-peddling" operation.

In an interview on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Cotton was asked about Monday's Wall Street Journal story that depicted infighting in the FBI over a probe of the foundation started by former President Bill Clinton and his wife, current Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

That story, Hewitt noted, quoted FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as asking an FBI official if they were telling him he needed to shut down "a validly predicated investigation."

The official answered "Of course not," according to the Journal.

But, Hewitt told Cotton, "You know what that question means … They were trying to impede an investigation into the foundation."

"I suspect that was a very high-ranking Department of Justice political appointee who was carrying water for the Clinton machine and wanted to shut down an investigation into the Clinton Foundation, which increasingly looks like one of the largest money-laundering and influence-peddling operations in the world," Cotton told Hewitt.

"This is why if Hillary Clinton wins this election and they don't shut down the Clinton Foundation and come clean with all of its past activities, then there's no telling the kind of corruption that you might see out of the Clinton White House. They did it in the State Department. Of course, they're going to do it in the White House."

Republicans say the Clintons used the foundation as a means to enrich themselves and to sell influence – including to foreign governments – when Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state during Barack Obama's first term as president.

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