for more, we are joined by pulitzer prize winning journalist james grimaldi. he's a senior writer at the "wall street journal" and has covered the clinton foundation since 2014. welcome to democracy now! james, europe and covering the clinton foundation for years. can you talk about what this suggestsoup of e-mails and how significant it is about the relationship between the clinton foundation under secretary of state hillary clinton and -- between the state department under clinton and the clinton foundation? >> i think this confirms what we sort of knew. there are obvious ties and relationships -- the key tie would be douglas band, who was a top aide to bill clinton. he helped bill clinton create the clinton foundation and sort of devised how he would spend his days in retirement. he was very close, of course, to cheryl mills and huma abedin. at one point he was employing a contractor to huma abedin hu as was working at the state department. ma during this time of the lebanese elections, he sent an e-mail, as you describe now, regarding one of their greatest

relationships, we have to separate that from what a foundation is all about. >> sreenivasan: james grimaldiat are the meetings that secretary of state clinton took that are raising these concerns? >> well, there was a recent associated press report that analyzed the calendars of secretary clinton. they looked at all the private meetings for the first half of her tenure at the state department, because that's all that's been released under the lawsuit they have under the freedom of information act. there were 145 meetings and about 85 i believe of those meetings were with clinton foundation donors some that raised the question about whether those meetings meant that if you paid money to the donation or gave some sort of gift, it mend you would get expedited treatment at the state department. >> sreenivasan: even if this is a limited cross section, is there evidence or are there issues where she advocated on behalf of companies that might have contributed to the foundation? >> yes. i took a look at that question. we broke down all of the donors for the clinton foundation. we categorized them

james grimaldi and rebecca of "the wall street journal" have been reporting on the clinton foundation for a year now and it's these kinds of issues which is, was access possibly sold or was access influenced by contributions to the clinton foundation or money paid for speeches. that sort of thing. it's very difficult for hillary clinton to extract herself by saying this were important people and would have had access anyway. maybe it's compelling but the closeness of the relationship with the foundation is difficult. >> it's the overlap that seems to be so hard to explain away, and i read i believe in the "wall street journal" you can prove the quid. it's the pro in the middle. the lack of being able to connect the dot which are is true with a lot of things like this, that leaves questions but dot not leave any accusations af illegal doings. >> that's the argument that hillary clinton has been making, that there's no proof she did anything wrong. she, ad, i followed policy at the state department that was in interests of the american people. the problem is that it looks bad, and even

james grimaldi is an investigative reporter for the wall street down. >> this was -- used his own words against himself. i think bringing then breitbart guy on the campaign, i think it will be interesting to see how he responds to this. he did try to do a pre-response, i think, but you know, she-i think, is trying to match his very hard-hitting language with something that she considers hard-hitting, but thinks is more documented than maybe some of the attacks he is leveling against her. >> aren't they? >> i'm sorry? >> when you say she thinks they would be -- >> yeah, they appear to be documented. he trades in hyperbole. >> trades in racism, doesn't he? >> well, i'll leave that up to the commentators to talk about whether he is -- people who have -- on the opinion side are more apt or able to talk about whether he is racist or race sim. quote what people say. she quoted paul ryan, the speaker of the house, saying that one of his statements was treadmark, guess -- textbook racist. i'm not one to generally label people like that. so i would pass on that question. >> understood. hang with

james grimaldi is an investigative reporter for the wall street down. >> this was -- used his own words against himself. i think bringing then breitbart guy on the campaign, i think it will be interesting to see how he responds to this. he did try to do a pre-response, i think, but you know, she-i think, is trying to match his very hard-hitting language with something that she considers hard-hitting, but thinks is more documented than maybe some of the attacks he is leveling against her. >> aren't they? >> i'm sorry? >> when you say she thinks they