WASHINGTON-While she was secretary of state, Hillary Clinton hosted a dinner involving Clinton Foundation donors, including a Ukrainian businessman who had given money to the organization and who had retained a lobbyist to arrange State Department meetings.
The dinner attended by Victor Pinchuk four years ago was mentioned in a new batch of State Department emails obtained by the conservative group Citizens United through public records requests and released on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a report Tuesday by the Associated Press based on a partial release of State Department calendars showed that at least 85 of 154 people outside government who met or spoke on the phone with Mrs. Clinton when she was secretary of state donated funds to the Clinton Foundation. The review showed the donors had collectively given up to $156 million.
A note about the dinner from a foundation official to Huma Abedin, one of Mrs. Clinton's top deputies at the State Department, described the event as a "Clinton Foundation dinner" in June 2012 at the home of the Democratic presidential nominee and included a list of guests attending.
The dinner guest list is an elite corps of Obama administration officials, Democratic donors, political consultants and foundation donors. Mr. Pinchuk is described in a short background briefing on all the guests as a "successful businessman, whose role in civic, international affairs and charitable organizations has made him a leader in Ukraine's growing interaction with Europe and the world."
Republican critics say the dinner is an illustration of what they describe as the overlapping interests between Clinton Foundation donors and the Clinton-led State Department. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for a special prosecutor to examine dealings during Mrs. Clinton's tenure as the nation's top diplomat.
The Clinton campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the Pinchuk dinner. A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation declined to comment.
People who attended the 2012 dinner at Mrs. Clinton's home here said it was a large, buffet-style affair-not an intimate sit-down dinner-and that Mr. Pinchuk spent no more than a minute talking to Mrs. Clinton on a receiving line.
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