New emails reveal Bill Clinton tried to get State Department approval for paid speeches in North Korea, Congo

Bill Clinton speaks at a Morocco conference on economic development.

(Image credit: FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 28 August 2015

Newly uncovered State Department emails obtained by ABC News reveal that Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation tried to get approval from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to accept invitations for "lucrative speaking engagements" in the notoriously repressive countries of North Korea and Congo. Ultimately, Bill turned down both speaking engagements.

The invitation to Congo offered a $650,000 speaking fee, but would have required Bill to pose for photos with the dictators of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, both of whose countries have a "particularly grim human rights record," ABC News says. In the instance of North Korea, Bill pretty much assumed the State Department would shoot him down even though he still sent an email to double check that it was "safe to assume [the U.S. Government] would have concerns." He got a quick response from a State Department employee: "Decline it."

This system worked out by Bill and Hillary was set up prior to Hillary's confirmation as secretary of state. In the interest of avoiding conflicts of interest, Bill "volunteered to submit information for proposed paid speeches to the Department of State's ethics agency to review," ABC News reports. Still, even without the speaking fees from the engagements turned down, Bill managed to earn more than $48 million in speaking fees while Hillary was secretary of state, delivering 215 speeches in four years.