Clinton was too busy to do favors for foundation donors, husband says

  DENVER (Reuters) - Bill Clinton gave one of his lengthiest rebuttals yet on Wednesday of allegations that his wife Hillary Clinton, now running for president, gave favorable treatment to donors to the family's charities while she was U.S. secretary of state.

The former U.S. president also used the interviews at a conference organized by the Clinton Foundation to speak with emotional candor about their marriage and the role he might play should the couple return to the White House in 2017.

"No one has ever asked me for anything," he said of the foundation's donors in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper during the conference in Denver, Colorado.

Clinton said he did not know whether foreign governments, companies and other foundation donors were seeking anything in return beyond supporting philanthropy.

"And I don't think Hillary would know, either," he said. "She was pretty busy those years. I never saw her study a list of my contributors, and I had no idea who was doing business before the State Department."

Journalists and political opponents have failed to turn up any proof that Clinton's State Department sold favors. The Clintons dismiss the allegations as politically motivated.

Hillary Clinton, 67, is the front-runner for the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. Still, an increasing number of Americans have said they find her untrustworthy in polls.
"Yeah, but I mean we're used to it," Clinton said.

He went on to warmly describe Hillary Clinton as "the rock" of his family and said he believes that Americans will come to learn more about that side of her.

"I trust her with my life and have on more than one occasion," he said. "And I don't mean I was facing physical death," he added in the interview, which CNN said it will broadcast on Sunday.

He described being "plagued by self-doubt" in his late 20s, particularly after an unsuccessful run for Congress. "Whenever I had trouble, she was the rock in the family."

Republicans and media commentators have criticized both Clintons for earning millions of dollars from paid speeches, saying the practice raises the possibility of conflicts of interest.

In a separate interview, Clinton was asked if he would continue to give paid speeches if his wife won the election in November, 2016.