Hillary Clinton says presidential rival Donald Trump appears to have violated US laws, after a report said he broke a trade embargo with Cuba.
Newsweek reports that Mr Trump’s company secretly conducted business in Cuba, violating the US trade embargo against the country.
The company allegedly spent at least $68,000 (£52,300) in Cuba in 1998.
Mr Trump’s spokesman Kellyanne Conway said the money was not paid, and that he was against deals with Cuba.
Mr Trump has also repeatedly said he had rejected offers to invest in Cuba.
The Newsweek report says Mr Trump’s company funnelled the cash through a US consulting firm to make it appear legal.
Mrs Clinton said: “We have laws in our country, and the efforts that Trump was making to get into the Cuban market – putting his business interests ahead of the laws of the United States and the requirements that businesses were operating under with sanctions shows that he puts his personal and business interests ahead of the laws and values and the policies of the United States of America.”
“This is something they’re going to have to give a response to,” said Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American senator from Florida who has endorsed Mr Trump. “I mean, it was a violation of American law, if that’s how it happened.
“I hope the Trump campaign is going to come forward and answer some questions about this, because if what the article says is true – and I’m not saying that it is, we don’t know with 100% certainty – I’d be deeply concerned about it,” he told a podcast hosted by ESPN and ABC.
Cuban-Americans who fled the island after the revolution historically have been a reliable voting bloc in Florida for Republicans because of the party’s hard-line anti-communist stance. While new generations of Cuban-Americans have been less rigid on the issue, Republican presidential candidates continue to pay deference to their interests in this presidential swing state, where every vote is precious.
Earlier this week, the Republican nominee was making nice with Cuban-Americans in Miami’s Little Havana and ordering coffee at the famous Versailles Restaurant – much like his predecessors had before him. His efforts, however, may be undone by his past actions.
Source-BBC
