<span id="midArticle_start"/>(Adds Clinton campaign planning new website, paragraphs 7-8)
<span id="midArticle_0"/>By Steve Holland and Susan Heavey
<span id="midArticle_1"/>WASHINGTON May 4 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President BillClinton said on Monday he would continue to give paid speecheswhile his wife, Hillary Clinton, runs for president amidcriticism of the income her family draws from people, includingforeigners, with business before the U.S. government.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>He also said he may consider stepping down or taking "lessof an executive role" at the Clinton Foundation should his wifebecome president. The Clintons' political opponents havecriticized the foundation for accepting funding from foreigngovernments for its endowment and for its charitable workabroad.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>"I gotta pay our bills," Clinton told NBC News from Kenyawhen asked about his speeches, for which he sometimes chargesmore than $500,000, in an interview taped over the weekend. "Wedo our best to vet them. And I have turned down a lot of them.If I think there's something wrong with it, I don't take it."
<span id="midArticle_4"/>His decision to emerge from the sidelines and speak outabout the Clinton Foundation reflects concerns about gettingHillary Clinton's campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidentialnomination back on a sound footing after it took a pounding inrecent weeks.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>The former first lady, also a previous secretary of stateand former senator from New York, has attempted to presentherself as a candidate who would fight for everyday Americans.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>But her campaign has been on the defensive over questionsabout foreign donations to the family's charitable organizationand whether her work as President Barack Obama's first-termsecretary of state was influenced by the donations.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>In response to the attacks, her campaign plans to unveil awebsite, called "The Briefing, which it described as a "one-stopshop to provide the facts about Hillary Clinton's positions andher record."
<span id="midArticle_8"/>Campaign Chairman John Podesta said in an Internet postingthat the website would provide the public with direct access toClinton's policy agenda "as well as the facts needed to debunkfalse attacks."
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Scrutiny of the Clinton Foundation has focused on foreigndonations as well as on Bill Clinton.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>The former president described the controversy as old news.
<span id="midArticle_11"/>"There's been a very deliberate attempt to take thefoundation down," Clinton said.
<span id="midArticle_12"/>"There is no doubt in my mind that we have never doneanything knowingly inappropriate in terms of taking money toinfluence any kind of American government policy," Clinton said."That just hasn't happened." There was nothing sinister ingetting wealthy people around the world to donate to a charitythat focuses on helping poor people, he said.
<span id="midArticle_13"/>The Clinton Foundation and an associated charity confirmedto Reuters in March for the first time that they failed toadhere to central parts of an ethics agreement Hillary Clintonsigned with the White House that required heightenedtransparency while she was secretary of state.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>A State Department spokesman said on Monday the departmentwas "not aware of any evidence" that donations to the foundationinfluenced the actions that Clinton took as secretary of state.
<span id="midArticle_15"/>(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Peter Cooney;Editing by Bernadette Baum, Ted Botha and Ken Wills)
<span id="midArticle_16"/>
<span id="midArticle_0"/>By Steve Holland and Susan Heavey
<span id="midArticle_1"/>WASHINGTON May 4 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President BillClinton said on Monday he would continue to give paid speecheswhile his wife, Hillary Clinton, runs for president amidcriticism of the income her family draws from people, includingforeigners, with business before the U.S. government.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>He also said he may consider stepping down or taking "lessof an executive role" at the Clinton Foundation should his wifebecome president. The Clintons' political opponents havecriticized the foundation for accepting funding from foreigngovernments for its endowment and for its charitable workabroad.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>"I gotta pay our bills," Clinton told NBC News from Kenyawhen asked about his speeches, for which he sometimes chargesmore than $500,000, in an interview taped over the weekend. "Wedo our best to vet them. And I have turned down a lot of them.If I think there's something wrong with it, I don't take it."
<span id="midArticle_4"/>His decision to emerge from the sidelines and speak outabout the Clinton Foundation reflects concerns about gettingHillary Clinton's campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidentialnomination back on a sound footing after it took a pounding inrecent weeks.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>The former first lady, also a previous secretary of stateand former senator from New York, has attempted to presentherself as a candidate who would fight for everyday Americans.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>But her campaign has been on the defensive over questionsabout foreign donations to the family's charitable organizationand whether her work as President Barack Obama's first-termsecretary of state was influenced by the donations.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>In response to the attacks, her campaign plans to unveil awebsite, called "The Briefing, which it described as a "one-stopshop to provide the facts about Hillary Clinton's positions andher record."
<span id="midArticle_8"/>Campaign Chairman John Podesta said in an Internet postingthat the website would provide the public with direct access toClinton's policy agenda "as well as the facts needed to debunkfalse attacks."
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Scrutiny of the Clinton Foundation has focused on foreigndonations as well as on Bill Clinton.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>The former president described the controversy as old news.
<span id="midArticle_11"/>"There's been a very deliberate attempt to take thefoundation down," Clinton said.
<span id="midArticle_12"/>"There is no doubt in my mind that we have never doneanything knowingly inappropriate in terms of taking money toinfluence any kind of American government policy," Clinton said."That just hasn't happened." There was nothing sinister ingetting wealthy people around the world to donate to a charitythat focuses on helping poor people, he said.
<span id="midArticle_13"/>The Clinton Foundation and an associated charity confirmedto Reuters in March for the first time that they failed toadhere to central parts of an ethics agreement Hillary Clintonsigned with the White House that required heightenedtransparency while she was secretary of state.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>A State Department spokesman said on Monday the departmentwas "not aware of any evidence" that donations to the foundationinfluenced the actions that Clinton took as secretary of state.
<span id="midArticle_15"/>(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Peter Cooney;Editing by Bernadette Baum, Ted Botha and Ken Wills)
<span id="midArticle_16"/>
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