Trump accused of Cuba embargo breach

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 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.
Trump’s spokesman Kellyanne Conway said the money was not paid, and that he was against deals with Cuba.
Trump has also repeatedly said he had rejected offers to invest in Cuba.
The ‘Newsweek’ report says 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 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’.
Speaking on ‘ABC’ earlier on Thursday, Ms Conway initially said: “As I understand from the story, they paid money in 1998.”
Later in the same interview, she said: “Did his hotel invest in 1998 in Cuba? No.”
There has been no further statement from the Trump campaign, reports the BBC.
Ms Conway referred to comments Trump has made in the past that were critical of the Cuban regime, and supportive of the embargo.
In a 1999 column in ‘The Miami Herald’, Trump wrote that he had snubbed chances to do business in Cuba.
“It would place me directly at odds with the longstanding US policy of isolating Fidel Castro. I had a choice to make: huge profits or human rights. For me, it was a no-brainer.”