Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, explained why it was possible former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, could be charged criminally.

Gaetz suggested “bribes” were paid to the Clintons’ family charity to influence policy and that foundation was in effect a “money-laundering operation.”

Transcript as follows:

CARLSON: So, the Clinton people are saying, look, Hillary Clinton has been a private citizen for a long time. She has been out of politics in effect for a year. Why now? What’s the significance of these, do you think, for the rest of the country?

GAETZ: There may have been acts that occurred at the State Department as a consequence of bribes paid to the Clinton Foundation, which are creating an ongoing security concern for the United States of America, Tucker.

Take, for example, the Hezbollah story you just mentioned. It’s not just cocaine that’s being trafficked. You have got Hezbollah working in common cause with narcotraffickers in South America to move opium, to move heroin, to move people into the United States.

And the investigation that was going on to degrade these networks, to degrade the collusion between Hezbollah and South American narcotraffickers was smothered by people at the Justice Department.

And there is a suspicion that the State Department led by Hillary Clinton had a role in limiting the American people’s access to information about Hezbollah being funded and their operations in this country because they wanted the Iranian Nuclear Deal so bad, they didn’t want us focusing on the fact that Iran has funded over 100 mosques in South America to recruit people and then to send them to the United States to do harm.

CARLSON: So, that’s one of the investigations into that. And it does seem, if true – first of all, it’s hard to defend. But, second, it has obvious national security implications for this country.

Tell us about the investigation into – we know much about it, into the Clinton Foundation.

GAETZ: Well, the accusation is that the Clinton Foundation was merely a money laundering operation where people paid in order to have access to the State Department. And there were notations on particular documents and bids where people would write FOB, “Friend of Bill,” which means those were donors to the Clinton Foundation. And as a consequence, they were given special treatment.

That’s the type of thing that we have to know about now. Not to exercise some revenge on a defeated presidential candidate, but to ensure that we don’t have people right now acting as vendors on behalf of the United States of America, not as a consequence of their merit or what they can do, but because they are friends and potentially donors to the Clinton Foundation.

CARLSON: Yes. That whole operation was false from day one, obviously. Why is it taking so long to get these investigations underway?

GAETZ: We’ve been calling for this for over five months. Twenty members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions saying that we’ve got to look into these things because of the ongoing security concerns.

And, finally, now, we have Hillary Clinton dealing with investigations cascading down on her like it’s a bomb cyclone. I think the day is coming soon, Tucker, when we’ll be sending an “I’m With Her” T-shirt to Hillary Clinton’s cellmate.

CARLSON: So, you think she is criminally exposed potentially?

GAETZ: Absolutely. Look, if people were taking bribes and then, as a consequence of those bribes, engaging in actions that they would not otherwise be engaging in. That is a crime. You cannot do that in the United States of America. And we’ve got to go now and remedy the consequences.

Take, for example, the subject of your show tonight, the opioid problem. If you had people trafficking and would have been found out otherwise, we’ve got to now go back and remediate the harm that the Clintons caused this country.

CARLSON: Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida, thanks for joining us tonight. Appreciate it.

GAETZ: Thank you, Tucker.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor