The Republican National Committee officially filed an attorney complaint Monday requesting a formal review of longtime Clinton aide and attorney Cheryl Mills.
The request sent to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals' Office of Disciplinary Counsel requested a review of Mills' connection to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and the "possible criminal mishandling of classified information."
Former Hillary Rodham Clinton aide Cheryl Mills speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. FBI agents are probing whether Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server imperiled government secrets appear close to completing their work. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Raj Shah, the RNC's research director and deputy communications director, contended in the letter to the D.C. bar that Mills violated rules that "strictly prohibit a lawyer from accepting employment in connection with a matter the lawyer 'participated personally and substantially as a public officer or employee.'"
"This is an 'absolute disqualification' that 'carries forward a policy of avoiding both actual impropriety and the appearance of impropriety,'" the letter states.
Mills served as Clinton's lawyer during the FBI's investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee's controversial use of a private email server during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat. Mills also served as Clinton's chief of staff and counselor at the State Department.
"The FBI's grant of immunity to Ms. Mills highlights the apparent conflict of interest in her representation of Secretary Clinton," Shah said.
He continued:
Director Comey testified that the F.B.I. granted immunity to Ms. Mills because her current role as Secretary Clinton’s attorney could have posed potential legal issues for the F.B.I. in its attempt to subpoena Ms. Mills’s laptop. Even though the records the F.B.I. sought were not from a time period during which Ms. Mills was serving as Secretary Clinton’s personal attorney, Ms. Mills apparently used her current role as Secretary Clinton’s attorney to shield herself from prosecution in the event any classified information was discovered on her laptop. According to Director Comey, classified material was indeed discovered on Ms. Mills’s laptop.
Michael Krauss, a law professor at George Mason University, told Bloomberg Politics that Mills might not have violated the rule Republicans are citing if she didn't "personally and substantially" participate in decisions regarding the email server.
"Was she merely aware of this issue or was she active?" Krauss said.
