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The Reemergence of Cheryl Mills on Capitol Hill

This week was not the first time Cheryl Mills’ name has come up in a controversial manner at a Congressional Oversight Hearing. Not even close. In fact, it’s not the first time Ms. Mills has been the subject of potential wrongdoing in the very same hearing room – room 2154 in the Rayburn House Office Building to be exact.

While being questioned under oath by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday, former Deputy Ambassador to Libya Gregory Hicks testified that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills was “very upset” when she called him about his cooperation with congressional investigators. According to The New York Times:

“Mr. Hicks offered an unbecoming view of political supervision and intimidation inside the Obama administration. When Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, visited Libya after the attack, Mr. Hicks said his bosses told him not to talk to the Congressman. When he did anyway, and a State Department lawyer was excluded from one meeting because he lacked the necessary security clearance, Mr. Hicks said he received an angry phone call from Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills.”

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Throughout the 1990s, Mills was a big part of the Clinton White House counsel’s office “damage control” detail. Name the Clinton scandal and Cheryl Mills was usually running interference for the Clintons with congressional investigators. In fact, in 1998, Mills allegedly crossed the line in her dealings with the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. The committee felt it was necessary to send a criminal referral to the Department of Justice regarding Mills’ activities and testimony on behalf of the Clinton White House. According to a January 22, 1999 article in The Washington Times:

“Just last September [1998], Rep. Dan Burton wrote to the Justice Department requesting that Ms. Mills be prosecuted for lying under oath and for concealing documents sought under subpoena, charges that grew out of a House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform investigation. The committee was attempting to discover whether government computers and federal employees had been used to compile a White House database – a list of potential donors that was passed on to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton/Gore campaign. If those public resources were used for political fundraising, several different laws were violated, including statutes against the theft of government property. Ms. Mills was the White House point person dealing with congressional requests for information. She was quite effective in thwarting congressional investigators – she hid documents that would have been damaging to the White House. When caught, she was questioned under oath by the committee, and denied hiding any subpoenaed papers. The committee concluded that Ms. Mills committed perjury in her effort to cover up her initial obstruction of justice.”

Here’s a link to the official congressional report from 1998. Search for “Mills” to read the allegations.

The fact that one of the Clintons’ most trusted confidant/lawyers was involved in this level of minutiae with regard to the Benghazi investigation is just another reason for a select committee – it’s clearly time for Speaker Boehner to bring House Resolution 36 to the floor for a vote.

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