A conservative legal foundation has asked a state committee to examine whether Hillary Rodham Clinton violated ethics laws as a lawyer preparing a real estate document 10 years ago.
The Landmark Legal Foundation said it filed an ethics complaint Thursday asking the Arkansas Supreme Court's professional conduct committee to investigate the first lady's role in preparing the document, which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said was used to mislead regulators."There is a whole set of rules, rules of professional conduct, that exist in each state. We've asked the committee to look into this matter," said Mark Levin, who said he filed the complaint.
The committee, which would not confirm whether the complaint has been filed, can take action ranging from a public letter of caution to initiating disbarment proceedings in court. The committee meets in private and doesn't announce details of a proceeding until it decides on a course of action.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. concluded last month that the document drafted by Hillary Clinton in 1986 was used by Madison Guaranty S&L to mislead regulators and hide commissions it was paying to a prominent businessman. Hillary Clinton was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Madison was owned by James and Susan McDougal, Whitewater business partners of President Clinton and the first lady.
The document Hillary Clinton helped draft put a $400,000 price tag on vacant land south of Little Rock. But the 22.5-acre parcel fetched a mere $38,000 when the federal government - in the bailout of the S&L industry - unloaded it in the early 1990s.