Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, is now facing an unusual challenge: a formal ethics complaint targeting her law license in Arkansas. The government watchdog group Democracy Restored filed the grievance, asking the state bar to examine whether Clinton’s actions during the 2016 campaign should disqualify her from practicing law
The complaint cites violations of the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct related to “Dishonesty” and “Prejudice to the Administration of Justice.” It requests “a formal review of the conduct of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Esq., a licensed attorney in the State of Arkansas, in connection with her actions during the 2016 presidential campaign.”
“This revelation demands an already overdue inquiry into Clinton’s fitness as a member of the Arkansas Bar,” the filing declares.
What Clinton is Accused Of Doing
According to Democracy Restored, newly declassified documents show that Clinton personally approved a plan to release false information tying Donald Trump to Russia. The purpose of this strategy, the complaint says, was to “smear” her opponent and to shift attention away from her own legal troubles, including the investigation into her private email server.
The watchdog group says Clinton’s campaign “elevated unverified and unvetted information to injure her political opponent” and that she “personally signed off on an effort to amplify this bad intelligence to the media and federal law enforcement.”
A director of Democracy Restored told Fox News Digital, “Former Secretary Clinton’s utilization of a bunk dossier by a foreign ex-spy to harm a political opponent violates basic ethical norms as well as the Arkansas bar’s own rules of conduct for attorneys. The Arkansas bar needs to take a serious look at former Secretary Clinton’s involvement in this scandal and take appropriate action.”
The Russiagate Background
The allegations against Clinton are tied to what became known as “Russiagate.” This was the claim that Trump and his campaign had colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election. Investigations by the FBI and later by Special Counsel Robert Mueller consumed Trump’s first two years in office, although no evidence of criminal collusion was ever established.
Newly declassified documents suggest that the collusion story began as a Clinton campaign operation. One memo described “confidential conversations” between Democratic National Committee officials, Clinton campaign staff, and operatives from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. These talks centered on creating a strategy to paint Trump as a Russian asset. A July 2016 email said plainly, “HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] approved Julia’s idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. That should distract people from her own missing emails. The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue.”
Another note captured the campaign’s expectation that federal investigators would eventually help advance the story. “Now it is good for a post-convention bounce. Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire,” one line from July 25, 2016, read.
Collaborators and Allies in the Operation
Clinton’s campaign was not alone in promoting the Trump-Russia narrative. Intelligence officials, journalists, and members of the Obama administration all became part of the chain of events.
According to reports, then-President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were all briefed on the Clinton campaign’s intentions. Despite this knowledge, the FBI still launched Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the investigation that targeted Trump’s campaign.
Democracy Restored emphasized this connection in its complaint, stating, “If there is one political scandal synonymous with the 2016 election, it is Operation Crossfire Hurricane.”
The Clinton campaign also relied on the Steele Dossier, a collection of allegations put together by former British spy Christopher Steele and paid for through Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The dossier was later proven to be unreliable, but it was still used to justify surveillance warrants and became part of the official intelligence community assessment in early 2017.
Critics Say This is One of the Biggest Scandals in American History
Critics of Clinton argue that the entire Russiagate affair was not only unethical but one of the most damaging political scandals the country has ever faced. Senator Chuck Grassley said that newly released intelligence reports show the Clinton campaign was “ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton’s political gain.” He added, “History will show that the Obama and Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump. This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history.”
The New York Post’s editorial board went further, declaring that “Russiagate was never anything more than Hillary Clinton’s paid-for lies.” They argued that Clinton’s scheme was “a dirty trick that failed to turn the 2016 election for her, but it was Obama and company who truly betrayed the American people here.”
The Arkansas Supreme Court Office of Professional Conduct has confirmed that it has received the complaint and “will be processed as all complaints are.” A spokesperson noted that no special treatment would be given.
The letter from Democracy Restored acknowledges that Clinton has not been criminally charged. However, the group insists that this does not clear her of ethical responsibilities. “Recently released records have again increased the prospect of a federal investigation into her conduct. Regardless, the legal profession holds its members to higher standards,” the group explained.
Clinton’s office has not responded to requests for comment. The Open Society Foundations, which appeared in the declassified documents, rejected the claims as “malicious disinformation traced to Russian intelligence.”
As the case proceeds, it raises the possibility of disciplinary action against one of the most prominent figures in American politics. Nearly a decade after the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton’s role in Russiagate is no longer just a political issue. It may now threaten her standing as a licensed attorney in the state of Arkansas.
NP Editor: Hillary certainly does not need her law license for anything, but the concrete action of having it stripped is certainly a blow to her reputation – a blow she certainly deserves. In our opinion, Hillary has a whole series of criminal acts that she should have to pay for, but never really will.
