--- title: Hillary Clinton Emails Prompt Call for New Ethics Probe description: A conservative watchdog is calling for another federal investigation into Clinton’s communications during her time as secretary of state canonical: https://time.com/4147115/hillary-clinton-emails-marc-mezvinsky/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-13T22:49:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:03.704Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Emails Prompt Call for New Ethics Probe og:description: A conservative watchdog is calling for another federal investigation into Clinton’s communications during her time as secretary of state og:url: https://time.com/4147115/hillary-clinton-emails-marc-mezvinsky/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bd855d8c2d08720/6988752b3c16393e9545b2c1/hillary-clinton-marc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3794 og:image:height: 2134 og:image:alt: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Marc Mezvinsky og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Emails Prompt Call for New Ethics Probe twitter:description: A conservative watchdog is calling for another federal investigation into Clinton’s communications during her time as secretary of state twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bd855d8c2d08720/6988752b3c16393e9545b2c1/hillary-clinton-marc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Exclusive: Conservative Group Calls for Federal Inquiry Into Hillary Clinton Son-in-Law Request > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) and [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) Dec 13, 2015 10:49 PM UTC  Hillary Rodham Clinton waves to supporters as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, her daughter Chelsea Clinton, and her daughter's husband Marc Mezvinsky join on stage , on Roosevelt Island in New York on June 13, 2015. Hillary Rodham Clinton waves to supporters as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, her daughter Chelsea Clinton, and her daughter's husband Marc Mezvinsky join on stage , on Roosevelt Island in New York on June 13, 2015.Frank Franklin—AP by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) and [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) Dec 13, 2015 10:49 PM UTC A conservative watchdog group has called for another federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s communications during her time as Secretary of State, accusing Clinton of giving special government access to an investor in a deep-sea mining company because of his connections to Clinton’s son-in-law. The group, called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), plans to file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Monday. “It appears that then Secretary Hillary Clinton gave a private company special access to the State Department based upon the company’s relationships with Secretary Clinton’s family members and donors to the Clinton Foundation,” the group says in the complaint first obtained by TIME. The complaint comes two weeks after emails released by the State Department show that Clinton followed up on a special request from Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton’s husband. In May 2012, Harry Siklas, an investor in a deep-sea mining firm called Neptune Minerals, asked Mezvinsky to connect him with officials at the State Department in order to discuss mining regulations affecting his investments. Siklas noted he was lobbying for access on behalf of a friend who had founded the deep-sea mining firm. “Hey bud,” the Siklas wrote in his note to Mezvinsky. “I need a contact in Hillary’s office: someone my friend Josh (and I perhaps) can reach out via email or phone to discuss mining and the current legal issues and regulations.” Three months later, State Department emails show, Clinton forwarded the message to another department official. “Could you have someone follow up on this request which was forwarded to me?” Clinton asked in email to Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides. “I’ll get on it,” Nides replied. The email exchange was made public by the State Department’s release of Clinton’s emails and first reported by the Associated Press. Clinton’s email usage is already the subject of federal probes in her and her aides’ handling of classified information on the private server she maintained in her Westchester, N.Y., home. FACT alleges that the emails appear to show Clinton gave preferential treatment to her son-in-law by following up on the request to give Neptune Minerals an audience with government officials. The emails do not show whether Siklas or anyone at Neptune Minerals succeeded in meeting with Clinton or any other State Department officials. Siklas, the investor who made the request, was also an employee of Goldman Sachs at the time. Goldman Sachs employees were major donors to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. “We request a full investigation into these communications and a determination of whether any laws were broken,” FACT said in the complaint. Matt Whitaker, the former attorney general of the southern district of Iowa appointed under President George Bush and executive director of FACT said an investigation would help show whether Clinton’s office helped other companies gain similar government access. FACT is asking the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to investigate “the circumstances surrounding these apparent unethical communications.” It’s unclear what actions OGE could take. The office does not investigate matters that are within the purview of other inspectors general, and the Department of Justice is responsible for prosecuting criminal offenses. Whitaker said OGE could refer the matter to the Department of Justice. “We believe that requests like this from anyone other than Goldman Sachs and her son-in-law were not passed along, so there was a preference given in her duty as Secretary of State in comparison to other requests,” Whitaker said. Whitaker said FACT is nonpartisan and scrutinizes both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. FACT is backed by donors who support conservative legal causes. The Clinton campaign did not respond to requests for comment. ### See Every Hillary Clinton TIME Cover  The September 14, 1992 issue of TIME Gregory Heisler  The May 10, 1993 issue of TIME Steve Liss  The March 21, 1994 issue of TIME Dirck Halstead  The March 18, 1996 issue of TIME Brad Markel  The July 1, 1996 issue of TIME TIME  The October 20, 1997 issue of TIME Patrick Demarchelier  The Feb. 9, 1998, issue of TIME. TIME  The August 31, 1998 issue of TIME Blake Sell—Reuters  The Sep. 28, 1998, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton at top center, behind Bill Clinton.) Cover Credit: DOUG MILLS-AP, KHUE BUI, DAN LOH-AP & STEVE HELBER-AP  The Feb. 15, 1999, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top right.) Cover Credit: MICHAEL O'NEILL  The February 22, 1999 issue of TIME TIME  The March 1, 1999 issue of TIME Aaron Shikler  The June 16, 2003 issue of TIME TIME  The August 28, 2006 issue of TIME Diana Walker for TIME  The Feb. 5, 2007, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top left.) Cover Credit: PHOTOGRAPH FOR TIME BY CHRISTOPHER MORRIS--VII  The November 19, 2007 issue of TIME John Ritter—Brooks Kraft  The Jan. 21, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top left.) Cover Credit: NICK WRIGHT  The February 18, 2008 issue of TIME Diana Walker, Doug Mills  The Feb. 25, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top.) Cover Credit: MATTHIAS CLAMER  The March 17, 2008 issue of TIME David Burnett  The Mar. 24, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton inset at top.) Cover Credit: ARTHUR HOCHSTEIN  The May 5, 2008 issue of TIME Callie Shell, Damon Winter  The May 12, 2008, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton under the second zero in "100.") Cover Credit: CHIP KIDD  The May 11, 2009, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton under the "E" in TIME.) TIME  The November 16, 2009 issue of TIME Marco Grob for TIME. Left inset: Getty Images  The November 7, 2011 issue of TIME Diana Walker for TIME  The Apr. 30, 2012, issue of TIME. (Hillary Clinton near top center.) TIME  The January 27, 2014 issue of TIME Photo-Illustration by Justin Metz for TIME. Pants: Don Farrall—Getty Images. Man: Bloom Image/Getty Images. Shoe: Yasinguneysu/Getty Images  The Mar. 23, 2015, issue of TIME Photograph by Spencer Platt–Getty Images  The Feb. 15, 2016, issue of TIME Photograph by James Nachtwey for TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4147115/hillary-clinton-emails-marc-mezvinsky/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4147115/hillary-clinton-emails-marc-mezvinsky/"},"headline":"Exclusive: Conservative Group Calls for Federal Inquiry Into Hillary Clinton Son-in-Law Request","datePublished":"2015-12-13T22:49:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:03.704Z","description":"Allegations of official favoritism","url":"https://time.com/4147115/hillary-clinton-emails-marc-mezvinsky/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Email","Ethics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bd855d8c2d08720/6988752b3c16393e9545b2c1/hillary-clinton-marc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bd855d8c2d08720/6988752b3c16393e9545b2c1/hillary-clinton-marc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Marc Mezvinsky","caption":"Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Marc Mezvinsky","creditText":"Frank Franklin—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4147115/hillary-clinton-emails-marc-mezvinsky/","name":"Exclusive: Conservative Group Calls for Federal Inquiry Into Hillary Clinton Son-in-Law Request"}}]}] ```