Revealed: How Hillary’s top aide worked for the State Department and the Clinton Foundation at the SAME TIME – and even coached Bill on his tangled web of business interests

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Hillary Clinton's chief of staff moonlighted as an advisor to the Clinton Foundation while working full time at the State Department, according to leaked emails which highlight the blurred line between the government and the foundation while Clinton worked as Secretary of State.

Leaked emails published by WikiLeaks show State Department aide Cheryl Mills helping to remodel the foundation's structure, preparing the organization for a corporate audit, and counselling Bill Clinton on his high-paying speaking and consulting work.

Mills worked closely with the foundation and Bill Clinton - even as she was tasked at the State Department with helping to vet the former president's paid speaking engagements and non-profit work for potential conflicts of interest. 

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Cheryl Mills, right, moonlighted for the Clinton Foundation even while she was working full-time for the State Department under Hillary Clinton, leaked emails reveal

Mills and Clinton at a hearing of the House Select Committee on Benghazi in October last year. 'The emails also show Ms. Mills did not fully reveal her role with the Clinton Foundation when interviewed by the Congressional Select Committee on Benghazi,' said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center

The emails highlight the hazy line between the State Department, the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton's financial interests, and raise new questions about whether Mills violated conflict of interest laws while on the federal payroll, according to government watchdogs. 

They also show that Mills was closely involved in helping to restructure Bill Clinton's tangled web of consulting work, speaking gigs and non-profit activities right before a 2012 corporate audit of the foundation. 

The audit took place amid a series of negative press articles about financial conflicts at the foundation and concerns from Chelsea Clinton.

'The new revelations in the latest Wikileaks email disclosure prove Cheryl Mills worked extensively with the Clinton Foundation, their Board, President Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton while at the same time working in a role at the State Department that appears to have created a serious conflict of interest,' said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center.

It is not the first time Mills has come under scrutiny for her involvement with the Clinton Foundation and other outside work while she was at the State Department.

For several months after joining the State Department in 2009, Mills continued to work as general counsel for New York University's Abu Dhabi-based campus, which is funded by the UAE government. She also remained on the board of the Clinton Foundation for over a month after starting at State.

In 2012, Mills also travelled to New York to help interview candidates for a senior role at the Clinton Foundation, CNN reported in August. The Clinton campaign said she did this voluntarily and without compensation, and it was unrelated to her official duties at the State Department.

‘We are not going to comment on alleged leaked documents,’ a State Department official told the DailyMail.com. ‘‎Federal employees are permitted to engage in outside personal activities, within the scope of the federal ethics rules. ‘ 

Although Mills has faced questions about her outside roles while at the State Department, she did not mention her side work for the foundation when she was deposed by congressional investigators last year, the NLPC noted.

But the latest email leaks from Clinton campaign chief of staff John Podesta, which Wikileaks published this week, show that Mills's work with the Clinton Foundation while at the State Department was more extensive than previously known.

'The emails also show Ms. Mills did not fully reveal her role with the Clinton Foundation when interviewed by the Congressional Select Committee on Benghazi,' said Boehm.

Bill Clinton and Mills at a state dinner with the then President of Ghana back in 1999. Mills counselled Clinton on his high-paying speaking and consulting work - even as she was tasked at the State Department with helping to vet the former president's paid speaking engagements and non-profit work for potential conflicts of interest

Mills in September last year, after she testified privately for eight hours about Clinton's personal email account and the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya

The State Department did not respond to request for comment by press time.

In one message, Mills sent a memo to Bill Clinton, through his assistant, which outlined how the former president should remodel his array of business interests.

'Mr. President,' wrote Mills in the Jan. 13, 2012 email, 'Attached is the vetter paradigm for the separation of personal and other activities (Foundation, business, non-profit, political, official) to provide support for you in the range of activities in which you engage.'

'I am circulating it to the [Clinton Foundation] Board (Bruce, Terry, CVCM) as well as copying John, Justin and Doug - all of whom have embraced the principles set forth in the document,' she added.

Mills continued that it would 'be beneficial to have a common conversation that includes everyone regarding the implementation of this in the next week.'

'I look forward to talking when convenient,' she wrote.

The plan called for setting up a separate 'private office' for Bill Clinton, which 'would serve as the nucleus of decision-making for the overarching allocation of WJC's time – Foundation/Non-Profit Activity, Former President, Political Activity, For-Profit Activity and Personal Activity.'

The plan also called for a quasi-separation between the foundation and Teneo, a consulting company founded by Clinton aide Doug Band and for which Bill Clinton served as an advisor. 

The ties between Teneo clients and the Clinton Foundation had come under scrutiny due to potential financial conflicts.

'Commencing January 1, 2012, the President instead will become a client of Teneo; Teneo principals will provide consulting services to the President in his personal capacity,' said the Mills memo.

Mills advised Bill on how the former president should remodel his array of business interests while she worked at the State Department

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta and top aide Huma Abedin on the campaign plane on Tuesday. Podesta has blamed Russia for the hacking of emails from his Gmail account

Prior to that memo, Mills had also sent another draft proposal to John Podesta and Doug Band on Nov. 20, 2011, outlining potential options for distancing Teneo and the Clinton Foundation.

Only one of Mills's proposed options called for an outright 'separation' between Teneo and the foundation; under the other options, Teneo leadership would serve as advisors to Bill Clinton on non-profit or for-profit activities.

Mills left open the possibility that Band and other Teneo executives could work with the Clinton Foundation in a consulting capacity.

'[S]hould the Foundation or its affiliated entities desire their services, they would engage them directly, through a personal consulting contract, to provide mutually agreeable services (e.g., strategic advice, fundraising, donor development and maintenance, organizational planning, support services for CGI, etc) to the CEO of the Foundation or the CEOs of the affiliated entities,' wrote Mills.

Mills emailed the memo to Podesta and Band with the note: 'Please advise if any comments by Sunday am.'

'This model would mean that all non-Foundation entities would no longer be co-located with Foundation; that folks would be on a single payroll Foundation or personal. Whatever rules the Foundation creates for folks being able to earn outside income would apply equally,' she wrote.

In another email on Jan. 1, 2012, the law firm that conducted the 10-year review for the Clinton Foundation passed along 'talking points' for an upcoming foundation meeting to Mills and Podesta.

'We attach for your review revised talking points for the Foundation staff meeting,' the attorney wrote. 'Please let us know if you have any comments. In addition, please let us know if you have set a date and time for the meeting.'

Mills watching Clinton testify before the Select Committee at a Benghazi hearing last year. Although Mills has faced questions about her outside roles while at the State Department, she did not mention her side work for the foundation when she was deposed by congressional investigators last year

Another message on Jan. 12, 2012 shows Chelsea Clinton asking Mills and Podesta for advice on 'branding work for the Foundation and CGI to help us tell a more coherent, compelling and unified story of the collective work.'

'I would think it makes the most sense to do this work after my mom determines what she wants to do but I wanted to pass along to you both in case there was a compelling case in your minds to do so earlier,' wrote Chelsea.

After the Clinton Foundation chairman Bruce Lindsey took an unexpected medical leave in the fall of 2011, Bill Clinton appointed John Podesta as a special advisor to oversee the foundation. In an October 2011 email, Mills linked up Podesta and the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett attorney who was conducting the foundation's audit.

'[Clinton has asked John Podesta to serve as a special advisor, with particular focus on providing leadership and being a resource and decision-maker for the corporate audit,' wrote Mills, in the letter to the attorney.

'I am copying John on this email so that you two can connect -- I have given him a frame of reference regarding the objectives for the corporate audit and I know Chelsea can share even more but wanted you all to a have a point of additional contact in light of Bruce's unexpected illness.'

Mills is not the only Clinton aide whose outside work while at the State Department has raised questions about conflicts. Huma Abedin, who served as Clinton's deputy chief of staff, was granted a waiver as a 'special government employee,' which allowed her to hold a side job as a consultant for Teneo while working at the State Department.

Federal employees, including special government employees, are prohibited under criminal conflict of interest laws from engaging in government matters that could have a financial impact on an outside employer.