AFP/File – US president-elect Barack Obama (L) and New York Senator Hillary Clinton address supporters during a … CHICAGO – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has engaged a team of prominent lawyers to help President-elect Barack Obama vet her candidacy for secretary of state even as some insiders criticized the pick and advisers to the former first lady said she was weighing whether to take the job if Obama offered it.
Attorneys Cheryl Mills, David Kendall and Robert Barnett are working with the Obama transition team to review information about the Clintons' background and finances, including Bill Clinton's post-presidential business deals and relationships with foreign governments. Bruce Lindsey, a longtime Clinton adviser who now heads the former president's charitable foundation, has taken a leadership role in the process, aides said.
All represented the Clintons on legal matters in the White House, including President Clinton's dalliance with intern Monica Lewinsky that led to his impeachment in 1998.
Officials knowledgeable about the vetting said it has gone smoothly and that both Clintons were cooperating fully.
Bill Clinton already has appeared to take an important step toward smoothing his wife's path to the job.
Democrats familiar with the negotiations said the former president has suggested he would step away from day-to-day responsibility for his foundation while his wife served and would alert the State Department to his speaking schedule and any new sources of income.
A top aide involved in the vetting said there was nothing obvious in the former president's dealings that would torpedo his wife's prospects for the job. The aide was not authorized to discuss the matter, and would speak only on background.
THE ABOVE STORY WAS FROM ABC NEWS
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