BILL and Hillary Clinton have rejected claims they tried to get a scholarship to Ireland for a boyfriend of their daughter Chelsea.
A veteran Democratic foreign policy advisor accused the couple of nepotism in a book on their legacy on Ireland.
Trina Vargo is the founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance, a non-profit organisation dedicated to educating those in the US about Ireland.
She runs a scholarship programme, named after former US senator George Mitchell, which provides funding for a group to study in Ireland.
In her book - Shenanigans: the US-Ireland Relationship in Uncertain Times - she claimed that in November 2000, Mr Mitchell told her he received a call from Mr Clinton.
She wrote that Mr Mitchell told her "with some uneasiness" that Mr Clinton was "very unhappy" that Chelsea's boyfriend was not among a shortlist of 200 candidates despite a recommendation letter from the president.
Mr Mitchell said he was not asking for the boyfriend's inclusion, just seeking clarification.
However, Ms Vargo wrote: "It would be hard to believe that the timing of the president's call wasn't aimed at influencing us to make him a finalist."
In 2012, the US State Department, then under Mrs Clinton, cut funding to the Mitchell scholarship, citing budgetary measures.
A spokesperson for the Clintons said the claims were "baseless and patently false".
"While funding was cut when secretary Clinton was at the State Department, funding was also cut under secretary (John) Kerry. Both the product of a constant battle with a Republican Congress to fight for diplomatic and development dollars, there is nothing more to it than that," they said.
The spokesperson also noted that Mr Mitchell and President Clinton were together in the north last year to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
