Clinton relayed son-in-law's meeting request at State Department: AP

[December 09, 2015]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton forwarded a request made by her son-in-law for a meeting between one of his hedge fund's clients and State Department officials when she was the country's top diplomat, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Marc Mezvinsky, the husband of Chelsea Clinton and a partner at the hedge fund Eaglevale Partners LP, in 2012 sent to Clinton a request made by an investor in the deep sea mining firm Neptune Minerals Inc. to meet with State Department officials.

Clinton forwarded the request to Thomas Nides, a vice chairman at Morgan Stanley who at the time was a deputy secretary of state, the AP reported.

"Could you have someone follow up on this request, which was forwarded to me?" Clinton asked Nides.

"I'll get on it," Nides replied.

It is not known whether the meeting took place. Clinton's campaign declined to comment on the matter, the AP said.

The Clinton campaign also declined to comment to Reuters.

At the time of the request, the Obama administration was trying to get the "Law of the Sea Treaty" through the U.S. Congress. Had it passed, the agreement would have assisted deep sea mining companies that mine minerals in international waters.

Government ethics rules state that government employees should "not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual," but do not ban the consideration of requests made by relatives, the AP reported.

(Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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