Trina Vargo, a veteran U.S. adviser on Ireland, founded the George J. Mitchell Scholarship in 2000 Vargo said that Bill Clinton intervened in the first year of the scholarship, when Kane, whose 3.19 grade-point average was much weaker than those of the top candidates, had failed to make the final selection round. He had submitted a letter of recommendation for Kane, who had already landed an internship in the Clinton White House during his relationship with Chelsea.
MIkela French, 42, who graduated from Boise State University, was also one of the Mitchell Scholars that year. She is now a criminal litigator. She said it was troubling that President Clinton would attempt to intervene in the decision process. "I think that’s cheating," she said. "If that did happen, I definitely think it’s a real shame."
"If the Mitchell hadn’t been a program that was geared towards true equality of opportunity, my application may not have been taken on its own merit," she said. "The things that I learned, the connections that I made, the amount that I grew, I have lifelong friendships and an invaluable education. I do think it was an absolutely wonderful thing to have had in my life."
A month after Kane failed to make the shortlist, Vargo ran into Hillary Clinton at a reception at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Ireland. “It was immediately clear to me that she knew I was the person she viewed as responsible for Chelsea’s boyfriend not getting the scholarship,” Vargo wrote.“For those few seconds, her eyes closed to a slit, the way they do when one is unhappy and sizing up a person.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/revealed-two-decades-before-college-admissions-scandal-the-clintons-tried-to-game-the-system-for-chelseas-boyfriend