WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee has requested an investigation into allegations that a top State Department staffer tried to make a “quid pro quo” deal with the FBI involving Hillary Clinton’s e-mails.

The RNC sent a formal request to the State Department’s independent inspector general to review Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy’s conduct amid allegations he offered the FBI permission to place agents in off-limit countries to change the designation of a Clinton e-mail about Benghazi from classified to unclassified.

“To learn that a senior State Department official may have attempted to make a backroom deal to cover up the extent to which our national security was put at risk by Secretary Clinton’s use of a secret email server is shocking and warrants an immediate review by your office,” RNC lawyer John R. Phillippe Jr. wrote IG Steve Linick. “Further, I request that your office investigate whether Mr. Kennedy made any additional quid-pro-quo offers to other federal agencies in relation to Secretary Clinton’s emails.”

The “quid pro quo” allegations were revealed in FBI interview notes released Monday that described efforts by Kennedy to avoid deeming Clinton’s private server emails classified. The State Department has refuted any deals as “false”

“We looked into this. The FBI looked into this, and it’s is just not true,” spokesman John Kirby told “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday. “There was no quid pro quo even suggested or any kind of bargain laid on the table.”

The FBI official – whose name was redacted in the investigative notes – stepped forward this week and insisted there was no quid pro quo.

“That’s a reach,” retired FBI agent Brian McCauley told the Washington Post.

Kennedy called to say he needed a “favor” and McCauley responded with “good, I need a favor [too].” McCauley wanted FBI agents back in Baghdad and that’s when Kennedy said he what he wanted: “There’s an email. I don’t believe it has to be classified.”

McCauley said he looked into the matter and told Kennedy he couldn’t help, which Kennedy accepted as “fine.”