The Scottish club have lodged a complaint with the SFA about what they call "disruptive" comments prior to Hibs' Scottish Cup Final with Celtic.
But at no time did Paul make a comment about wanting McCleish, whose name was speculatively mentioned in conjuction with the West Ham post largely, it is thought, because Sir Alex Ferguson is an admirer of his.
Paul stresses: "I can quite categorically state that at no point did we make an approach to Mr.McLeish or his agent.
"Had we wished to secure his services, we would have approached Hibernian through the proper channels and in accordance with the regulations.
"Hibs themselves have said that we never phoned them - that is because we were not looking to acquire the services of their manager.
"And there was certainly no encouragement on our part for the media to associate him with the job.
"We have been quite honest with our fans about the selection process leading up to the appointment of Glenn Roeder and I can assure them we did not look north of the border."