Whitewater (controversy)
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The Whitewater Controversy (also called the Whitewater scandal or simply Whitewater) was a American political story regarding real estate dealings by Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates in the Whitewater Development Agency in the 1970s and 1980s.
A New York Times article was published during the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign that Clinton and his wife had invested in and lost money in the Whitewater development.[link] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission resulted in criminal charges against the two principals in the Whitewater investment but not against the Clintons. Three separate inquiries found that the Clintons did not participate in any criminal conduct.[link]
Whitewater was seen by Democrats as a Republican led investigation to pursue Clinton for political reasons at a cost of $80 million dollars to the public.[link][link] Newt Gingrich noted the investigation was helpful to the Republican elections because Clinton will be "weaker" in the polls.[link] Political motivations were attributed to Kenneth Starr, a Republican attorney, who spoke "at a law school founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, and maintain[s] private clients with interests opposed to the Clinton Administration, have given his critics ammunition."[link] As the indepedent counsel Starr "had leaked secret grand jury information" about the investigation that reflected badly on Clinton to the press.[link]
The controversy
Following Bill Clinton's bid for the presidency, reporters asked him about the failure of the Whitewater development. On July 20, 1993, at Fort Marcy Park in Virginia, White House deputy counsel and longtime friend of the Clintons Vince Foster committed suicide. After Foster's death, chief White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum removed documents concerning the Whitewater Development Corporation from Foster's office and gave them to Margaret Williams who placed them in a safe in the White House. [link]At Clinton's request, a special prosecutor was appointed in 1994 by the Department of Justice to investigate the legality of Whitewater transactions. Two allegations surfaced: that Clinton had exerted pressure on an Arkansas businessman to make a loan that would benefit him and the owners of Madison Guaranty, and that an Arkansas bank had concealed transactions involving Clinton's gubernatorial campaign in 1990.
Kenneth Starr, a Republican attorney, took over the investigation in 1994. In August 1994 Starr was appointed by a three-judge panel to continue the Whitewater investigation, replacing Robert B. Fiske, who had been specially appointed by the Attorney General prior to the re-enactment of the Independent Counsel law. In February of 1997 he announced he would leave the investigation to pursue a position at Pepperdine University's law school. However, he changed his mind, resulting in "intense criticism."[link]
During the investigation Starr "had leaked secret grand jury information" that reflected poorly on Clinton.[link] He was taken to court and the Federal District Court ordered the " the Justice Department to investigate Starr's office and his former spokesman on possible criminal contempt charges over an article that appeared in The New York Times."[link] An appeals court over turned this decision.[link]
The Clintons were cleared of all wrongdoing in two reports prepared by the San Francisco law firm of Pillsbury Madison and Sutro for the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was overseeing the liquidation of Madison Guaranty.
On January 26, 1996 Hillary Clinton testified before a grand jury concerning her investments in Whitewater. She noted they "never borrowed any money from the bank, nor had he caused anyone to borrow money on his behalf." Over the course of the investigation, fifteen individuals — including Clinton friends Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, White House counsel Webster Hubbell and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker — were convicted of federal charges unrelated to Whitewater. Clinton pardoned four of them in the final hours of his presidency (see list of people pardoned by Bill Clinton).
Ray Report
Kenneth Starr's successor, Robert Ray, released a report in September of 2000 that stated "This office determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either President or Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in any criminal conduct."[link] Ray's report effectively ended the Whitewater investigation, with a total cost to American taxpayers of nearly $80 million dollars.[link]See also
References
- Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 140003003X.
External links
- [Washington Post time line]
- [Washington Post] of the Full Whitewater report
- [FINAL REPORT of the Special Committee to Investigate Whitewate Development Corporatoin and Related Matters]. U.S. Government Printing Office. (June 17, 1996).
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