Alleged Clinton Controversies

Allegations against the Clintons during their public careers
Although generally disclaimed, disputed and discredited by the Clintons and their attorneys, over their long careers of public service, Bill and Hillary Clinton have been beleaguered by various allegations of controversial activities and misconduct leveled at them by their detractors.
Among the principal allegations potentially affecting Clinton's candidacy are: issues surrounding the Clinton Foundation; Benghazi; the private email server matter; Sidney Blumenthal; Bill Clinton's undisclosed WJC, LLC private company; and those that have come to be known as "Whitewater", "Cattle-Futures", "Travelgate", "", "Filegate", "the Lincoln Bedroom for rent", "Chinagate", "Lootergate", the "Drug Dealer Donor Scandal", and the "Ponzi Scheme/Political Favor" allegations. Political opponents detractors of Clinton have brought up these and numerous other current and past allegations of mis-deeds in attempts to thwart her candidacy for the 2016 election.
Allegations relating to the Arkansas years
Whitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy (also known as the "Whitewater scandal", or simply as "Whitewater") involved investigations into real estate investments made by the Clintons and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal and others, in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in Arkansas in the 1970s and 1980s. As a partner in this real-estate firm, Hillary Clinton was accused of committing fraud, although neither she nor her husband were ever charged. The senior partners at her Rose Law Firm, however, James and Susan McDougal; along with Governor Bill Clinton's successor Governor Jim Tucker; and municipal judges, David Hale and Eugene Fitzhugh, who worked with the firm, all were.
Cattle futures controversy
The cattle futures controversy involved investments by Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton in commodities trading in 1978-79. Allegedly, for an investment of just over $1000, Hillary Clinton purchased ten cattle-futures contracts costing $12,000 each. Within 24 hours, according to the allegations, her profits were over $6,000; and after 10 months, she had made profits totaling more than $100,000. Robert L. Bone, the man who allowed the trades to go through, was suspended from trading for three years and had to pay the largest fine in exchange history in relation to the Clinton trades.
Gennifer Flowers
Gennifer Flowers, a model and actress, claimed during the 1992 presidential election campaign that she had had a 12-year sexual affair with Bill Clinton in Arkansas. In a January 1998 deposition, Clinton admitted under oath that he had in fact had a sexual encounter with Ms. Flowers.
=== "Troopergate" ===
"Troopergate" was an alleged scandal in which two Arkansas State Troopers claimed they had been asked by Bill Clinton to arrange, and to assist in keeping hidden, various sexual liaisons for him while he was Governor of Arkansas. The allegations, by state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry, were first reported by David Brock in the conservative magazine American Spectator in 1993, during Clinton's first year in the White House.
Paula Jones
Paula Jones was former Arkansas state employee who sued President Bill Clinton in 1994 for sexual harassment over an incident she claimed had occurred in in the Excelsior (now Little Rock Marriott) Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1991, where he propositioned and exposed himself to her. Clinton entered into an out-of-court settlement, agreeing to pay Jones and her attorneys a total of $850,000, before the lawsuit was dismissed pre-trial on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate damages. The Paula Jones case later helped precipitate Clinton's impeachment trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Allegations during the White House years
=== "Travelgate" ===
The so-called "Travelgate" controversy had to do with the firing in 1993, allegedly engineered by Mrs. Clinton, of the Director and six other employees of the White House Travel Office and their replacement by Arkansas associates of the Clintons. Critics contended the firings were done solely to allow Clinton friends to take over the White House travel business. Heavy media attention forced reinstatement of most of the employees, and removal the Clinton associates from the travel role. Various investigations of the matter were undertaken by the FBI and the Department of Justice, the General Accounting Office, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and the Whitewater Independent Counsel.
These developments, following Hillary Clinton's prior disputed statements about her cattle futures dealings and Whitewater, led to a famous exchange with New York Times columnist William Safire. Safire, who had endorsed Bill Clinton in the previous election, wrote that many Americans were coming to the "sad realization that our First Lady—a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation—is a congenital liar," followed by White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry saying that "the President, if he were not the President, would have delivered a more forceful response to that—on the bridge of Mr. Safire's nose."
In 1998, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr exonerated Bill Clinton of any involvement in the matter, but Mrs. Clinton came under scrutiny for allegedly playing a central role in the firings, and for making false statements about her role in the matter. In 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued a final report on the matter, in which he sought no charges against Clinton, saying that she had made factually false statements, but that there was insufficient evidence her statements were either knowingly false, or that she fully understood that her statements led to the firings.
Vince Foster
Vince Foster, the Clinton's long time lawyer, Arkansas friend, and White House counsel died of a gunshot wound just outside Washington, D.C., in July 1993. He had been viewed as a central potential witness in the then ongoing investigations of the alleged Whitewater and Travelgate scandals. The circumstances of his death, although ruled a suicide by multiple official investigations, have remained a subject of controversy and various conspiracy theories. What some considered a suicide note of sorts, actually an apparent list of notes or draft of a resignation letter, was found torn into 27 pieces in Foster's briefcase after his death. The full text of Foster's draft notes read:
* "I made mistakes from ignorance, inexperience and overwork
*
* I did not knowingly violate any law or standard of conduct
*
* No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the travel office. There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group
*
* The FBI lied in their report to the AG
*
* The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the travel staff
*
* The GOP has lied and misrepresented its knowledge and role and covered up a prior investigation
*
* The Ushers Office plotted to have excessive costs incurred, taking advantage of Kaki and HRC
*
* The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their loyal staff
*
* The WSJ editors lie without consequence
*
* I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport."
The Lincoln Bedroom
It has been alleged that overnight guests of the Clintons in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House gave a total of at least $5.4 million to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during 1995 and 1996. The allegations derived from a study commissioned by CNN from a campaign study group. The issue, which came to be known as "the Lincoln Bedroom for rent", surfaced in 1997 when Congress was investigating charges that President Clinton and Terry McAuliffe masterminded a program that allowed top patrons of the Democratic Party to spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom in exchange for donations. McAuliffe at the time was finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee.
=== "Filegate" ===
Craig Livingstone, director of the White House's Office of Personnel Security was alleged to have "improperly" accessed FBI files on several hundred individuals, reportedly files primarily of Republicans and political opponents of the Clintons. First Lady Hillary Clinton, who had hired Livingston as director of Personnel Security, dismissed the matter as a "completely honest bureaucratic snafu". Scheduled Joint Congressional Hearings on the matter were canceled after the whole controversy was overshadowed by press revelations of the Monica Lewinsky matter, and the resultant Impeachment Proceedings in the House of Representatives against Bill Clinton.
Drug dealer donor allegations
Convicted drug trafficker Jorge Cabrera was alleged to have been solicited for a large donation by operatives of the Democratic National Committee in support of Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign. Within two weeks of the contribution, Cabrera was invited to a dinner with Vice President Gore in Miami. Ten days later, Cabrera attended a reception at the White House hosted by First Lady Hillary Clinton, and at the events, both Gore and First Lady Clinton posed for photographs with Cabrera, who had previously had two felony convictions from the 1980s, and who was later imprisoned for a drug-smuggling conviction.
The Monica Lewinsky matter
The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal involving a sexual relationship between then President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. The revelation of this extra-marital affair and resulting investigations led to the in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, and his subsequent trial and eventual acquittal after 21 days of proceedings presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the United States Senate.
Impeachment
In December 1998, Bill Clinton became only the second president in U.S. History to be impeached, when the House of Representatives approved two Articles of Impeachment against him, one for perjury and a second for obstruction of justice. Two other articles of impeachment—a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power, which had been approved and proposed by the House Judiciary Committee (commonly referred to at the time as the "Rodino Committee", after its Chairman, Peter Rodino, Jr. of New Jersey) -- failed to win the approval of the full House. Clinton was subsequently acquitted on both of the approved House charges by the Senate on February 12, 1999, following a lengthy 21-day trial presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice William Renquist. and who later would serve as an adviser for , as her Chief of Staff while Secretary of State,
Presidential pardons
Clinton came under heavy criticism in the media and otherwise, and was investigated by Federal prosecutors and Congressional committees for certain of his presidential pardons and acts of executive clemency as President. While most presidents grant pardons throughout their terms, Clinton granted almost all of his on his last day in office in early 2001. Among the most controversial was one for which it was alleged that Hillary Clinton's youngest brother Tony Rodham received $107,000 a quid pro quo scheme in exchange for Clinton's pardons of Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory, owners of a carnival company, from a 1982 conviction for bank fraud.
Post White House years
=== "Lootergate" ===
Prior to leaving the White House in 2001, Hillary Clinton is reported to have shipped various White House furnishings to
the house the Clintons had purchased for $1.7 million in 1999, in Chappaqua, N.Y. The Clintons said that some items they were removing had been donated to them, but only some were determined to have been donated, and many others were meant to stay in the White House, according to the manufacturers who had provided them. Clinton spokespeople also claimed that the movers had "inadvertently" packed some wrong items for shipment to Chappaqua. The Clintons returned many of the furnishings after requests were made for them to do so by the National Park Service and the .
The Clinton Foundation
Numerous questions have been raised by the media, Members of Congress, and others about the , founded by the Clintons in 2001 as the "William J. Clinton Foundation", and renamed the "Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation" in 2013. Concerns center on the foundation's financial practices and its fundraising from foreign governments and corporations, coupled with its lack of transparency in reporting donors, as well as possible conflicts of interest between donations to the foundation and actions of Hillary Clinton while Secretary of State, and as might relate to her 2016 presidential campaign. All told, there have been some 200,000 donors to the Foundation—which include many foreign governments, Wall Street firms, foreign banks, foreign and domestic energy conglomerates, and a number of other individuals and entities.
Ponzi scheme donor allegations
Norman Yung Yuen Hsu is a convicted pyramid investment, or "Ponzi scheme" promoter, who was a major Democratic Party fundraiser and donor, and who also reported to have contributed an undisclosed amount in support of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He gained notoriety after suspicious patterns of bundled campaign contributions were reported in 2007, and subsequently when it was discovered he was a fugitive in connection with a 1992 fraud conviction. In 2009, Hsu pled guilty in federal court to ten counts of mail and wire fraud in connection with his investment and fundraising practices, and was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison, the judge accusing him of funding his fraudulent activities, and attempting to manipulate the political process, in a way that "strikes at the very core of our democracy.” He is currently incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan.
Soccer / FIFA / Qatar
Bill Clinton served as the honorary chairman of the U.S. committee that traveled to meet with FIFA in Zürich in 2010, but lost the bid to host the 2022 World Soccer Cup Games in the United States. The international soccer governing organization, instead awarded the 2022 games to the country of Qatar, which had been considered by most observers an unlikely competitor to win the bid. Subsequently it was reported that the Qatari committee planning the World Cup event and other Qatar sources have been major donors to the . These donations to the Clinton Foundation were first reported in May 2015, after U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch alleged corruption at FIFA and the indictments against 14 top FIFA officials accusing them of bribery, money laundering and fraud, and the Swiss government announced their own criminal investigation into Qatar's 2022 bid.
Clinton Foundation donor records on the foundation Website indicate that FIFA has donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to the foundation, and that the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, formed in 2011 to build infrastructure for the games after Qatar was named the 2022 host, has given between $250,000 and $500,000. Also Qatar's Host Committee for the games was a Clinton Global Initiative sponsor in 2013, at a cost of $250,000, and the Qatar "National Food Security Programme", which is charged with ensuring food security in stadiums at the World Cup, has donated at least $25,000 to the foundation. In addition, the Government of Qatar, which aggressively promoted Qatar as the site for the 2022 Cup, has given the Clinton Foundation between $1 million and $5 million.
SEE:
* [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/23257badd0614ab29b10b83ee5db6534/bill-clinton-company-shows-complexity-family-finances Stephen Braun, "Bill Clinton's Company Shows Complexity of Family Finances", AP, May 26, 2015.]
*
* [http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/bill-clintons-secret-pass-through-company-exposed_956199.html "Bill Clinton's Secret 'Pass-Through' Company Exposed", Daniel Halper, The Weekly Standard, May 26,2015.]
*
* [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/clintons-omit-shell-company-filing-financial-records-article-1.2236364 "Clintons Omit 'Shell Company When Filing Financial Records", Cameron Joseph, New York Daily News, May 26, 2015.]
*
* AP Exposes Bill Clinton's Secret Company
Happy Hearts Fund gala
]]
It has been alleged that, in 2014, former president Clinton agreed to accept a lifetime achievement award at a gala fundraising event in New York City—which was held by the Happy Hearts Fund charity at a cost of $363,413—after the charity's director, Czech model offered a $500,000 contribution to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The payment, made after the Clinton Foundation sent the charity an invoice, amounted to almost 25% of the evening’s total net proceeds. “The Clinton Foundation had rejected the Happy Hearts Fund invitation more than once, until there was a thinly veiled solicitation and then the offer of an honorarium,” said the charity's former executive director, Sue Veres Royal, who held that position at the time of the gala, but was dismissed soon after amid conflicts over the gala and other issues.
Deborah Sontag commenting on the matter in the New York Times, wrote: "Never publicly disclosed, the episode provides a window into the way the Clinton Foundation relies on the Clintons’ prestige to amass donors large and small, offering the prospect, as described in the foundation’s annual report, of lucrative global connections and participation in a worldwide mission to “unlock human potential” through “the power of creative collaboration.” The book said the hit list was created so that, "Friends could be rewarded, and enemies punished."
Bengazi controversy
The Bengazi Controversy concerned an attack by Islamic terrorists on the American Consulate in Bengazi, Lybia, in September 2012, which resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, and Secretary Clinton's role in responding to the Bengazi situation leading up to the incident, and in its aftermath.
Members of Congress and others accused the White House and State Department of over-emphasizing, or fabricating the role of spontaneous protests by angry Islamists over the movie Innocence of Muslims in causing the incident, alleging that the Administration was reluctant to label the attack as "terrorist" for political reasons, and that the consulate site should have had a much higher level of security both before and after the attack.
Various officials at the State Dept. were also accused of having made efforts to ensure that the attack in Benghazi would not embarrass Hillary. Ray Maxwell, a former Assistant Secretary of State for North Africa, told reporters that Cheryl Mills was one of several Clinton aides who on a Sunday afternoon “separated” out Benghazi-related documents that might put Clinton or her team in a “bad light,” and that these documents were kept out of the pile that the State Department turned over to the Accountability Review Board investigating Benghazi. Gregory Hicks, the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission in Benghazi, testified before Congress in 2013 that, after he spoke with Congressional investigators, he received a furious phone call from Mills, who he said severely reprimanded him; and State Department lawyers instructed Hicks that neither he nor his staff should allow themselves to be “personally interviewed” by members of Congress. Shortly thereafter, Hicks said he was demoted to the job of desk officer and brought home to the United States. Two of her advisers at the State Dept., personal aide Huma Abedin and chief of staff Cheryl Mills, also had e-mail addresses on the server, as did Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal.
In July 2015, it was reported in the New York Times that potentially classified material may have been transmitted to or from Clinton using the private accounts. Clinton's campaign staff said that any classified government items found on the server had been classified after the fact. Clinton obtained “special government employee” status for Abedin from the State Dept., allowing Abedin to collect a government paycheck while also holding lucrative private-sector jobs, including a position with the Clinton-family foundation. She is married to former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, who resigned from Congress in 2011 in the wake of a sexting scandal widely covered by the media.
Sidney Blumenthal
The Washington Post revealed in 2015, that long-time Clinton associate Sidney Blumenthal, even though banned by the White House from working for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Obama Administration, nevertheless continued to communicate with her frequently via her private email server in Chappaqua, NY on matters such as Lybia and the Bengazi consulate attack, as well as on various contracts and other matters pending before the State Department, in some of which he had a personal financial interest, and while being paid a monthly salary of $10,000 by the Clinton Foundation.
=== "Clinton Cash" ===
"Clinton Cash" is a highly publicized 2015 book by Peter Schweizer (subtitled: "The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich") which gained widespread attention in the media after its publication. In his book, Schweizer attempts to enumerate, investigate and trace various donations to the Clinton Foundation by foreign governments and corporate entities; looks into numerous high paid speeches by both Clintons in the U.S. and around the globe; and makes efforts to track the increase in the Clinton's personal wealth since leaving the White House in 2001, while admitting that there may have been no improper or legal activities by the Clintons.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu