White House travel office controversy

The White House stated the firings were done because financial improprieties in the Travel Office operation during previous administrations had been revealed by an FBI investigation.

Heavy media attention forced the White House to reinstate most of the employees in other jobs and remove the Clinton associates from the travel role.

[9][10] They looked at a review by KPMG Peat Marwick which discovered that Dale kept an off-book ledger, had $18,000 of unaccounted-for checks, and kept chaotic office records.

[5] There was also a feeling among the White House and its supporters that the Travel Office had never been investigated by the media due to its close relationship with press corps members[8][12] and the plush accommodations it afforded them and favors it did for them.

[13][14] (Congress would later discover that in October 1988, a whistleblower within the Travel Office had alleged financial improprieties; the Reagan White House counsel looked into the claim but took no action.

[7] Dale and his staff had been replaced with Little Rock, Arkansas-based World Wide Travel, a company with a substantial reputation in the industry[8] but with several ties to the Clintons.

[16] Martens wanted the White House to award TRM a $500,000 contract for an aircraft audit,[16] while also seeking Travel Office charter business as an intermediary which did not own any planes.

[10] Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster became worried about the firings about to take place and ordered the KPMG Peat Marwick review, asking the FBI to hold off in the meantime.

[14] However, the White House said no illegal actions had occurred, and no officials would be terminated; this did not satisfy Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, who called for an independent investigation.

[5][14] In his torn-up resignation note from a few days before, he wrote "No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the Travel Office.

[25] (In the last part, Foster may have been referring to lax customs treatment by the Travel Office of goods brought back from foreign trips by reporters.

[4] Moreover, the GAO report indicated that the First Lady played a larger role than previously thought before the firings, with Watkins saying she had urged "that action be taken to get 'our people' into the travel office.

[4] On July 22, 1995, Hillary Clinton gave a deposition under oath to the Independent Counsel that touched on travel office questions;[26] she denied having had a role in the firings, but was unable to recall many specifics of conversations with Foster and Watkins.

[4] In October 1995, the committee began hearings on the matter;[4] Clinger soon accused the White House of withholding pertinent documents[27] and sought subpoenas to compel witnesses to appear.

[34] In general, Clinton administration controversies such as Travelgate allowed opinion magazines and political debate television shows to attract subscribers and viewers.

[5] At the 13-day trial in October and November 1995,[37] prominent journalists such as ABC News' Sam Donaldson and The Los Angeles Times' Jack Nelson testified as character witnesses on Dale's behalf.

A two-year-old memo from White House director of administration David Watkins surfaced that identified First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as the motivating force behind the firings, with the additional involvement of Vince Foster and Harry Thomason.

"[40] Written in fall 1993, apparently intended for McLarty, the Watkins memo also said "we both know that there would be hell to pay" if "we failed to take swift and decisive action in conformity with the First Lady's wishes.

[39] These developments, following Hillary Clinton's prior disputed statements about her cattle futures dealings and Whitewater, led to a famous exchange in which high-profile New York Times columnist William 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" who "has never been called to account for lying herself or in suborning lying in her aides and friends,"[41] 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.

[44] The Congressional investigation continued; on March 21, 1996, Hillary Clinton submitted a deposition under oath to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, again acknowledging concern about irregularities in the Travel Office but denying a direct role in the firings and expressing a lack of recollection to a number of questions.

In March 1996 the House voted 350–43 to reimburse them for all of their legal expenses;[47] in September 1996, Democratic Senator Harry Reid led an unsuccessful attempt to block this measure.

[51] The Senator Al D'Amato-chaired Senate Special Whitewater Committee, which had begun the previous year, issued its findings in a majority report on June 18, 1996;[52] it did not investigate Travelgate directly, but did say that "[Hillary] Clinton, upon learning of [Vince] Foster's death, at least realized its connection to [the] Travelgate scandal, and perhaps to the Whitewater matter, and dispatched her trusted lieutenants to contain any potential embarrassment or political damage.

"[6] The following month Clinger forwarded the report, along with one on Filegate, to the Independent Counsel, suggesting that the testimony of several witnesses be looked at for possible perjury or obstruction of justice.

[8] On November 19, 1998, Starr testified before the House Judiciary Committee in connection with the impeachment of Bill Clinton over charges related to the Lewinsky scandal.

[60] However, "the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that any of Mrs. Clinton's statements and testimony regarding her involvement in the travel office firings were knowingly false," and thus prosecution was declined.

[60] White House press secretary Joe Lockhart was critical of Ray's statement: "By inappropriately characterizing the results of a legally sealed report through innuendo, the Office of Independent Counsel has further politicized an investigation that has dragged on far too long.

"[65] New York Times columnist Safire updated his description of Hillary Clinton to "habitual prevaricator", saying "the evidence that she has been lying all along is damning" and comparing her dark side to that of Richard Nixon, in whose White House he had once worked.

Some agreed with Safire, who had said that Hillary Clinton was "a vindictive power player who used the FBI to ruin the lives of people standing in the way of juicy patronage.