The growing top 50 unethical acts from the Clinton administration collected and organized by our friend ~Hook~ who can sometimes be found at Mike Reagan's webforums. As Hook creates his growing list, each & every countdown will be posted as we receive them!
#22 of the top 50 unethical acts of the Clinton Administration:
Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Part 1 - Crimes, Chapter 29 - Elections and Political Activities. {}607 Place of solicitation: (a) It shall be unlawful for any person to solicit or receive any contribution within the meaning of section 301(8) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties by any person mentioned in section 603, or in any navy yard, fort, or arsenal. Any person who violates this section shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. Prior to the election of 1996, both Bill Clinton and Al Gore engaged in fundraising activities from within the White House, a clear violation of the above statute. Justice Department officials claim that this statute applies only to "hard money" contributions to individual candidates (limit $1,000) and does not cover the "soft money" contributions of hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by the President and Vice President. It is not hard to imagine why the Justice department would feel this way. All of the prosecutors from previous Republican administrations were fired in 1993 and replaced with appointments recomended by Bill Clinton. Congress realizing this, asked for an independant counsel to investigate the situation further, but were denied by (guess who) Attorney General Janet Reno. At the present this matter remains unresolved. It will be updated as information warrants.
#21 of the top 50 unethical acts of the Clinton Administration:
The first time Clinton administration officials were found rifling through files was at the State Department. In a clear violation of the privacy act 160 personnel files of former Bush administration officials were collected, and disparaging information from two of the files was leaked to the Washington Post. During the Nixon Presidency Charles Colson was imprisoned for just such an event concerning only one file. The State Department's inspector general found this conduct to be a violation of the Privacy Act. The case was refered to Attorney General Janet Reno for criminal prosecution. Ms. Reno chose not to pursue the matter. Suprise! Suprise! Suprise!
#20 of the top 50 unethical acts of the Clinton Administration:
The White House now acknowledges that President Clinton's top advisers mounted a campaign in 1994 to help find lucrative employment for former associate attorney general Webster Hubbell. In March 1994 Mr. Hubbell had just resigned his position with the Justice Department and was facing a growing investigation into his business practices and billing procedures. In December of 1994 Hubbell pled guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion. In between these two events is an amazing trail of meetings, payoffs, sudden shifts of behavior, and more payoffs. Shortly before his departure from the Justice Department President and Mrs. Clinton gathered a group of White House advisers for a Sunday meeting.
The topic that Sunday was how can we help Webb. This was very a magnanimous gesture because Mrs. Clinton as a former law partner to Webster Hubbell was among those who were bilked out of $482,000 by him. Mr. Hubbell was reportedly "unhappy" at having to face the charges that were being brought against him. Shortly after this meeting very lucrative legal assignments began to come Webster's way. Typical of events during this time period is the following: June 21, 1994 President Clinton has a meeting with James T Riady, the head of a large Indoneasian business empire known as the Lippo group. June 23, 1994 Webster Hubbell has a breakfast meeting with the same Mr. Riady. Directly after the breakfast meeting, Mr Riady returns to the White House.
Later that same day Mr. Hubbell and Mr. Riady have a luncheon meeting. Within days of these events Mr. Hubbell is paid $100,000 by a Lippo subsidiary. It is not clear if Mr. Hubell did any work for this payment. A man on his way to prison would certainly not warrant a legal retainer. All in all 10-14 "clients" hired Mr. Hubbell paying in excess of $650,000. All of these "clients" were either Clinton associates or major donors to the DNC. Dan Burton, who is heading the congressional investigation, has stated in public interviews that his committee's investigations show that Webster Hubbell could not have possibly done enough legal work before entering prison to justify the money that he had been paid.
Equally important were Mr. Hubbell's activities as they related to the on going investigation of the Whitewater scandals. Originally Mr. Hubbell had been cooperative with the investigation, however just prior to the above mentioned events his attitude had changed and Mr. Hubbell began withholding important personal financial documents from Whitewater investigators. Mike Mc Curry, the President's press secretary, initially insisted that no one at the White House knew in 1994 of Mr. Hubbell's arrangement with the Riadys. The facts show Mike Mc Curry to be either ill informed and a lousy press secretary or a liar, for Bruce Lindsay, one of President Clinton's closest aides, clearly knew of the arrangements made between Hubbell and the Riadys.
In a January 1997 press confrence President Clinton was asked if he found the Riady payment unusual or suspicious, and what steps had he taken to find out whether it was hush money. President Clinton responded, "I can't imagine who could have ever arranged to do something improper like that and no one around here knew about it. We did not know anything about it, and I can tell you categorically that did not happen. I know nothing about it. None of us did before it happened. I didn't personally know anything about it until I read about it in the press." In March 1997, just two months later, the White House confirmed that President Clinton knew that two longtime political supporters and Democratic fund-raisers, Truman Arnold and Bernard Rapoport, had hired Webster Hubbel in 1994, when the former associate attourney general was under criminal investigation.
It should be pointed out that the White House made their disclosure only after one the businessmen involved, Mr Rapoport, said that he had told people at the White House, including Bill Clinton about his payments to Mr. Hubbell. Clearly evidence indicates that Mr. Hubbell may have been paid for his silence. The matter is currently under investigation by Congress. It is my opinion the Webster Hubbell, being a longtime Clinton associate, has enough "dirt" on the President and First Lady to name any price he wants. Mr. President, didn't you ever hear the old saying "There is no honor among thieves"? Oh what a tangled WEBB we weave when we act to deceive.
Top 50 table of Contents
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