#11 - #8



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!

#11 has been updated

  • #11 of the top 50 unethical acts of the Clinton Administration:
    Although the scandal known as Whitewater took place before President Clinton took office, much of the present administration's time and energy has been devoted to trying to cover up the details of this scandal that concern Bill and Hillary Clinton. Before we get too involved in the crimes of obstruction of justice, it would be helpful to review the facts relating to the original crimes known collectively as Whitewater.

    When the media reported the facts relating to Whitewater, they left out a few details. So in a spirit of public education, I'm going to let you in on the secrets of how they pulled off this land development scam. Whitewater began when Jim Mac Dougal and Bill Clinton decided to buy some land not coincidentally know as Whitewater. They didn't have any money, but being the creative unscrupulous individuals that they are, they developed a scam to fund their purchase.

    First they found an appraiser who would give them an overvalued appraisal. Then they went looking for some dirt cheap real estate out in the boonies. What they found was 230 acres along the White River for $90,000. They got their crooked appraiser to give them a phoney appraisal for $150,000 and Jim Mac Dougal's bank gave out an 80% loan for $120,000 leaving them with $30,000 cash and they hadn't even turned a shovel.

    Next Governor Clinton had the state put in a two-mile access road and they laid out a subdivision plat, put out about $5,000 for some bulldozer work and went back to their appraiser friend. Bingo the property is now worth $400,000. Back to the bank they went for another 80% loan. Next they drew up some plans for houses (that they never built) and got their friendly appraiser to give inflated appraisals on them. Then back to the bank for another 80% loan. Next they found some "friends" to purchase some of the home sites. Jim Mac Dougal's bank arranged for the loans to buy the properties and Hillary Clinton drew up the loan documents that allowed these friends to purchase the properties with unsecured loans (if they didn't pay back the loan the bank wouldn't be able to foreclose).

    Jim Mac Dougal was able to copy and alter one word in these documents making them seem legitimate so that bank examiners would think that everything was on the up and up. Their "friends" proceeded to kick back major portions of the loans that didn't have to be paid back to Bill and Jim. Having milked the over appraisal scam for all they could get, Bill and Jim turned to "land flips" to generate more cash. These require a friend or two with a substantial financial statement.

    First you set up several phony companies among these friends. Next you sell the land to one of the companies for a handsome profit, say double the value of your overinflated loan or $800,000. This company now sells the land to a second company for a nifty profit (this represents their payoff for participating) of which a certain percentage is donated to Governor Bill's re- election.

    Now Bill and Jim decide to purchase their property from the second company who also turns a nifty profit, of which a certain percentage is donated to Governor Bill's re-election. The selling price is 1.25 million, AND STILL NO WORK HAS BEEN DONE! Finally your development company can go no farther so you declare bankruptcy and the banks have to "eat" your loans. But here you catch a break because the attorney representing the bank just happens to be Hillary, Bill's wife. Luck continues to come your way as the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) hires Hillary to recover as much in the way of assets as possible to make up for the $60,000,000 in losses that your bank has incurred. Hillary knows that most of these loans are worthless to the bank or the RTC because she wrote them without collateral so she negotiates the $60 million down to $1 million. $600,000 of this is owed to the bank by Seth Ward, father-in- law of Hillary's partner Webster Hubbell. She then gets the RTC to forgive Mr. Ward's debt leaving the RTC with $400,000 which just coincidentally happens to be the amount of the bill for her services.

    As a point of interest I would include here that the person who was able to get Hillary the job representing the RTC was none other than Vince Foster, who is not available for comment. When questioned about his involvement in this real estate scheme, Bill Clinton, who was then running for president, was quoted as saying that he lost money on this transaction. But for someone who is so careful to get every tax deduction possible that they declare their underwear at $2 each as deductions on their tax statement, they must have had complete amnesia about the $68,000 that they supposedly lost, for no mention of it has ever appeared in a tax return submitted by Bill & Hillary.

    Unfortunately documentation to the crimes listed above has for the most part been destroyed by the parties involved. The most glaring example of this occurred on 2/3/94 when the Rose Law firm shredded 12 cartons full of Whitewater documents. It may have been a coincidence, but this occurred just one day after the first independent counsel, Robert Fiske, was named to investigate the crimes committed in the Whitewater scandals.

    After the original scam (Whitewater), Bill removed his name from any of the subsequent deals. But as the banks were fleeced by real estate scam after real estate scam, you can be sure that Bill received a payoff for each event. Many of these went to Governor Bill Clinton's re-election efforts. It is no small coincidence that the financial records for the campaigns run during this time have also been destroyed.

    As a side note two of the men who ran the financial side of things for Bill Clinton during this time, Victor Raiser and Herschel Friday, died in separate plane crashes. These men could have provided much information as to the source of the money Bill Clinton used for his re- election, but like Vince Foster they are no longer available for comment.

      The fact remains that Bill Clinton entered public office with nothing but debts, and never made more than $35,000 a year as governor. Yet at the time of his election to the presidency Bill was worth about four to five million dollars.
    A real rags-to-riches, American success story, isn't it? It kind of puts a lump in your throat.

    The American Spectator (TAS) has totaled the potential penalties for Bill and Hillary's alleged crimes. The totals come out for Bill as $2.5 million in fines and 178 years in prison. Hillary's totals are much lower, only $1.2 million in fines and 47 years in prison. So don't ever let anybody tell you that this isn't serious stuff, and there definitely is motivation for the President and First Lady to avoid not only going to trial, but being convicted.

    Now to the obstruction of justice. As you can readily see, the Clintons were up against a wall. If convicted, they would spend the rest of their lives in prison. So covering up remaining evidence, and silencing potential witnesses by discrediting them or through bribery (see Webster Hubbell), intimidation, or harassment, would not make their punishment any worse if they were caught. They literally had nothing else left to lose. As president Bill Clinton's first act was to fire the U.S. Attorneys and appoint his own stooges (see unethical act #50).

    Among these was the U.S. Attorney responsible for monitoring the early investigations by the RTC into Whiterwater, Paula Casey. Not only did Ms. Casey subvert investigations, and decline to prosecute without reviewing the case, but she has been a great help in keeping the president one step ahead of the pursuing investigators. During this time the White House staff was in contact with the Treasury Department regarding these confidential RTC criminal referrals. This is highly inappropriate to say the least.

      After the administration had gained control of the Treasury department, Justice Department, RTC, and the SBA,
    these agencies engaged in a pattern of highly improper conduct in responding to investigations of the Clintons. The effect of these information leaks and improper conduct was to give the administration time to fabricate a plausible defense, get together with other parties involved to get the stories straight and begin to discredit the sources of these criminal referrals before each allegation eventually reached the press.

    One example of this kind of activity is shown in a January 7,1994 meeting of the White House Whitewater Response Team. They were very concerned about the upcoming testimony of Beverly Bassett Schaffer, the former Arkansas Securities Commissioner who oversaw the regulation of Madison Guaranty S & L. An RTC criminal referral expressly referenced Ms. Schaffer, and her contact with Hillary Clinton in connection with Hillary's representation of Madison Guaranty S & L. At the meeting Harold Ickes exclaimed, "Beverly Bassett Schaffer is so f--- important. If we f--- this up, we're done." Just after this meeting John Tisdale and Skip Rutherford were dispatched to "speak" with Ms. Schaffer.

    When Ms. Schaffer eventually testified before Congress, she suffered from the memory lapses that seem to infect those involved in this scandal. In another incident in early February 1994, the RTC retained a law firm that included former Republican U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens, to investigate possible civil actions against parties associated with Madison Guaranty S & L. Soon after this was announced George Stephanopoulos, Senior Advisor to the President, and Josh Steiner, Chief of staff to Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen, discussed the RTC's decision to hire Jay Stephens.

    Mr. Steiner wrote in his diary about this conversation: "Simply outrageous that RTC had hired Stephens, but even more amazing when George then suggested to me that we needed to find a way to get rid of him. Persuaded George that firing him would be incredibly stupid and improper." Yet in the weeks after this meeting Mr. Stephens' role in the civil investigation of Madison Guaranty came to a halt. In hearings before the Senate Banking Committee,

      Mr. Steiner claimed that he lied to his diary
    .

    Or take for instance the case of Jean Lewis an investigator working for the RTC on the Madison Guaranty S & L case.

      Ms. Lewis filed 10 criminal referrals related to Madison, one in 1992 and nine in 1993.
    Soon after the nine referrals were submitted, the Professional Liability Section (PLS) of the RTC asked for time to preform a legal review of the documents. During the delay the White House learned of the referrals and the information contained within them. Ms. Lewis was subsequently removed as the lead investigator on the Madison Guaranty case. Ms. Lewis testified that she
      "believed there was a concerted effort to obstruct, hamper and manipulate the results of our investigation of Madison."

    One such occurrence was captured on tape. April Breslaw, an attorney with the FDIC, called Ms. Lewis and in a tape-recorded conversation stated that "The head people at the RTC would like to be able to say Whitewater did not cause a loss to Madison. Apparently realizing the crime that she had committed

      Ms. Breslaw refused to admit that the voice on the tape was indeed her own
    . It is unknown if voice analysis has been done on the tape. It is also unknown who the "head people at the RTC" were that wanted to manipulate the findings of Ms. Lewis.

    In 1992, just after the election, Webster Hubbell secretly and illegally removed the firm's client files for Madison S&L (Jim Mac Dougal's bank) from the Rose Law firm without receiving permission from the RTC, which as conservator of Madison S&L owned these files. At the time of this writing, it is assumed that Webster Hubbell still has much of this evidence somewhere.

    This would explain the Administration's efforts on his behalf, prior to his prison sentence (see unethical act #20). Another probable destruction of evidence came when Vince Foster (see unethical act #8) allegedly committed suicide. Upon notification of his death Hillary Clinton made several calls to White House staffers from Arkansas.

      Immediately after these calls were placed, the White House staffers, Maggie Williams and Bernard Nussbaum, visited Mr. Foster's office and began removing files.

    Two hours later, after the office had been "cleaned out," FBI and Park Police officials were allowed to enter the office. We will never know what was removed as we only have the Clinton's word as to what exactly happened and we all know how much trust to put in words from the Clintons. You sure can't take it to the bank if your bank is the Madison Guaranty S & L.

  • #10 of the top 50 unethical acts of the Clinton Administration:
    As you probably already know, Bill Clinton is being sued by Paula Jones for sexual harassment. This involves an incident that occurred while Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas. In preparing for the trial, the president has developed an illegal strategy. You are probably stunned to learn this, but he has instigated a legal defense fund to help defray his legal expenses. This fund is set up so that contributors can deduct their contributions on their tax returns. This type of tax deductible contribution is only available to qualified non-profit organizations, which the president is not.

    Not only that, but the contributions he receives must be counted as income on his personal tax returns, which he hasn't.. Add to this the fact that he has also used his office to pressure an insurance company into helping to defray his legal cost with a phoney litigation insurance policy. This policy was written after he had been served notice with the pending suit against him. So far Attorney General Janet Reno has failed to act on any of these matters, which is a surprise to us all. That Reno name just keeps popping up over and over again doesn't it.

  • #9 of the top 50 unethical acts of the Clinton administration:
    18 U.S.C. 201, the federal bribery statute, states, in relevant part: Whoever, being a public official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, or agrees to accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for ... being influenced in the performance of any official act ... shall be fined not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, or imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

    Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation has called this law to the attention of Attorney General Janet Reno, with regards to former Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary and the $25,000 donation to AFRICARE that she demanded Johnny Chung make, before she would agree to see him. This incident was revealed in an interview of Mr. Chung by Tom Brokaw of NBC News on 8-19-1997. In a letter sent to Miss. Reno (dated 8-20-97), Mr. Levin pointed out the need for an Independent Counsel in this matter; ..."Mrs. O'Leary, who left office on January 20, 1997, is stilled covered by the independent Counsel Act.

    The Act requires the attorney general to undertake a preliminary investigation to determine if an independent counsel should be appointed whenever the attorney general receives information sufficient to constitute grounds to investigate whether any person [covered by the statute] may have violated certain federal laws, such as the bribery statute. ...the information must be specific and from a credible source. Mr. Chung's information is very specific. Morever, he's a credible source in that he was alleged participant in the activity." Clearly Mrs. O'Leary has been implicated in the violation of a federal law that requires the appointment of an independent counsel by the Attorney General Reno. I don't know about you, but I am not holding my breath.

  • #8 of the top 50 unethical acts of the Clinton Administration:
    Vincent Foster, who was Clinton's counsel for Whitewater, was the highest government official to meet an untimely death since the Kennedys. He could have killed himself on July 20, 1993, as Robert Fiske, Clinton's first"independent" counsel claimed and Kenneth Starr the second independentcounsel also decided, but there remains several unanswered questions regarding the facts that are known in the case. I have included a partial list for your consideration - 1. Paramedics who were on the scene have testified that there was very little blood at the scene. This is inconsistent with a head wound to living person. 2.Vince went out and hired two lawyers on July 19. As Clinton's man in charge of covering up Whitewater, he had failed badly and could seeeverything was about to unravel (which it began to do in Arkansas the very next day). Question: Why pay for a lawyer to launch a defense and then shoot yourself a day later? 3.After a somewhat hurried lunch in his office July 20, Vince grabbed his jacket and left the White House with the words, "I'll be 20 back." And then we are supposed to believe, apparently, that he picked up a White House beeper, drove to his Georgetown townhouse, got a gun that no one in his family recognizes, that had only two bullets in it and no matching ammunition in his townhouse, office or Arkansas home. Drove to a lonely park in Arlington, walked 200 yards on a dirt trail without getting even a trace of dust or dirt on his shoes, to a steep slope, went down into some thick bushes, satdown, shot himself and "then" threw his glasses 19 feet away through heavy brush, and wound up lying down supine and perfectly straight, legs together, with arms straight down at his side, the gun "still" in his hand, with no fingerprints on it, and trickles of blood running from his mouth in four different directions, including uphill. What's wrong with this picture? 4. Where's the bullet? None was ever found even after a massive search and excavation. Furthermore none of the residents in the area of the park recall hearing a gunshot. Despite firing the gun in his mouth, there was no "blow back" or visible blood splatter on the gun. There were no powder burns inside the mouth. 5. Where are the skull fragments? None were ever found. Normally, a .38 will blow out a 4" to 5" hole, with blood and brains everywhere. Because of the mess and the noise, most sophisticated hit men today repack their cartridges with a half charge. This would account for the tiny, one-inch hole in the back of Vince's head. 6. Who is the mystery blonde whose hairs were found on Vince? And why did Fiske not mention that carpet fibers and semen were found on his [Foster's] shorts? In this age of detective movies, how could anyone think such clues unworthy of mention in a serious report? These carpet fibers were found on all of Vince Foster’s clothing. No effort has ever been taken to find the source of those fibers. 7. Some witnesses also saw "a menacing-looking Hispanic man" by a white van with its big door open near Vince's car just before the body was found. 8. Instead of allowing Vince's office to be sealed after his death, top Clinton staffers Bernie Nussbaum, Patsy Thomasson, and Maggie Williams frantically rifled it for "national security matters" (read: incriminating Whitewater documents) and carted them off to Hillary's closet upstairs. In a stunning show of chutzpah, they even made the park police and FBI agents sit in the hallway for two hours while they did it. And Nussbaum later claimed it was only ten minutes! 9. Why did the White House demand crucial crime scene evidence that had been collected by the Park Police, such as his beeper, within hours after his death? 10 Where is the suicide note? A note that had been torn into 27 pieces was "discovered" in a briefcase that had previously been searched and found to be empty. Curiously this note was written and torn in 27 pieces without leaving a finger print. This is a pretty good trick unless you write your mid-summer notes with gloves on. But this note says nothing about suicide, and the final section, where a signature would be placed, is missing. Additionally, after an independent analysis of the note by very well known handwriting experts, it was declared a forgery. This is a very important fact, because if the note is a forgery clearly something is being covered up. So what is so unethical about Vince Foster's death. Well for one, Vince Foster was President Clinton's point man in the Whitewater coverup (see #11). As such he had in his possession many documents that could have brought a quick end to the Clinton Administration. Immediately after his death, Hillary Clinton made several calls from Arkansas to key White House aides who then proceeded to bar the Park Police and FBI access to the Foster office for over two hours. Secret Service personnel have testified before Congress that they witnessed among others Maggie Williams carrying documents out of the office and into the private quarters of The White House. There has been speculation that included in these documents were the missing billing records for Hillary during the time she was with the Rose Law firm. Vince Foster was the one who had taken these billing records out of the Rose Law firm in the first place. A second unusual aspect to this incident was the use of the Park Police to investigate the death of the highest ranking United States official to die under suspicious circumstances. One would think with the FBI at the disposal of the President that they would have been used instead of a detective who had never investigated amurder/suicide case before. A third suspicious action was the initial denial of the late night phone activity that was later very evident when phone logs were inspected. All we are left with are questions concerning the life and death of Vince Foster. Those who say he was murdered contend that he knew too much and he had to go because he was about to crack -- and that would have ended the Clinton presidency right then and there. For those that contend it was a suicide there are only more questions. Could it be that he was being set up to take the fall for the Clinton’s? He had already been dumped on for the Travelgate firings (see #49). Was he caught between a moral rock and a hard place, not wanting to betray friends while at the same time being faced with committing criminal acts to protect them? Surely he didn't kill himself because he and Hillary were having an affair. Why did he take three over night trips to Switzerland? Why didnt his wife know about the trips? Reporter Christopher Ruddy has spent years investigating this death and written a book "The Strange Death of Vince Foster, An Investigation" If you wish to learn more on this subject, I suggest you buy this book. Until then, Vince Foster remains yet another dead friend of Bill.
  • Top 50 table of Contents

    
                        
    
            #50 - 32 | #31 - #23 | #22 - #20 | #19 | #18 - #16 | #15 - #12 | #11 - #8 | #7 - #6 | #5
    

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