Hillary Clinton: Travelgate (1993)
Clinton friend Harry Thompson (and his TRM charter company) had wanted to do some charter business with the WhiteHouse Travel office, but was rebuffed (they were a relatively new company, and their only client the year before had been the Clinton Campaign).
- Hillary got involved, spread some lies about the travel office, she pressured the FBI to investigate them, and 7 people were fired (and smeared in the Press) because of it.
- The investigations into the fired staff resulted in one employee (Billy Dale) being charged with mixing personal and White House funds, and a jury acquitted him of any crime (in less than two hours). So he got audited by the IRS (completely coincidentally, I'm sure). Nothing came of that either.
- Then with the help of Bill Clinton's 25 year old cousin (Catherine Cornelius), Clinton cronies WWT (World Wide Travel) took over the business, and Harry Thompson's TRM got a $500K no-bid contract.
At least this one caused a media field day, on the abuse of FBI, investigation, firing, cronies and so on. WWT was so embarrassed they stepped down (and let American Express take over the business). And it lead to NYT writer, William Safire to describe Hillary Clinton as "a congenital liar". (When the NYT speaks truth about a Clinton, you know it's bad).
The following happened:
- The WhiteHouse investigated themselves, and admitted improper termination, improper FBI pressure, and conflict of interest with WWT/TRM; but not any criminal behavior (and named no names).
- Bob Dole (Senate) opened an independent investigation, and independent counsel Robert Ray issued his final report on Travelgate, saying that Hillary had made factually false statements, which caused the firings and investigation, there was insufficient evidence to prove whether she knew her statements were false or not (e.g. she could have been incompetent, so they couldn't prove criminal culpability).
- GAO (Congress) concluded Hillary Clinton played a large role in the firings, saying she had urged David Watkins (WhiteHouse director) "that action be taken to get 'our people' into the travel office." Hillary's written statement to the inquiry, said she did, "not recall this conversation with the same level of detail as Mr. Watkins". So again, one of Hillary's top aids accuses her of lying.
In the end it was a fiasco. And FactCheck, Politfact, and Snopes never found a reason to discuss this topic in all the times they fact checked statements around Hillary or her criminality. The cynical will assume this is because the knew it would show here as a liar, the DNC supporters will make excuse like, "it was old news", or "nobody brought it up".
Issues: 2nd Amendment - Hillarycare - It takes a Village - SecState
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