Harold Pease, Ph. D

The last few months have been full of Hillary intrigue; most recently her use of her own home server to house some of our most sensitive national security secrets as Secretary of State in opposition to the Federal Records Act. Now the Clintons’ report it to have been wiped clean (perhaps yet another scandal) presumably so as to destroy any hope of proving or disproving that her server housed classified documents.

This disclosure effects other longer-term investigations as for example, the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi headed by Rep. Trey Gowdy, investigating who was responsible for the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans by terrorists on the night of September 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya. Who failed to provide embassy protection when need for it had been expressed by Stevens a month before his death? As this would fall under the purview of the State Department over whom Secretary Clinton had charge, her emails are critical—but not one exists. The committees investigating have sought this information for over two years. Chairman Gowdy argues: “It strains credibility to believe that if you’re on your way to Libya to discuss Libyan policy, that there’s not a single document that’s been turned over to Congress. So there are huge gaps.”

It was Hillary who, allegedly knowing otherwise, insisted that the attack was merely a reaction to an American video negative to Islam. We now know that it was a Hillary aide, Victoria Nuland, who ordered the removal of all mentions of terrorism with respect to the attack. What makes this a scandal is the disinformation emanating from the White House and the almost total stonewalling of information sought by Congress of which an intentionally wiped-clean home server amplifies. This could be a larger scandal than Nixon’s Watergate because four Americans lost their lives because of the apparent incompetence of the then Secretary of State.

A wiped-clean server may also make it more difficult to attach her to the Clinton Foundation contributions that she was soliciting from foreign governments, some of whom, like Communist China (from which it took $2 million in 2013), have despicable human rights records, and like Saudi Arabia, which has atrocious women’s rights abuses. The latter could damage her bid for the White House with her expected campaign charge that Republicans are anti-women. Certainly Foundation money is expected to assist many causes but few doubt that a large portion will go to the Hillary presidential campaign. Many Americans may not feel good about their president being elected with foreign contributions, although both Bill Clinton elections were allegedly aided with contributions from China, referred to later as Chinagate. Contributor Johnny Chung gave $50,000 to Hillary Clinton’s top aide while seeking VIP White House treatment saying: “I see the White House as like a subway—you have to put in coins to open the gates.” (Sam Smith, The Progressive Review, February 24, 1999) Many might see such governments as buying, and banking, influence when Hillary became president.

So, three potential Hillary centered scandals are in the news at the moment. But this is not new, since Whitewater she has been involved with, and escaped from (because of legions of defenders) several others. Almost simultaneous to Whitewater, and as First Lady of Arkansas while Bill was governor, she managed to turn a $1,000 investment in cattle futures into a profit of nearly $100,000 in less than nine months. The Journal of Economics and Finance estimated that the probability of doing so without inside information, which is illegal, was 1 to 31 trillion (Anderson, Seth C, 18 (3): 357-365). She claimed that she had learned how to trade by reading the Wall Street Journal. No economist argued that this was possible. The event was termed Cattle-Futures Gate by opponents.

In some ways the so-called Filegate scandal was the most frightening. FBI files of up to 900 former Reagan and Bush appointees were sent over to White House security chief Craig Livingstone who inferred when pressed, that the directive to do so originated from the First Lady. Moreover, reportedly Deputy White House counsel William Kennedy would frequently call up the FBI and have someone’s files sent over on his request. The intent appeared to be to blackmail perspective political opponents but once known opposition to its use came quickly.

The term Chinagate originated from Clinton’s acceptance of foreign contributions to their elections more specifically those from Communist China, our ideological enemy. The Senate Judiciary Committee, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and the Whitewater Independent Counsel each investigated. The DOJ reported, “A pattern of events suggests a level of knowledge within the White House—including the President’s and First Lady’s offices—concerning the injection of foreign funds into the reelection effort.” In 1996 The Justice Department also investigated campaign fundraising abuses and cover-ups regarding the efforts by China to influence U.S. policies.

From Whitewater, to Cattle-Futures Gate, to Chinagate, to Filegate, to the potential Benghazi cover-up, to Clinton Foundation contributions from wayward countries to influence Hillary as Secretary of State and perhaps later as president, to the security breach of using her home server, to wiping it clean to remove evidence, the trail of corruption and deceit is stark. Unfortunately we have only identified the big ones.