By Harold Pease, Ph. D
In the vetting procedure of finding a president of the United States both major political parties normally stoop to new lows to find a scoop that paralyzes their opponent. Donald Trump is said to have over 24 agents assigned to him to do just this. Presumably every wrong, or even the appearance of wrong, is usable fodder to destroy. No one normally escapes this scrutiny but one, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Yes, recent scandals, as for example, Benghazi, the violation of the Federal Records Act with respect to preserving national security secrets, the Clinton Foundation Scandal, still under FBI investigation, and the DNC email scandal to derail Bernie Sanders, are well known. Most major presses have faulted her on honesty some few even using the phase “compulsive liar” to describe past behavior but few give new voters any detail on old unresolved scandals as we do in this column.
Basically, the Clinton strategy has been to outlast the scandal until the public grows tired of it and devoted follower’s demand that we move on. With an adoring press, as the Clinton’s have had for forty years, this is possible and party faithful conclude that nothing must have been there in the first place. It is nothing like Richard Nixon’s Watergate where the press was relentless until the corruption exposed was driven from the White House. Some of the 22 scandals attributed to Hillary by WND TV are equal to, or worse than, Watergate. Still, as with Whitewater, everyone else involved traditionally goes to prison and the Clinton’s move upward in power.
We now identify four more of the major Hillary Clinton scandals for those not old enough to have experienced them personally. This could explain why the older generation is not so willing to have this couple back in the White House.
Cattle Futures and Hillary’s 9,987 percent profit.
In Hillary’s first commodity trade, in 1978, a $1,000 investment in 10 cattle futures, which normally cost $12,000, netted her in 10 months $100,000; some $6,300 the first day. She attributed this “profit miracle” to her having read the Wall Street Journal but it was instead through the help of James B. Blair, counsel to Tyson Foods Inc., and Robert L. Bone of AK Financial Services, who allowed the unusual, and apparently, unlawful trades. Bone was suspended for three years and fined the “largest fine at the time in exchanges history,” but Hillary walked. Insider trading most certainly was involved. Martha Stewart, convicted of something similar years later, served time.
Travelgate: A lucrative job for my friends.
Soon after moving into the White House what became known as Travelgate emerged. Hillary, seeking a financially lucrative place for her friends Harry and Susan Thomases, had Billy Dale, head of the White House Travel Office, fired on trumpt-up income tax fraud charges. This not enough, she had six others (the whole department, all career employees not subject to replacement without cause) fired as well replacing them with her Arkansas political cronies. Hillary used the FBI and IRS and the Attorney Generals Office under Janet Reno to harass Billy Dale for several years. Dale was subsequently found innocent of all charges. Hillary was found to have made false statements to investigators (perjury) but still walked free. Her real crime was in trying to send an innocent man to prison.
Filegate: Collecting 900 files on potential political adversaries.
In 1993 and 1994 Craig Livingstone, Director of White House Personnel Security gathered, presumably at the request of his Arkansas friend Hillary Clinton, FBI background files on some 900 potential political enemies most Republican. Hillary is alleged to have viewed some of the files but there is no evidence that these were used on anyone. That they were gathered with the intent to use is serious enough. Hillary called this a, “completely honest bureaucratic snafu,” when this was brought to light by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. The Committee also showed that President Clinton “had illegally released Privacy Act protected information from White House files to smear Kathleen Willey, a woman who was a material witness in the impeachment proceedings, as she was also sexually harassed … while working for him in the White House” (Larry Klayman, Proof Hillary isn’t fit to be president, Renew American, Jan. 26, 2013)
The Lincoln Bedroom: What is a sleepover worth to you?
The Clinton’s learned that they could rent the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House for hefty campaign contributions and acquired $5.4 million in 1995 and 1996 alone doing just this. The average contribution for the 800-900 persons who eventually did this was $100,000 each. The biggest donors included Dirk Ziff at $411,000, Steven Spielberg at $336,000, William Rollnick at $235,000 and Lew Wasserman at $225,000 (Lincoln Bedroom Guests Gave $5.4 Million, Allpolitics , CNN Time, Feb. 26, 1997). Although the funds went to Bill in particular, there is no way that Hillary was not highly involved in this activity. That the use of government property or assets for political purposes was illegal was circumvented because no specific amounts were discussed and no money exchanged at the site.
Someone once said the past is the best predictor of the future.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.