By Harold Pease, Ph. D
No woman in America’s political history has had more scandals attributed to her than Hillary Rodham Clinton. WND TV lists the number at 22 and that was in May 2015. They follow her like flees on a dog, often two or three simultaneously.
Right now Hillary Clinton is dodging four: the death of four democratic colleagues in Benghazi over whom she had protective responsibilities as Secretary of State, her use of a private home server as Secretary of State passing classified intelligence messages abroad in violation of the Federal Records Act, the Clinton Foundation Scandal raising money by offering State Department favors to nations providing high dollar contributions to it, and the most recent, the Democratic National Convention emails (presumably authorized by Hillary) designed to derail Bernie Sanders in his race for the presidency. But these are only a few of many.
What is most amazing with respect to these scandals, she always gets a pass even when the evidence seems bullet proof, as for example, in Whitewater in the nineties and the FBI’s summary of her guilt on the Email Scandal more recently. Instead of jail time, as would be the case for you or I doing the same thing, she is elevated to even higher positions of power. Today her party and the establishment media are working vigorously to make her the nation’s first female president.
Returning to the Bill and Hillary Clinton Administration of the nineties may give us our best measure for their return to power. After Bill’s election he announced that America had gotten two for the price of one, indicating that Hillary would be a key advisor. Hillary has already announced that Bill will serve as her economic advisor should they return to the White House.
Absent from the political dialogue in this presidential election are the scandals so present the last time this couple served. Space only allows detail for Whitewater. Although the intrigue was of a different issue, time and place it had all the drama of today’s Benghazi or the Email Scandal. There is death and everyone associated goes to jail except the Clinton’s.
Here the Clinton’s (Bill and Hillary), while governor and first lady of Arkansas and the McDougals (Jim and Susan), formed the Whitewater Development Corporation. The four purchased 230 acres of undeveloped land on the White River intending to create vacation home lots for retirees. It is alleged that Bill Clinton used his influence as governor to pressure David Hale to lend $300,000 to Susan McDougal in the land deal. At the time Jim McDougal was Governor Clinton’s economic adviser and later created his own bank, the Madison Guaranty to fund the project, hiring attorney Hillary Clinton of the Rose Law Firm to make everything legal.
The four equal partners were intricately connected. The scheme collapsed in 1989. Ultimately fifteen associated with this fraudulent land deal, which ended costing many retirees their life savings, and the taxpayer some $73 million, went to jail—everyone except the Clinton’s. Even Jim Guy Tucker, the governor succeeding Bill, served time, so extensive did Whitewater become.
By the time everything came to a head the Clinton’s were in the White House and had legions of defenders and records were strangely hidden or misplaced. Independent Counsel Robert Fiske ordered the Clinton’s to surrender documents relating to the corrupt Madison Guaranty. The Clinton’s reported them as missing. But two years later they mysteriously reappeared, found on the desk of Hillary’s personal secretary. By this time much of the heat was off and the story largely undermined by a sympathetic Clinton press. Besides, the special prosecutor for Whitewater, Robert Fiske, was chosen by President Clinton to be his new Attorney General.
Kenneth Starr continued the Whitewater investigation but leading witnesses Susan McDougal, Jim Guy Tucker, and Clinton’s former Attorney General Webster Hubbell, a Rose Law Firm friend of Hillary Clinton, refused to cooperate as key witnesses against the Clintons with the latter pleading the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. President Bill Clinton later pardoned Susan McDougal and Jim Guy Tucker. The story fades away replaced largely by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
The mysterious death of the Clinton Deputy White House counsel, Vince Foster, added much intrigue to the story. He had been the special friend of Hillary and a Rose Law Firm associate, and was charged with defending the Clintons on Whitewater charges. He was murdered or committed suicide, at Fort Marcy Park, Virginia. White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum removed Foster’s files on Whitewater from Foster’s desk so they could not to be discovered by park police.
But Whitewater is only one of a good number of scandals in which Hillary is a leading participant. Perhaps another column will be necessary outlining her involvement in: File Gate, Cattle Futures Gate, Travel Gate, and half dozen more. She, and her devoted followers, would say that it is just the “vast right conspiracy,” but there are far too many of these to feel comfortable with this explanation.
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.