Copyright © 1996 The Telegraph plc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.
International News Electronic Telegraph
Wednesday June 19 1996
Issue 409

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Whitewater net closes on Hillary Clinton
By Stephen Robinson in Washington


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  • 'Curse of Oval Office' lays low good ol' boy from Arkansas

    HILLARY Clinton was portrayed yesterday as the key figure linking the main episodes in the widening Whitewater scandal.

    A scathing 800-page report found systematic abuses of power at the White House concealed by "deception and arrogance". With fresh Whitewater-related allegations and embarrassments emerging almost daily, Mr and Mrs Clinton appear besieged, despite the best efforts of Democrats to fight back. They accused the Republicans on the Senate Whitewater committee of launching a venomous attack on the First Lady, motivated by ugly, election-year politics.

    The final version of the committee's report, some of which had been leaked at the weekend, was released a couple of hours after Craig Livingstone, head of White House personnel security, was forced out of his post.

    Mr Livingstone was placed on indefinite "administrative leave", paying the price for being caught ordering up more than 400 secret FBI personnel files on members of previous Republican administrations.

    The suspicion is that he was trawling for dirt to be used against staff who had accused the Clintons of misconduct over the sacking of the entire workforce of the White House travel office in 1993. Mr Livingstone's conduct in demanding the files was certainly bizarre, and probably illegal.

    Senator Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the Whitewater committee and a leading supporter of Robert Dole, the Republican presidential contender, said the report had uncovered a "very troubling and continuing abuse of power".

    Mrs Clinton now finds herself perilously exposed as the constant presence in each of the various episodes loosely known as Whitewater

    He said: "Each time an abuse is revealed, the White House delivers excuses, memory lapses and changed stories. Time and time again the White House seems unable to give the American people the truth on the first or even the second try."

    Another Republican, Senator Robert Bennett, noted that, while the lowly civil servants easily remembered events in the White House in the past three years when giving testimony, other more senior witnesses and Clinton allies "just couldn't remember anything" when cross-examined.

    Mrs Clinton now finds herself perilously exposed as the constant presence in each of the various episodes loosely known as Whitewater. She is singled out for concealing the extent of her legal work for dubious business ventures in Arkansas in the 1980s. She is also accused of trying to hide key documents in the hours after Vincent Foster, her friend and former legal colleague, died mysteriously three years ago.

    Republicans believe her staff, at her instigation, then systematically lied to Congress to conceal the cover-up. "Most roads lead from the First Lady and back to her," said Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama. "Things come from her, and then they come back, make no mistake about it."

    The report does not offer conclusive evidence that Mrs Clinton did anything illegal but it does offer a compelling picture of a White House breaking the rules that came into force after the Watergate scandal of the Nixon presidency.

    "The venom with which the majority focuses its attack on Hillary Rodham Clinton is surprising, even in the context of the investigation," the Democrats complained

    There is strong circumstantial evidence suggesting that Mrs Clinton played a part in suppressing her own legal billing records, which the Whitewater committee had subpoenaed. Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater special prosecutor, is considering whether there is enough evidence to charge members of Mrs Clinton's staff and even the First Lady herself.

    The Whitewater committee split along strictly partisan lines, with all the Democrats signing a dissenting minority report. "The venom with which the majority focuses its attack on Hillary Rodham Clinton is surprising, even in the context of the investigation," the Democrats complained.

    The Whitewater committee is now disbanded, and any further action against the Clintons and their associates will have to be taken by Mr Starr's large and growing team of investigators.

  • President Clinton yesterday signed an order requiring mothers receiving welfare to name the father of their children in order to be eligible for benefits.

    The move is part of an effort to reduce fraud and track down "deadbeat dads" to force them to pay child support. "For too long we have let the men off the hook," Mr Clinton told nurses.



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