White House travel office controversy
Encyclopedia
The White House travel office controversy, sometimes referred to as Travelgate, was the first major ethics controversy of the Clinton administration. It began in May 1993, when seven employees of the White House Travel Office were fired. This action was unusual because although its employees served at the pleasure of the President and could be dismissed without cause, in practice, such employees had remained in their posts for many years. The White House claimed the firings were done because financial improprieties in the Travel Office operation had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended the firings were done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and that the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted. Heavy media attention forced the White House to reinstate most of the employees in other jobs and remove the Clinton associates from the travel role.
Further investigations of the firings by the FBI and the Department of Justice
, the White House itself, the General Accounting Office, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and the Whitewater
Independent Counsel all took place over the subsequent years. Travel Office Director Billy Dale was charged with embezzlement
but found not guilty at trial in 1995. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
gradually came under scrutiny for allegedly having played a central role in the firings and making false statements about her role in it. In 1998 Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
exonerated President Bill Clinton
of any involvement in the matter. In 2000 Independent Counsel Robert Ray
issued his final report on Travelgate, stating that Hillary Clinton had made factually false statements but there was insufficient evidence her statements were either knowingly false or that she understood that her statements led to the firings.
The White House Travel Office, known officially as either the White House Travel and Telegraph Office or the White House Telegraph and Travel Office, dates back to the Andrew Jackson
administration and serves to handle travel arrangements for the White House press corps
, with costs billed to the participating news organizations. By the time of the start of the Clinton administration, it was quartered in the Old Executive Office Building
, and had seven employees with a yearly budget of $7 million. Staffers serve at the pleasure of the president; however, in practice, the staffers were career employees who in some cases had worked in the Travel Office since the 1960s and 1970s, through both Democratic
and Republican
administrations.
Travel Office Director Billy Ray Dale had held that position since 1982, serving through most of the Reagan
and George H. W. Bush administrations, and had started in the Travel Office in 1961. To handle the frequent last-minute arrangements of presidential travel and the specialized requirements of the press, Dale did not conduct competitive bidding for travel services, but relied upon a charter company called Airline of the Americas.
Mack McLarty
and the White House counsel
s thus decided to fire the Travel Office staff and reorganize it. The actual terminations were done on May 19, 1993, by White House director of administration David Watkins. There was also a feeling among the White House and its supporters that the Travel Office had never been investigated by the media due to its close relationship with press corps members and the plush accommodations it afforded them and favors it did for them. (Congress would later discover that in October 1988, a whistleblower
within the Travel Office had alleged financial improprieties; the Reagan White House counsel looked into the claim but took no action.)
Republicans and other critics saw the events differently. They alleged that friends of President Bill Clinton
, including his third cousin Catherine Cornelius, had sought the firings in order to get the business for themselves. Dale and his staff had been replaced with Little Rock, Arkansas
-based World Wide Travel, a company with a substantial reputation in the industry but with several ties to the Clintons. In addition, Hollywood producer and Inauguration chairman Harry Thomason
, a friend of both Clintons, and his business partner, Darnell Martens, were looking to get their air charter company, TRM, the White House business in place of Airline of the Americas. The Clinton campaign had been TRM's sole client during 1992, collecting commissions from booking charter flights for the campaign. Martens wanted the White House to award TRM a $500,000 contract for an aircraft audit, while also seeking Travel Office charter business as an intermediary which did not own any planes.
Attention initially focused on the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), since on May 12, 1993, a week before the firings, associate White House counsel William Kennedy had requested that the FBI look into possible improprieties in the Travel Office operation. FBI agents went there and, although initially reluctant, authorized a preliminary investigation. Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster
became worried about the firings about to take place and ordered the KPMG Peat Marwick review. The review started on May 14 and the report was given to the White House on May 17. KPMG was unable to do an actual audit, because there were so few records in the Travel Office that could be audited and because the office did not use the double-entry bookkeeping system
that audits are based upon. One KPMG representative later described the office as "an ungodly mess in terms of records" with ten years of material piled up in a closet. When the review came back with its reports of irregularities, Watkins went ahead with the terminations on May 19.
Travel Services. (Later, after a competitive bid, American Express received the permanent role to book press charters.)
Various investigations took place. The role of the White House staff in pressuring the FBI to launch an investigation had been heavily criticized; on May 28, 1993, the FBI issued a report saying it had done nothing wrong in its contacts with the White House. (This conclusion was reiterated by a March 1994 report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility
.)
On July 3, 1993, the White House issued its own "strikingly self-critical" 80-page report on the firings. Co-written by Chief of Staff McLarty, it criticized five White House officials, included McLarty himself, Watkins, Kennedy, Cornelius, and another, for dismissing the Travel Office members improperly, for appearing to pressure the FBI into its involvement, and for allowing friends of the Clintons to become involved in a matter they had a business stake in. It said that the employees should instead have been placed on administrative leave. However, the White House said no illegal actions had occurred, and no officials would be terminated; this did not satisfy Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole
, who called for an independent investigation. As Chief of Staff McLarty personally apologized to the fired Travel Office employees — some of whom had all their personal documents and travel photographs related to years of service thrown out during the firing process — and said they would be given other jobs (which five of them were; Dale and his assistant director retired.) The White House report also contained the initial indications of First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton
's involvement in the firings, saying that she had taken an interest in Travel Office mismanagement and had been informed two days in advance that the firings would take place. There was no indication of involvement from President Clinton himself, although he had earlier taken broad public responsibility for what had happened.
The travel office controversy was later judged to have been a factor in Vince Foster's depression
and July 20, 1993, suicide
. In his torn-up resignation note from a few days before, he wrote "No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the Travel Office. There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group. [...] The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the travel staff". (In the last part, Foster may have been referring to lax customs treatment by the Travel Office of goods brought back from foreign trips by reporters.) Special prosecutor Robert B. Fiske
tangentially investigated travel office events during the first half of 1994, as part of investigating the circumstances surrounding Foster's death.
In July 1993, Congress had requested the non-partisan General Accounting Office investigate the firings; on May 2, 1994, the GAO concluded that the White House did have legal authority to terminate the Travel Office employees without cause, because they served at the pleasure of the president. However, it also concluded that Cornelius, Thomason, and Martens, who all had potential business interests involved, had possibly influenced the decision. Moreover, the GAO report indicated that First Lady Hillary Clinton played a larger role than previously thought before the firings, with Watkins saying she had urged "that action be taken to get 'our people' into the travel office." The First Lady, who had given a written statement to the inquiry, said she did "not recall this conversation with the same level of detail as Mr. Watkins."
In August 1994, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
took over from Fiske in investigating Whitewater
, Foster, and indirectly the travel office matter. On July 22, 1995, Hillary Clinton gave a deposition under oath to the Independent Counsel that touched on travel office questions; she denied having had a role in the firings, but was unable to recall many specifics of conversations with Foster and Watkins.
In late 1994, following the 1994 Congressional elections
which switched Congress from Democratic to Republican control, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Pennsylvania
Republican William Clinger
, launched an investigation into the White House Travel Office firings. In October 1995, the committee began hearings on the matter; Clinger soon accused the White House of withholding pertinent documents and sought subpoenas to compel witnesses to appear.
Not all investigations were by governmental bodies. Anti-Clinton magazine The American Spectator
latched onto Travelgate, as it would other Clinton scandals real and imagined, describing it as "a story about influence-peddling and sleazy deal-making... in the Clinton White House"; publisher R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. would claim that the magazine's early Travelgate stories provided useful material to the congressional investigations. In general, Clinton administration controversies such as Travelgate allowed opinion magazines and political debate television shows to attract subscribers and viewers.
on December 7, 1994, on two counts of embezzlement
and criminal conversion
, charged with wrongfully depositing into his own bank account $68,000 in checks from media organizations traveling with the president during the period between 1988 and 1991. He faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Dale's attorneys conceded that funds had been co-mingled, but stated that Dale had not stolen anything but rather used the monies for the substantial tips and off-the-book payments that the job required, especially in foreign countries, and that anything left over was used as a discount against future trips.
At the 13-day trial in October and November 1995, prominent journalists such as ABC News
' Sam Donaldson
and The Los Angeles Times Jack Nelson testified as character witnesses on Dale's behalf. Much of the trial focused on the details of the movement of Travel Office funds into Dale's personal account, and not on the political overtones of the case. The jury deliberated less than two hours before acquitting Dale of both charges on November 16, 1995.
was taking place and vowed to pursue new material.
These developments, following Hillary Clinton's prior disputed statements about her cattle futures dealings
and Whitewater
, led to a famous exchange in which high-profile New York Times columnist William Safire
, who had endorsed Bill Clinton in the previous election, wrote that many Americans were coming to the "sad realization that our First Lady—a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation—is a congenital liar," followed by White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry saying that "the President, if he were not the President, would have delivered a more forceful response to that—on the bridge of Mr. Safire's nose."
As a result of the discovery of the Watkins memo, and based upon a suggestion from the Office of Independent Counsel, on March 20, 1996, Attorney General Janet Reno
requested that Whitewater
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
expand his inquiry to specifically include the travel office affair, in particular allegations that White House employees had lied about Hillary Clinton's role in the firings, and that David Watkins or Hillary Clinton had made false statements in previous testimony to the GAO, Congress, or the Independent Counsel.
The Congressional investigation continued; on March 21, 1996, Hillary Clinton submitted a deposition under oath to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, again acknowledging concern about irregularities in the Travel Office but denying a direct role in the firings and expressing a lack of recollection to a number of questions. A battle of wills took place between the legislative and executive branches. On May 9, 1996, President Clinton refused to turn over additional documents related to the matter, claiming executive privilege
. House committee chair Clinger threatened a contempt of Congress
resolution against the president, and the White House partially backed down on May 30, surrendering 1,000 of the 3,000 documents the committee asked for.
Meanwhile, the seven dismissed employees were back in the picture. In March 1996 the House voted 350–43 to reimburse them for all of their legal expenses; in September 1996, Democratic Senator Harry Reid
led an unsuccessful attempt to block this measure. In May 1996, the seven filed a $35 million lawsuit against Harry Thomason and Darnell Martens, alleging unlawful interference with their employment and emotional distress.
On June 5, 1996, Clinger announced that the committee's investigations had discovered that the White House had requested access to Billy Dale's FBI background check report seven months after the terminations, in what Clinger said was an improper effort to justify the firings. It was rapidly discovered that the White House had additionally gotten improper access to hundreds of other FBI background reports, many on former White House employees in Republican administrations; thus was born the Filegate controversy.
The Senator Al D'Amato
-chaired Senate Special Whitewater Committee, which had begun the previous year, issued its findings in a majority report on June 18, 1996; it did not investigate Travelgate directly, but did say that "[Hillary] Clinton, upon learning of [Vince] Foster's death, at least realized its connection to [the] Travelgate scandal, and perhaps to the Whitewater matter, and dispatched her trusted lieutenants to contain any potential embarrassment or political damage." Minority Democratic members of the Committee derided these findings as "a legislative travesty," "a witch hunt," and "a political game."
The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee issued its majority report on September 18, 1996, in which it accused the Clinton administration of having obstructed the committee's efforts to investigate the Travelgate scandal. It portrayed Bill Clinton as being heavily involved in the travel office affair, more than any other investigation. The report's chapter titles were lurid: "The White House Stonewalled All Investigations into the White House Travel Office Firings and Related Matters", "The White House Initiated a Full-Scale Campaign of Misinformation in the Aftermath of the Travel Office Firings and President Clinton Led the Misinformation Campaign from the First Days of the Travelgate Debacle", "Foster's Death Shattered a White House Just Recovering from an Abysmal First 6 Months of Administration", and so forth. Democratic members of the Committee walked out in protest over the report, with ranking member Henry Waxman
calling it "an embarrassment to you [Chairman Clinger], this committee and this Congress" and "a crassly partisan smear campaign against President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton and this administration." The following month Clinger forwarded the report, along with one on Filegate, to the Independent Counsel, suggesting that the testimony of several witnesses be looked at for possible perjury
or obstruction of justice
. Democrats said this was politically motivated in an attempt to influence the 1996 presidential election
(in which Clinton was re-elected by a solid margin).
Almost two years passed. Independent Counsel Starr continued his investigation. Starr wanted access to notes that Vince Foster's attorney took in a conversation with Foster about the travel office affair shortly before Foster's suicide, but on June 25, 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 against Starr in Swidler & Berlin v. United States
, stating that attorney-client privilege
extends beyond the grave. In September 1998 Independent Counsel Starr released the famous Starr Report
, concerning offenses that may have been committed by President Clinton as part of the Lewinsky scandal
. It did not mention the travel office matter.
On November 19, 1998, Starr testified before the House Judiciary Committee in connection with the impeachment of Bill Clinton
over charges related to the Lewinsky scandal. Here, for the first time, Starr exonerated President Clinton of complicity in the travel office affair, saying that while investigations were not complete, "the president was not involved in our... investigation." (Starr also chose this occasion to clear President Clinton in the Filegate matter, and to say he had not committed impeachable wrongdoing in the Whitewater matter; Democrats on the committee immediately criticized Starr for withholding all these findings until after the 1998 Congressional elections
.)
Starr explicitly did not exonerate Hillary Clinton, however; her case remained unsettled. More time passed. By 2000, she was a candidate for United States Senator from New York
, and Starr had been replaced as Independent Counsel by prosecutor Robert Ray
, who once worked for Rudy Giuliani
, Clinton's then-opponent in the Senate race. Regardless, Ray vowed his investigation would have "no untoward effect on the political process." Ray was determined to wrap up the case before the end of Bill Clinton's term.
On June 23, 2000, the suspense ended, when Ray submitted the final Independent Counsel report on the travel office affair under seal to the judicial panel in charge of the investigation, and publicly announced that he would seek no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. However, Ray said that she had, contrary to her statements, "ultimately influenced" the decision to fire the employees. However, "the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that any of Mrs. Clinton's statements and testimony regarding her involvement in the travel office firings were knowingly false," and thus prosecution was declined. White House press secretary Joe Lockhart
was critical of Ray's statement: "By inappropriately characterizing the results of a legally sealed report through innuendo, the Office of Independent Counsel has further politicized an investigation that has dragged on far too long."
Ray's full 243-page report was unsealed and made public on October 18, 2000, three weeks before the Senatorial election. It confirmed that neither Hillary Clinton nor David Watkins would be indicted. It included some new detail, including a somewhat unsubstantiated claim from a friend of Watkins saying that the First Lady had told Watkins to "fire the sons of bitches." Ray cited eight separate conversations between the First Lady and senior staff and concluded: "Mrs. Clinton’s input into the process was significant, if not the significant factor influencing the pace of events in the Travel Office firings and the ultimate decision to fire the employees." Moreover, Ray determined Hillary Clinton had given "factually false" testimony when questioned by the GAO, the Independent Counsel, and Congress about the travel office firings, but reiterated that "the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt" that she knew her statements were false or understood that they may have prompted the firings.
Immediate reactions to the report differed. David E. Kendall, Hillary Clinton's lawyer, said that Ray's words were "highly unfair and misleading" and that Ray's conclusions were inconsistent, that evidence regarding her innocence had been buried in the document, and that the report confirmed that her fears about financial improprieties in the Travel Office were warranted.
On the other hand, Bill Powers
, chair of the New York Republican State Committee
, said the report "once again makes us question" the believability of Clinton, and Congressman Rick Lazio
, her Republican opponent in the Senate election, said "We believe that character counts in public service." New York Times columnist Safire updated his description of Hillary Clinton to "habitual prevaricator", saying "the evidence that she has been lying all along is damning" and comparing her dark side to that of Richard Nixon
, in whose White House he had once worked.
Regardless, after 7½ years, Travelgate was finally over.
Opinions would differ over the legacy of the affair. Some agreed with Safire, who had said that Hillary Clinton was "a vindictive power player who used the FBI to ruin the lives of people standing in the way of juicy patronage." Commentator Barbara Olson
would entitle her highly unflattering 1999 book Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton, in reference to Clinton's Travelgate phrase. However, the various investigations and conclusions had little effect on Hillary Clinton's career, as she won the 2000 election to the Senate, won re-election in 2006
, and became a strong contender for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election.
Bill Clinton later described the allegations and investigation as "a fraud", while in her 2003 autobiography Hillary Clinton gave short shrift to the matter, never mentioning Billy Dale by name and saying that "'Travelgate'... was perhaps worthy of a two- or three-week life span; instead, in a partisan political climate, it became the first manifestation of an obsession for investigation that persisted into the next millennium." Many in the Clinton inner circle would always believe that political motivations had been behind the investigation, including an attempt to derail Hillary Clinton's role in the 1993 health care reform plan. But associate White House counsel William Kennedy would also later reflect that some of it was just "pure palpable hatred of the Clintons. It started and it never quit."
Further investigations of the firings by the FBI and the Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, the White House itself, the General Accounting Office, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and the Whitewater
Whitewater (controversy)
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
Independent Counsel all took place over the subsequent years. Travel Office Director Billy Dale was charged with embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
but found not guilty at trial in 1995. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
gradually came under scrutiny for allegedly having played a central role in the firings and making false statements about her role in it. In 1998 Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
exonerated President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
of any involvement in the matter. In 2000 Independent Counsel Robert Ray
Robert Ray (prosecutor)
Robert William Ray is an American lawyer. As the successor to Ken Starr as the head of the Office of the Independent Counsel he investigated and issued the final reports on the Whitewater scandal, the White House travel office controversy, and the White House FBI files controversy...
issued his final report on Travelgate, stating that Hillary Clinton had made factually false statements but there was insufficient evidence her statements were either knowingly false or that she understood that her statements led to the firings.
The White House Travel Office
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
administration and serves to handle travel arrangements for the White House press corps
White House Press Corps
The White House Press Corps is the group of journalists or correspondents usually stationed at the White House in Washington, D.C. to cover the president of the United States, White House events and news briefings. Their offices are located in the West Wing....
, with costs billed to the participating news organizations. By the time of the start of the Clinton administration, it was quartered in the Old Executive Office Building
Old Executive Office Building
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building , formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building and as the State, War, and Navy Building, is an office building in Washington, D.C., just west of the White House...
, and had seven employees with a yearly budget of $7 million. Staffers serve at the pleasure of the president; however, in practice, the staffers were career employees who in some cases had worked in the Travel Office since the 1960s and 1970s, through both Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
administrations.
Travel Office Director Billy Ray Dale had held that position since 1982, serving through most of the Reagan
Reagan Administration
The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....
and George H. W. Bush administrations, and had started in the Travel Office in 1961. To handle the frequent last-minute arrangements of presidential travel and the specialized requirements of the press, Dale did not conduct competitive bidding for travel services, but relied upon a charter company called Airline of the Americas.
Initial White House actions
According to the White House, the incoming Clinton administration had heard reports of irregularities in the Travel Office and possible kickbacks to an office employee from a charter air company. They looked at a review by KPMG Peat Marwick which discovered that Dale kept an off-book ledger, had $18,000 of unaccounted-for checks, and kept chaotic office records. White House Chief of StaffWhite House Chief of Staff
The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:...
Mack McLarty
Mack McLarty
Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty III is a prominent Arkansas business and political leader and former White House Chief of Staff for US President Bill Clinton...
and the White House counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
s thus decided to fire the Travel Office staff and reorganize it. The actual terminations were done on May 19, 1993, by White House director of administration David Watkins. There was also a feeling among the White House and its supporters that the Travel Office had never been investigated by the media due to its close relationship with press corps members and the plush accommodations it afforded them and favors it did for them. (Congress would later discover that in October 1988, a whistleblower
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
within the Travel Office had alleged financial improprieties; the Reagan White House counsel looked into the claim but took no action.)
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, including his third cousin Catherine Cornelius, had sought the firings in order to get the business for themselves. Dale and his staff had been replaced with Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
-based World Wide Travel, a company with a substantial reputation in the industry but with several ties to the Clintons. In addition, Hollywood producer and Inauguration chairman Harry Thomason
Harry Thomason
Harry Z. Thomason, , is an American film and television producer and director, best known for the television series Designing Women. Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, are close friends of President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and played a major...
, a friend of both Clintons, and his business partner, Darnell Martens, were looking to get their air charter company, TRM, the White House business in place of Airline of the Americas. The Clinton campaign had been TRM's sole client during 1992, collecting commissions from booking charter flights for the campaign. Martens wanted the White House to award TRM a $500,000 contract for an aircraft audit, while also seeking Travel Office charter business as an intermediary which did not own any planes.
Attention initially focused on the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI), since on May 12, 1993, a week before the firings, associate White House counsel William Kennedy had requested that the FBI look into possible improprieties in the Travel Office operation. FBI agents went there and, although initially reluctant, authorized a preliminary investigation. Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster
Vince Foster
Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. was a Deputy White House Counsel during the first few months of President Bill Clinton's administration, and also a law partner and friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton...
became worried about the firings about to take place and ordered the KPMG Peat Marwick review. The review started on May 14 and the report was given to the White House on May 17. KPMG was unable to do an actual audit, because there were so few records in the Travel Office that could be audited and because the office did not use the double-entry bookkeeping system
Double-entry bookkeeping system
A double-entry bookkeeping system is a set of rules for recording financial information in a financial accounting system in which every transaction or event changes at least two different nominal ledger accounts....
that audits are based upon. One KPMG representative later described the office as "an ungodly mess in terms of records" with ten years of material piled up in a closet. When the review came back with its reports of irregularities, Watkins went ahead with the terminations on May 19.
Investigations
The travel office affair quickly became the first major ethics controversy of the Clinton presidency and an embarrassment for the new administration. Criticism from political opponents and especially the news media became intense; the White House was later described as having been "paralyzed for a week". Within three days of the firings, World Wide Travel voluntarily withdrew from the White House travel operation and were replaced on a temporary basis by American ExpressAmerican Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
Travel Services. (Later, after a competitive bid, American Express received the permanent role to book press charters.)
Various investigations took place. The role of the White House staff in pressuring the FBI to launch an investigation had been heavily criticized; on May 28, 1993, the FBI issued a report saying it had done nothing wrong in its contacts with the White House. (This conclusion was reiterated by a March 1994 report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility
Office of Professional Responsibility
The Office of Professional Responsibility is part of the United States Department of Justice responsible for investigating attorneys employed by the DOJ who have been accused of misconduct or crimes in their professional functions...
.)
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
, who called for an independent investigation. As Chief of Staff McLarty personally apologized to the fired Travel Office employees — some of whom had all their personal documents and travel photographs related to years of service thrown out during the firing process — and said they would be given other jobs (which five of them were; Dale and his assistant director retired.) The White House report also contained the initial indications of First Lady
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
's involvement in the firings, saying that she had taken an interest in Travel Office mismanagement and had been informed two days in advance that the firings would take place. There was no indication of involvement from President Clinton himself, although he had earlier taken broad public responsibility for what had happened.
The travel office controversy was later judged to have been a factor in Vince Foster's depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
and July 20, 1993, suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. In his torn-up resignation note from a few days before, he wrote "No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the Travel Office. There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group. [...] The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the travel staff". (In the last part, Foster may have been referring to lax customs treatment by the Travel Office of goods brought back from foreign trips by reporters.) Special prosecutor Robert B. Fiske
Robert B. Fiske
Robert Bishop Fiske, Jr. is a prominent trial attorney and a partner with the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City...
tangentially investigated travel office events during the first half of 1994, as part of investigating the circumstances surrounding Foster's death.
In July 1993, Congress had requested the non-partisan General Accounting Office investigate the firings; on May 2, 1994, the GAO concluded that the White House did have legal authority to terminate the Travel Office employees without cause, because they served at the pleasure of the president. However, it also concluded that Cornelius, Thomason, and Martens, who all had potential business interests involved, had possibly influenced the decision. Moreover, the GAO report indicated that First Lady Hillary Clinton played a larger role than previously thought before the firings, with Watkins saying she had urged "that action be taken to get 'our people' into the travel office." The First Lady, who had given a written statement to the inquiry, said she did "not recall this conversation with the same level of detail as Mr. Watkins."
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
took over from Fiske in investigating Whitewater
Whitewater (controversy)
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
, Foster, and indirectly the travel office matter. On July 22, 1995, Hillary Clinton gave a deposition under oath to the Independent Counsel that touched on travel office questions; she denied having had a role in the firings, but was unable to recall many specifics of conversations with Foster and Watkins.
In late 1994, following the 1994 Congressional elections
United States House elections, 1994
The 1994 U.S. House of Representatives election was held on November 8, 1994, in the middle of President Bill Clinton's first term. As a result of a 54-seat swing in membership from Democrats to Republicans, the Republican Party gained a majority of seats in the United States House of...
which switched Congress from Democratic to Republican control, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
Republican William Clinger
William F. Clinger, Jr.
William Floyd "Bill" Clinger, Jr. is a former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.Clinger was born in Warren, Pennsylvania. He attended the public schools there and graduated from The Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1947. He received a B.A. from The...
, launched an investigation into the White House Travel Office firings. In October 1995, the committee began hearings on the matter; Clinger soon accused the White House of withholding pertinent documents and sought subpoenas to compel witnesses to appear.
Not all investigations were by governmental bodies. Anti-Clinton magazine The American Spectator
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
latched onto Travelgate, as it would other Clinton scandals real and imagined, describing it as "a story about influence-peddling and sleazy deal-making... in the Clinton White House"; publisher R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. would claim that the magazine's early Travelgate stories provided useful material to the congressional investigations. In general, Clinton administration controversies such as Travelgate allowed opinion magazines and political debate television shows to attract subscribers and viewers.
Prosecution and acquittal of Billy Dale
Meanwhile, former Travel Office Director Billy Dale was indicted by a federal grand juryGrand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
on December 7, 1994, on two counts of embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
and criminal conversion
Criminal conversion
Criminal conversion is the crime of exerting unauthorized use or control of someone else's property. It differs from theft in that it does not include the element of intending to deprive the owner of the possession of that property. As such, it is a lesser included offense of the crime of theft...
, charged with wrongfully depositing into his own bank account $68,000 in checks from media organizations traveling with the president during the period between 1988 and 1991. He faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Dale's attorneys conceded that funds had been co-mingled, but stated that Dale had not stolen anything but rather used the monies for the substantial tips and off-the-book payments that the job required, especially in foreign countries, and that anything left over was used as a discount against future trips.
At the 13-day trial in October and November 1995, prominent journalists such as ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
' Sam Donaldson
Sam Donaldson
Samuel Andrew "Sam" Donaldson, Jr. is a reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to the present, best known as the network's White House Correspondent and as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday Program "This Week."-Early life and career:Donaldson was born in El...
and The Los Angeles Times Jack Nelson testified as character witnesses on Dale's behalf. Much of the trial focused on the details of the movement of Travel Office funds into Dale's personal account, and not on the political overtones of the case. The jury deliberated less than two hours before acquitting Dale of both charges on November 16, 1995.
A memo surfaces regarding Hillary Clinton
On January 5, 1996, a new development thrust the travel office matter again to the forefront. A two year-old memo from White House director of administration David Watkins surfaced that identified First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as the motivating force behind the firings, with the additional involvement of Vince Foster and Harry Thomason. "Foster regularly informed me that the First Lady was concerned and desired action. The action desired was the firing of the Travel Office staff." Written in fall 1993, apparently intended for McLarty, the Watkins memo also said "we both know that there would be hell to pay" if "we failed to take swift and decisive action in conformity with the First Lady's wishes." This memo contradicted the First Lady's previous statements in the GAO investigation, that she had played no role in the firings and had not consulted with Thomason beforehand; the White House also found it difficult to explain why the memo was so late in surfacing when all the previous investigations had requested all relevant materials. House committee chair Clinger charged a cover-upCover-up
A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrong-doing, error, incompetence or other embarrassing information...
was taking place and vowed to pursue new material.
Hillary Rodham cattle futures controversy
In 1978 and 1979, lawyer and First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Rodham engaged in a series of trades of cattle futures contracts. Her initial $1,000 investment had generated nearly $100,000 when she stopped trading after ten months...
and Whitewater
Whitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
, led to a famous exchange in which high-profile New York Times columnist William Safire
William Safire
William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....
, who had endorsed Bill Clinton in the previous election, wrote that many Americans were coming to the "sad realization that our First Lady—a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation—is a congenital liar," followed by White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry saying that "the President, if he were not the President, would have delivered a more forceful response to that—on the bridge of Mr. Safire's nose."
As a result of the discovery of the Watkins memo, and based upon a suggestion from the Office of Independent Counsel, on March 20, 1996, Attorney General Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
requested that Whitewater
Whitewater (controversy)
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
expand his inquiry to specifically include the travel office affair, in particular allegations that White House employees had lied about Hillary Clinton's role in the firings, and that David Watkins or Hillary Clinton had made false statements in previous testimony to the GAO, Congress, or the Independent Counsel.
The Congressional investigation continued; on March 21, 1996, Hillary Clinton submitted a deposition under oath to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, again acknowledging concern about irregularities in the Travel Office but denying a direct role in the firings and expressing a lack of recollection to a number of questions. A battle of wills took place between the legislative and executive branches. On May 9, 1996, President Clinton refused to turn over additional documents related to the matter, claiming executive privilege
Executive privilege
In the United States government, executive privilege is the power claimed by the President of the United States and other members of the executive branch to resist certain subpoenas and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government...
. House committee chair Clinger threatened a contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically the bribery of a senator or representative was considered contempt of Congress...
resolution against the president, and the White House partially backed down on May 30, surrendering 1,000 of the 3,000 documents the committee asked for.
Meanwhile, the seven dismissed employees were back in the picture. In March 1996 the House voted 350–43 to reimburse them for all of their legal expenses; in September 1996, Democratic Senator Harry Reid
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
led an unsuccessful attempt to block this measure. In May 1996, the seven filed a $35 million lawsuit against Harry Thomason and Darnell Martens, alleging unlawful interference with their employment and emotional distress.
On June 5, 1996, Clinger announced that the committee's investigations had discovered that the White House had requested access to Billy Dale's FBI background check report seven months after the terminations, in what Clinger said was an improper effort to justify the firings. It was rapidly discovered that the White House had additionally gotten improper access to hundreds of other FBI background reports, many on former White House employees in Republican administrations; thus was born the Filegate controversy.
The Senator Al D'Amato
Al D'Amato
Alfonse Marcello "Al" D'Amato is an American lawyer and former New York politician. A Republican, he served as United States Senator from New York from 1981 to 1999.-Early life and family:...
-chaired Senate Special Whitewater Committee, which had begun the previous year, issued its findings in a majority report on June 18, 1996; it did not investigate Travelgate directly, but did say that "[Hillary] Clinton, upon learning of [Vince] Foster's death, at least realized its connection to [the] Travelgate scandal, and perhaps to the Whitewater matter, and dispatched her trusted lieutenants to contain any potential embarrassment or political damage." Minority Democratic members of the Committee derided these findings as "a legislative travesty," "a witch hunt," and "a political game."
The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee issued its majority report on September 18, 1996, in which it accused the Clinton administration of having obstructed the committee's efforts to investigate the Travelgate scandal. It portrayed Bill Clinton as being heavily involved in the travel office affair, more than any other investigation. The report's chapter titles were lurid: "The White House Stonewalled All Investigations into the White House Travel Office Firings and Related Matters", "The White House Initiated a Full-Scale Campaign of Misinformation in the Aftermath of the Travel Office Firings and President Clinton Led the Misinformation Campaign from the First Days of the Travelgate Debacle", "Foster's Death Shattered a White House Just Recovering from an Abysmal First 6 Months of Administration", and so forth. Democratic members of the Committee walked out in protest over the report, with ranking member Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman
Henry Arnold Waxman is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1975. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress...
calling it "an embarrassment to you [Chairman Clinger], this committee and this Congress" and "a crassly partisan smear campaign against President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton and this administration." The following month Clinger forwarded the report, along with one on Filegate, to the Independent Counsel, suggesting that the testimony of several witnesses be looked at for possible perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
or obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice
The crime of obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, refers to the crime of interfering with the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other officials...
. Democrats said this was politically motivated in an attempt to influence the 1996 presidential election
United States presidential election, 1996
The United States presidential election of 1996 was a contest between the Democratic national ticket of President Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee and the Republican national ticket of former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for President and former Housing Secretary Jack...
(in which Clinton was re-elected by a solid margin).
Independent Counsel findings
Swidler & Berlin v. United States
Swidler & Berlin v. United States, 524 U.S. 399 , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the death of an attorney's client does not terminate the attorney-client privilege with respect to records of confidential communications between the attorney and the client that...
, stating that attorney-client privilege
Attorney-client privilege
Attorney–client privilege is a legal concept that protects certain communications between a client and his or her attorney and keeps those communications confidential....
extends beyond the grave. In September 1998 Independent Counsel Starr released the famous Starr Report
Starr Report
The Starr Report was an investigative account of United States President Bill Clinton by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and released on September 11, 1998.-Background:...
, concerning offenses that may have been committed by President Clinton as part of the Lewinsky scandal
Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
. It did not mention the travel office matter.
On November 19, 1998, Starr testified before the House Judiciary Committee in connection with the impeachment of Bill Clinton
Impeachment of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton, President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice on December 19, 1998, but acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of...
over charges related to the Lewinsky scandal. Here, for the first time, Starr exonerated President Clinton of complicity in the travel office affair, saying that while investigations were not complete, "the president was not involved in our... investigation." (Starr also chose this occasion to clear President Clinton in the Filegate matter, and to say he had not committed impeachable wrongdoing in the Whitewater matter; Democrats on the committee immediately criticized Starr for withholding all these findings until after the 1998 Congressional elections
United States House elections, 1998
The U.S. House elections in 1998 were part of the midterm elections held during President Bill Clinton's second term. They were a major disappointment to the Republican Party, which was expecting to gain seats due to the embarrassment Clinton suffered during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the...
.)
Starr explicitly did not exonerate Hillary Clinton, however; her case remained unsettled. More time passed. By 2000, she was a candidate for United States Senator from New York
New York United States Senate election, 2000
The United States Senate election in New York in 2000 was held on November 7, 2000. First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first First Lady to run for political office, defeated Congressman Rick Lazio. The general election coincided with the 2000 U.S...
, and Starr had been replaced as Independent Counsel by prosecutor Robert Ray
Robert Ray (prosecutor)
Robert William Ray is an American lawyer. As the successor to Ken Starr as the head of the Office of the Independent Counsel he investigated and issued the final reports on the Whitewater scandal, the White House travel office controversy, and the White House FBI files controversy...
, who once worked for Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
, Clinton's then-opponent in the Senate race. Regardless, Ray vowed his investigation would have "no untoward effect on the political process." Ray was determined to wrap up the case before the end of Bill Clinton's term.
On June 23, 2000, the suspense ended, when Ray submitted the final Independent Counsel report on the travel office affair under seal to the judicial panel in charge of the investigation, and publicly announced that he would seek no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. However, Ray said that she had, contrary to her statements, "ultimately influenced" the decision to fire the employees. However, "the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that any of Mrs. Clinton's statements and testimony regarding her involvement in the travel office firings were knowingly false," and thus prosecution was declined. White House press secretary Joe Lockhart
Joe Lockhart
Joseph Lockhart is a spokesman and communications consultant, best known for being the White House Press Secretary from October 5, 1998 to September 29, 2000, during the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton...
was critical of Ray's statement: "By inappropriately characterizing the results of a legally sealed report through innuendo, the Office of Independent Counsel has further politicized an investigation that has dragged on far too long."
Ray's full 243-page report was unsealed and made public on October 18, 2000, three weeks before the Senatorial election. It confirmed that neither Hillary Clinton nor David Watkins would be indicted. It included some new detail, including a somewhat unsubstantiated claim from a friend of Watkins saying that the First Lady had told Watkins to "fire the sons of bitches." Ray cited eight separate conversations between the First Lady and senior staff and concluded: "Mrs. Clinton’s input into the process was significant, if not the significant factor influencing the pace of events in the Travel Office firings and the ultimate decision to fire the employees." Moreover, Ray determined Hillary Clinton had given "factually false" testimony when questioned by the GAO, the Independent Counsel, and Congress about the travel office firings, but reiterated that "the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt" that she knew her statements were false or understood that they may have prompted the firings.
Immediate reactions to the report differed. David E. Kendall, Hillary Clinton's lawyer, said that Ray's words were "highly unfair and misleading" and that Ray's conclusions were inconsistent, that evidence regarding her innocence had been buried in the document, and that the report confirmed that her fears about financial improprieties in the Travel Office were warranted.
On the other hand, Bill Powers
William Powers (politician)
William Powers is a New York Republican Party political activist. Before becoming the Republican state chairman, Powers was the chairman of the Rensselaer County Republican Committee....
, chair of the New York Republican State Committee
New York Republican State Committee
The New York Republican State Committee is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in New York, headquartered in Albany.-History:...
, said the report "once again makes us question" the believability of Clinton, and Congressman Rick Lazio
Rick Lazio
Enrico Anthony "Rick" Lazio is a former U.S. Representative from the state of New York. Lazio became well known nationally when he ran against Hillary Rodham Clinton for the U.S. Senate in New York's 2000 Senate election...
, her Republican opponent in the Senate election, said "We believe that character counts in public service." New York Times columnist Safire updated his description of Hillary Clinton to "habitual prevaricator", saying "the evidence that she has been lying all along is damning" and comparing her dark side to that of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, in whose White House he had once worked.
Regardless, after 7½ years, Travelgate was finally over.
Legacy
In the legal aftermath, Swidler & Berlin v. United States became an important Supreme Court decision. The length, expense, and results of the Travelgate and the other investigations grouped under the Whitewater umbrella turned much of the public against the Independent Counsel mechanism. As such, the Independent Counsel law expired in 1999, with critics saying it cost too much with too few results; even Kenneth Starr favored the law's demise.Opinions would differ over the legacy of the affair. Some agreed with Safire, who had said that Hillary Clinton was "a vindictive power player who used the FBI to ruin the lives of people standing in the way of juicy patronage." Commentator Barbara Olson
Barbara Olson
Barbara Olson was a lawyer and conservative American television commentator who worked for CNN, Fox News Channel, and several other outlets...
would entitle her highly unflattering 1999 book Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton, in reference to Clinton's Travelgate phrase. However, the various investigations and conclusions had little effect on Hillary Clinton's career, as she won the 2000 election to the Senate, won re-election in 2006
New York United States Senate election, 2006
The 2006 United States Senate election in New York was held November 7, 2006. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for and would win a second term representing New York in the United States Senate...
, and became a strong contender for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election.
Bill Clinton later described the allegations and investigation as "a fraud", while in her 2003 autobiography Hillary Clinton gave short shrift to the matter, never mentioning Billy Dale by name and saying that "'Travelgate'... was perhaps worthy of a two- or three-week life span; instead, in a partisan political climate, it became the first manifestation of an obsession for investigation that persisted into the next millennium." Many in the Clinton inner circle would always believe that political motivations had been behind the investigation, including an attempt to derail Hillary Clinton's role in the 1993 health care reform plan. But associate White House counsel William Kennedy would also later reflect that some of it was just "pure palpable hatred of the Clintons. It started and it never quit."
External links
- White House – Travel Office Operations – GAO Report GAO/GGD-94-132. May 2, 1994.
- House Report 104-849 – Investigation of the White House Travel Office Firings and Related Matters Filed September 26, 1996.