Scandal:
Did Hillary Rodham Clinton, in collusion with her husband Bill Clinton, act illegally as an investor in the Whitewater Development Corporation?
History:
The Whitewater controversy, also known as the “Whitewater Scandal”, or simply “Whitewater”, began with probes into the real estate investments of Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband Bill Clinton, and their associates, Susan and Jim McDougal, in the Whitewater Development Corporation; and the irony of the title of the scandal, with obvious word references to another scandal in which Hillary Rodham Clinton played a role – Watergate – was not lost on the public or the press.
In the early 1990’s, a large number of investigations began over failed Savings and Loan institutions throughout the United States. As a result many investors were facing not only financial penalties, but also real jail time.
In what reads like a novel on cronyism raised to a fine art form, the crux of the Whitewater scandal hinged on David Hale, a former Arkansas municipal judge and banker. Hale claimed in November 1993 that Bill Clinton, as Governor of Arkansas, pressured him into providing an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater land deal.
Foreshadowing the current day Servergate scandal, documents went missing. In July 1993, within hours of the questionable death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster, Chief White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum removed documents, some of them concerning the Whitewater Development Corporation, from Foster’s office.
The documents were given to Maggie Williams, Chief of Staff to the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Williams kept the documents secreted away, placing them in a White House safe for five days before turning them over to the Clintons’ personal lawyer. Again, just as in the over two decades later Servergate scandal, a lawyer held, for Hillary Rodham Clinton, documents sought by authorities.
Receiving the honorific of becoming the first First Lady in the history of the United States of America to be subpoenaed, on January 26, 1996, Hillary Rodham Clinton sat before a Grand Jury.
Eventually, fifteen individuals were convicted of federal charges, including Susan and Jim McDougal, White House Counsel Webster Hubbell, and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker. But, as with every Hillary Rodham Clinton scandal, loyalty pays. The truth still remains shrouded in mystery and the “Clinton Tammany Hall” later went to work. President Bill Clinton pardoned 4 of the 15 in the final hours of his Presidency.