Report Confirms Tripp's Charge: Bill & Hill Looted White House
Back to the Clintons Stealing Page
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2002 9:53 a.m. EST
A yearlong investigation by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee has confirmed the account of former White House whistleblower Linda Tripp, who alleged last February that Bill and Hillary Clinton tried to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts they'd received, many of which were not reported as required by law.
A report set for release today by committee member Rep. Doud Ose, R-Calif., says the Clintons accepted $361,968 in unrecorded gifts worth more than $250 - the threshold above which reporting is legally required.
House hearings into the Clinton gift scandal are set to commence today, even as most reporters focus on what promises to be an unproductive Senate hearing into Enron, where the company's former CEO Ken Lay is expected to take the Fifth.
Previously unknown gifts accepted by the Clintons include Ming Dynasty jewelry, Ferragamo silk ties, hundreds of cigars, expensive watches and "shares of a well-known company stock," according to the New York Post.
In some cases, the Clintons are accused of undervaluing some of the loot in order to deliberately evade the $250 limit. In other cases, gifts simply weren't reported at all.
In February 2001 Clinton White House whistleblower Linda Tripp told CNN that the former first couple set out to evade White House gift laws from the very beginning of their tenure in 1993.
"Gifts were coming in from everywhere," Tripp said. "I was brought in, because of my institutional memory and my knowledge of procedure. I'm filling out the gift unit form ... and they didn't want any part of that."
Tripp said that procedure required that gifts to the first couple go directly to the White House "Gift Unit." But in the Clintons' case, that didn't happen.
One room in the White House "was floor to ceiling stacked with gifts," she recalled. "In the Clinton White House ... most of it didn't make it to the gift unit.
"I know on many occasions [the gifts] went to them," Tripp added.
The former Bush White House employee said top Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey ordered her to nix the gift-recording procedure with the words, "Take off your Bush hat. This is the Clinton White House."
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