What was the whitewater investigation

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Key Takeaways The Whitewater scandal was a real estate controversy involving Bill and Hillary Clinton that came to public attention in the s.

The Clintons partnered with James and Susan McDougal to purchase acres of land to build and sell vacation homes. Federal regulators investigated McDougal's other dealings in , which led to questions about the Clintons' involvement in the Whitewater deal. The Clintons were cleared of any wrongdoing, but several of their associates faced felony convictions.

Ken Starr's investigation also including several other controversies involving the Clintons, including the Lewinsky sex scandal. How Long Was the Whitewater Investigation? The Clintons were cleared of any wrongdoing in the Whitewater scandal.

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Investing in a bad land deal isn't a crime. What Jim McDougal did after the initial deal, however, was. How this relates to the Whitewater investment — if at all — is disputed to this day, and the details are hazy and complicated. But the Clintons' critics alleged they were involved in Madison's wrongdoing.

In , Webster Hubbell — who would later plead guilty to fraud charges for overbilling clients at the Rose Law Firm, where he and Hillary Clinton worked at the time — and then—Gov.

David Hale, Capital Management Services' former president, claimed that the Clintons were in on the conspiracy. Other allegations swirled about the Clintons and Madison, including claims that McDougal used Madison funds to pay off Bill's gubernatorial campaign debts in , and that Bill appointed a friendly state bank regulator to protect McDougal.

McDougal himself, after the fraud conviction, turned against the Clintons, alleging that they were in on his schemes. Investigations into Whitewater uncovered real wrongdoing. Fifteen people, in total, were convicted of various charges. Webster Hubbell, a law partner of Hillary's who served in the Clinton Justice Department, pleaded guilty to fraud charges.

But ultimately, none of the many investigations into Whitewater — including, most famously, one by independent counsel Kenneth Starr — found that the Clintons did anything criminal. The conclusion was that it's likelier they were victims of Jim McDougal's malfeasance than that they were co-conspirators.

To the Clintons' defenders, Whitewater is shorthand for the many scandals ginned up by the president's political opponents — others include Filegate , Travelgate , and the suicide of White House deputy counsel and peripheral Whitewater figure Vince Foster which conspiracy theorists pegged as a murder — in a desperate attempt to bring him down.

This culminated in Starr, who was originally appointed to investigate Whitewater, seeking the impeachment of Clinton on completely unrelated charges. To the couple's detractors, by contrast, Whitewater is proof that the Clintons are products of a corrupt Arkansas political culture, and are willing to do anything — including break the law — to help themselves and their friends.

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Although he was a political foe of Clinton, Tucker was caught up in the investigation for his private business conducted a decade earlier and was forced to resign as governor in after his conviction, allowing Lieutenant Governor Mike Huckabee , a Republican, to take over. While none of the investigations of Whitewater and the business, political, and governmental practices of the Clintons and their aides uncovered proof of any wrongdoing by the president or his wife, Starr kept up the pursuit.

Paula Corbin Jones , a former employee of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission now the Arkansas Economic Development Commission , filed a lawsuit in contending that Clinton had made sexual advances toward her in a Little Rock hotel room in The U.

Supreme Court ruled that trying the lawsuit would not distract Clinton from his duties as president. While that case was unfolding, Starr sent FBI agents searching for evidence of other infidelities by Clinton. Bush and briefly under Clinton but by then was an employee at the Defense Department public affairs office. Lewinsky was subpoenaed to testify in the Jones trial about her relationship with the president.

He arranged for FBI agents to secretly record a conversation between Tripp and Lewinsky the next day, and on January 15, he requested and received permission from the Department of Justice and the judicial panel to expand the Whitewater investigation to the Lewinsky affair. Starr delivered a report to Congress on September 9, , citing eleven possible impeachable offenses arising from efforts by Clinton personally or through his associates to cover up his indiscretions with Lewinsky or sidetrack the investigation.

They involved perjury, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power. On December 19, the House of Representatives, voting largely along party lines, impeached Clinton on two articles—perjury before the grand jury and obstruction of justice—by votes of to and to Republican House members, including Representative Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, prosecuted the impeachment articles before the Senate early in On February 12, after hearing a dramatic closing argument for Clinton by former Arkansas senator Dale Bumpers , the Senate rejected the perjury article 45—55 and the obstruction of justice article 50—50; both needed a two-thirds majority, or sixty-seven votes.

Clinton subsequently admitted giving false testimony in the proceedings and surrendered his license to practice law in Arkansas. The active investigation ended in , but the independent counsel office did not close until May Whitewater widened the partisan divide and hardened American political discourse.

In Arkansas, it destroyed the career of a promising young politician, Jim Guy Tucker; catapulted a young Republican, Mike Huckabee, into national prominence; and dramatically altered the lives of scores of men and women who were friends and associates of the Clintons, mere acquaintances of the couple, and a few strangers who were swept up in the investigations. For additional information: Clinton, Bill. My Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Conason, Joe, and Gene Lyons.

New York: St. Kalb, Marvin. New York: Simon and Schuster, McDougal, Jim. McDougal, Susan. Stewart, James B. Honor or memorial gifts are an everlasting way to pay tribute to someone who has touched your life. When a tribute gift is given the honoree will receive a letter acknowledging your generosity and a bookplate will be placed in a book.

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