When was the whitewater scandal

From grimy personal attack ads and straight-up lies to carefully deciding the precise moment to exhume a scandal, there's no shortage of tricks professional campaigners pull out in order to play the game of thrones IRL. If you grew up in the '90s, then you've probably heard of the Whitewater Scandal involving Bill Clinton , but what was it? While Bill Clinton was still the governor of Arkansas and campaigning for president, the New York Times reported that he and his wife Hillary, along with several business associates, were involved in a failed land development business plan called Whitewater.

The idea was that they were going to develop this land and build a bunch of vacation homes to sell those homes and earn a pretty profit. Real estate is big, big money, and the Clintons were looking to earn an honest living selling houses. The vacation homes were supposed to provide access to awesome outdoor activities like fishing.

However, even the best-laid plans can fail thanks to Mother Nature. 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. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

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Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. House of Representatives and acquittal by the Senate, making him the second U. The investigations began in as an inquiry by an independent U. It morphed through many phases until the independent counsel looked into allegations of illicit sexual encounters when Clinton was governor and president.

They hoped to sell lots for vacation homes and make a profit, but interest rates skyrocketed, the real-estate market plunged, and the couples lost most of their investment. McDougal, a political operative and friend of Clinton, acquired a bank in the tiny town of Kingston Madison County in and then, in , a small savings and loan company in Woodruff County , which he renamed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Corporation and moved to Little Rock Pulaski County. That enterprise also collapsed in the sweeping national savings and loan debacle of the s.

McDougal was tried and acquitted in federal District Court in on charges of bank fraud in connection with the savings and loan. Whitewater resurfaced in when Clinton ran for president. The New York Times on March 8 published a lengthy account of the Whitewater investment as told by an embittered McDougal, who complained that he had borne an unfair share of the investment and the loss. Foster Jr.

His death was ruled a suicide. Foster had handled Whitewater issues for the Clintons since the campaign and had become the focus of criticism in the media, mainly the Wall Street Journal.

On the same day that Foster killed himself, Paula Casey, the new U. The next day, FBI agents raided the offices, and on September 23, a federal grand jury indicted Hale. After his indictment, Hale alleged that Clinton had a secret interest in one of his illegal loans and had pressured him to make it, although no records ever showed that Clinton had any transaction with Hale.

In January , Clinton capitulated to the Republican clamor over Whitewater and told Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a special counsel to investigate. Reno appointed Robert B. Fiske Jr. He was given broad authority to investigate Whitewater and any related activity. When David Hale complained that the U. In the summer of , after Fiske concluded that Foster had committed suicide, conservative groups and Republican senators complained that his investigation was not diligent enough.

A three-judge U. Court of Appeals panel replaced Fiske with Kenneth W. Starr, a former federal appeals court judge and already a harsh critic of Clinton. The switch raised ethical questions because the chairman of the panel, Judge David B. In the meantime, the Republican-controlled Senate appointed the Special Whitewater Committee to look into all the Whitewater-related matters, and the Banking committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives undertook extensive hearings on Whitewater and Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Corp.

Numerous officials of the Clinton administration and associates of the Clintons from Arkansas were subpoenaed to testify. This led to federal investigations on McDougal, his attorney, and co-conspirators. At this time of McDougal investing in Castle Grande, future presidential-nominee Hillary Clinton provided legal services for the construction project through Rose Law Firm.

The Clintons were accused of being involved in the Castle Grande scheme, though the White House claimed they were exonerated due to a report that labeled them as passive investors whereas McDougal was the mastermind.

The Clintons were then subpoenaed to give all documents relating to Madison Guaranty, whereafter they claimed all the reports had gone missing. Three other potential witnesses refused to cooperate with Starr, leaving his case with no hard evidence.