>G. Gordon Liddy
weird coincidence
>>18612540 lb
>8/8 Mar-a-Lago raid
>3/30 Indictment
WhiteWatergate x1000
muh hush money
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/04/11/first-lady-denies-hush-money-paid/3ef00ba8-56fb-4b79-864d-495de6f27cd9/
FIRST LADY DENIES HUSH MONEY PAID
By Peter Baker
April 11, 1997
Hillary Rodham Clintonyesterday ridiculed allegations that the White Housearranged hush money for her former law partner Webster L. Hubbell, likening them to the spaceship fantasies of the California cult whose members committed mass suicide last month.
"That's part of the continuing saga ofWhitewater," she said. "You know, the never-ending fictional conspiracy that, honest to goodness, reminds me of some people's obsession with UFOs and the Hale-Bopp comet some days."
During an interview on WAMU-FM's "Diane Rehm Show," the first lady said she was duped by Hubbell and lost money as a result of his bilking scheme at the Arkansas law firm where they once worked. Senior administration officials, she said, were merely trying to help a friend through "a rough patch" when they helped him find lucrative employment before he went to prison.
They had no need to orchestrate payments to buy Hubbell's silence on Whitewater, she added. "There isn't anything to be hushed up about."
The White House recently acknowledged that senior aides to the president including Chief of Staff Erskine B. Bowles and counselor Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty tried to line up work for Hubbell after he resigned as associate attorney general in 1994. Hubbell was paid more than $500,000 during this period while he was under investigation, including $100,000 from the Indonesia-based Lippo Group that later emerged as a central player in campaign fund-raising investigations.
Hillary Clinton was told about the plans to help Hubbell at the time, according to the White House. Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, who is considering whether to seek an indictment of the first lady in connection with the failed Whitewater real estate venture, is investigating the Hubbell payments.
The first lady said she did not realize the extent of Hubbell's legal problems at the time of his resignation, even though she retained informal ties to Little Rock's Rose Law Firm, whose partners had charged that he had overbilled clients and charged improper expenses to the firm. Hubbell eventually pleaded guilty to bilking nearly $500,000.
"At the time, we had no reason to disbelieve his denials of wrongdoing," Hillary Clinton said. "And he very clearly and unequivocally just looked us in the eye and said I didn't do anything wrong. This will blow over. This is all going to be taken care of.' "
The first lady said she feels "particularly badly about this because I believed him absolutely." She added that she would like to talk with him to clear the air. "Obviously, we can't do that now because the conspiracy buffs would go wild and no telling what they would claim."
She pointed out that because she had been a partner she was among his victims. "You know, it hurt me personally," she said. "People seem to forget that the money that he went to prison for having misused was partly my money."
In a separate interview on CNN, the first lady said she did not raise money for Democrats on federal property and defended inviting donors to stay overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom. "The White House is the only home we have," she said. ". . . We have entertained at home a great deal, and I regret deeply that anyone has tried to impute anything other than what we thought we were doing, which was being hospitable."
The president roared with laughter when told about his wife's remark about the UFOs and Hale-Bopp comet. "Did she say that?" he said. "That's pretty good."
He would not say whether he shared the sentiment. "If I didn't, I wouldn't disagree with her in public," he said.
But the president went on to say that he accepts Hubbell's apology for lying to him, made during a recent television interview. "I'm not angry at him anymore because he's paid a very high price for the mistake he made," Clinton said. CAPTION: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton answered questions on CNN and WAMU radio.