If she were smart, she would have kept it that way and stuck to her health care task force or started writing her book a lot earlier. Unfortunately for Hillary, Thomason was a close friend of hers as well. According to David Watkins, he is the one who got her involved: "Thomason briefed the first lady on his suspicion that the Travel Office was improperly funneling business to a single charter company and told her the functions of that office could easily be replaced and reallocated. Once this made it on to the first lady's agenda, Vince Foster [White House deputy counsel and close friend of Hillary] became involved, and he and Harry Thomason regularly informed me of her attention to the Travel Office situation--as well as her insistence that the situation be resolved immediately by...the firing of the Travel Office staff."
Wednesday, May 12, 1993. Thomason meets with President Clinton for 15 minutes, subsequently with Vince Foster, and thereafter with Mrs. Clinton. Thomason then meets with Watkins, Cornelius, and Foster to discuss the corruption rumors about the Travel Office. Associate White House Counsel William Kennedy joins the meeting, and Foster directs him to contact the FBI about initiating an investigation of the Travel Office. Kennedy does so. This violates government guidelines which prohibit the White House from initiating low-level contacts with the FBI, a post-Watergate reform implemented by the Carter administration to avoid political abuse of the FBI and continued by Reagan and Bush.
Thursday, May 13, 1993. Thomason meets with the president for half an hour. Hillary meets with Foster and Mack McLarty and asks what is being done about the Travel Office. Kennedy calls the FBI again, demands an immediate response about the Travel Office, and threatens to call in the IRS. FBI agents meet at the White House with Kennedy and Foster and tell them insufficient grounds exist for an FBI investigation. The FBI modifies its position after Cornelius tells them about the kickback rumors. Meanwhile, Foster and Watkins devise a plan to conceal the improper contact with the FBI the day before. They determine to conduct a quickie financial audit of the Travel Office using the accounting firm working for Vice President Gore's National Performance Review, which will then serve as an after-the-fact basis for calling in the FBI.
The good news here for Hillary is that the president is still intimately involved in the conspiracy. Presidents are tightly scheduled, yet Bill meets with Thomason for 15 minutes on May 12 and for an extraordinary 30 minutes on May 13. This leaves open the possibility that the president will admit personal knowledge of and responsibility for the terminations, taking Hillary off the hook.
Friday, May 14, 1993. Thomason and Cornelius meet with McLarty in the morning and urge him to fire the Travel Office employees by 5 p.m. that day. Foster objects because they haven't conducted the financial audit which will justify, after the fact, bringing in the FBI and will be offered as the reason for firing the Travel Office employees. McLarty agrees. Hillary doesn't. Watkins also supports the Foster audit cover-up plan, but his notes show a worry it might not work: "What are negative political consequences if NO criminal violations...FBI would not ordinarily get in." Hillary doesn't want to wait for the audit and tells Foster to have Watkins contact her, whereupon she repeats her demand for "immediate action."
Saturday, May 15, and Sunday, May 16, 1993. The audit turns up no evidence of kickbacks, the only basis for the FBI's opening a criminal investigation. The first lady continues to pressure McLarty to fire the Travel Office employees.
Monday, May 17, 1993. McLarty gives in to the pressure and tells Watkins that Mrs. Clinton wants "immediate action." Watkins gives in, too, and later writes to McLarty, "[W]e both knew that there would be hell to pay if...we failed to take swift and decisive action in conformity with the First Lady's wishes." That same day, however, presidential aide Janet Green tells Travel Office Director Billy Dale that the president himself is the "one person responsible for what has taken place with your office."
Wednesday, May 19, 1993. Watkins summarily fires five of the seven members of the White House Travel Office and orders them off the premises by noon. Accompanied by security personnel, they pack their belongings into cardboard boxes and are transported off the premises in the back of a White House van with no seats. The other two are out of the country and learn of their dismissals from news reports. Watkins gives Press Secretary Dee Dee Meyers talking points on the Travel Office firings, which falsely describe the dismissals as "the result of a routine review conducted as part of the Vice President's National Performance Review." The talking points also mention the White House contacts with the FBI. Foster is panicked by the reference to the FBI, presumably because the audit uncovered no evidence of kickbacks and the FBI independently may decide to do no more in assisting in the cover-up. He asks Watkins to remove any mention of the FBI, but they are unable to find Meyers in time. Foster's concern that the FBI not be mentioned also probably accounts for Watkins's failure to tell the five employees he fired about the FBI's criminal investigation. As a result, they find out about the FBI investigation only when Dee Dee Meyers reveals it at the normal press briefing that afternoon. The employees are humiliated by this. The daughter of one asks him, "Dad, did you do anything? Is there really something to this?"
After the terminations, President Clinton does his best Pontius Pilate routine. On the day of the firings, he says: "All I know about it is that I was told that the people who are charged with administering in the White House found serious problems there and thought there was no alternative. I'll have to refer to them for any other questions. That is literally all I know about it. I know nothing else about it." (Emphasis added.) This, of course, is a lie. Ordinarily, this is harmless enough for a politician and certainly routine enough for Clinton. But failing to admit the lie now that David Watkins has spilled the beans on Hillary's role in Travelgate has the unfortunate consequence of leaving his wife holding the bag. But he doesn't know that then.
Clinton changes his story only six days later, on May 25, 1993, revising his lie to admit part of the truth: "I've told you all I know about it. All I know is that there was a plan to cut the size of the office, save tax dollars, save the press money." (Emphasis added.) Clinton changes his story again the next day and compounds his previous lies: "The press complained to me repeatedly about being gouged by the White House Travel Office. I kept hearing it everywhere." Right. Everywhere. So why couldn't Clinton's Justice Department find any media organization to testify to this effect in the embezzlement case against Billy Dale, who was acquitted in November 1995 by a jury in record time?
FBI agents and IRS agents thoroughly investigated all seven Travelgate employees after their termination, including contacting their neighbors. Two days after Billy Dale's daughter got back from her honeymoon, she was called by the Justice Department and had to explain where she got the money to pay for her wedding and reception.
June 1993. Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno write to Chairman Jack Brooks of the House Judiciary Committee and pledge a full investigation of Travelgate by the Justice Department. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole calls for a special counsel to look into Travelgate.
July 1993. The White House releases the report of its own internal investigation of the firing of the seven employees. On July 20, the House Republican Policy Committee also calls for a special counsel. Later that same day, Vince Foster, the person responsible for calling in the FBI, is found dead in Fort Marcy Park. The "suicide note" left in Vince Foster's briefcase in the White House office states, among other things: "No one in the White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the Travel Office. There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group."
November 1993. Five of the seven employees (except Gary Wright, the assistant director, and Billy Dale, the director) receive letters from the Justice Department saying they are not criminal targets. Their lawyers contact the White House, and jobs are found for them elsewhere in government.
April 1994. The White House submits answers to Travelgate questions from the General Accounting Office and claims Hillary "had no role in the decision to terminate the employees."
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