No Clinton Indictment

September 21, 2000|By BILL MILLER The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The six-year Whitewater investigation, a central part of the most costly independent counsel investigation in history, drew to a quiet close Wednesday when Independent Counsel Robert Ray declared that the evidence was insufficient to show criminal wrongdoing by President Clinton or first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In a six-page statement, Ray said he could not prove the Clintons knowingly engaged in crimes or knew about any illegalities stemming from their business dealings in the 1970s and 1980s in Arkansas. Evidence also was lacking to show they later lied to investigators or attempted to obstruct justice, Ray said.

"This office determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either President or Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in any criminal conduct," said Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr as independent counsel last October.

The Clintons have been forced to contend with questions that began with their 1978 investment in the failed Whitewater real estate development and expanded to include other aspects of their business dealings. Eventually, Clinton bowed to congressional demands for appointment of an outside counsel, a move that launched one of the most controversial investigations in American history.

The inquiry has cost more than $52 million and grown far beyond the original mandate to include such matters as the firing of the White House travel office and the improper acquisition of FBI files of former Bush administration White House employees, both since ended without criminal action.

Ray will continue to investigate whether Clinton should be prosecuted after leaving office for making false statements about his relationship with former intern Monica Lewinsky. He is also considering the White House's failure to produce e-mail records subpoenaed by Whitewater investigators.

But the long-anticipated closure of the Whitewater inquiry allows the Clintons to put a major part of the investigation behind them, and Ray's staff has been trimmed to 15 lawyers, less than half its size at its peak.

Ray said he was unable to definitively solve one of the central mysteries of the Whitewater investigation: how Hillary Clinton's long-subpoenaed billing records from the Rose Law Firm suddenly surfaced in the White House residence in 1996. The billing records reflected her legal work for Whitewater business partner James B. McDougal on another real estate development known as Castle Grande, which she told investigators she could not recall.

The independent counsel's office interviewed hundreds of people to try to determine how the missing records reappeared, but Ray's statement said the evidence "was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any person, including Mrs. Clinton," intentionally withheld the billing records or lied about them.

Wednesday's outcome has been known for more than a year, since Starr announced there would be no more prosecutions involving Whitewater. Still, Ray's statement was greeted with relief by the White House and Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, which had been concerned about the impact of Ray's statement in the election season.

As it turned out, Ray's statement was critical of the White House in only one respect: he accused officials of delays in turning over evidence and of waging "unmeritorious" legal challenges.

"Robert Ray is now the latest investigator to complete an examination of the transactions related to Whitewater Development Company and conclude that there are no grounds for legal action," said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.

Hillary Clinton told reporters that she was "just glad that this is finally over."

Ray will report his findings under seal to the judicial panel that oversees independent counsels, and eventually much of that will become public, but not for at least three months after the report is submitted. The report itself has been a work in progress for several years. It is expected to be a detailed account of the Clintons' business dealings in Arkansas and could include more damaging assessments than the bland statement Ray issued Wednesday.

A special prosecutor, Robert B. Fiske Jr., began the first Whitewater criminal investigation in January 1994. Starr took over in August 1994, reviewing not only the Clintons' involvement in Whitewater while Clinton was governor of Arkansas but also the failure of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, a thrift owned by McDougal.

The collapse of Madison wound up costing taxpayers $73 million, and investigators looked into whether money from Madison was improperly used to prop up the ailing Whitewater investment.

From the start, the Clintons denied wrongdoing. Both were interviewed on numerous occasions by the independent counsel's office and federal regulators.

All told, 14 people were convicted in the inquiry, including former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker; James and Susan McDougal; and former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, Hillary Clinton's former law partner.

In the core Whitewater matter, the independent counsel's office sought to determine whether the Clintons had a role in illegal financial activities and whether they later attempted a cover-up. Among other things, they investigated whether Clinton lied in testimony during the McDougals' 1996 fraud trial when he denied any knowledge of a fraudulent $300,000 federally backed loan to Susan McDougal during the 1980s. Roughly $50,000 of that money went to the benefit of Whitewater. The loan was never repaid.

Ray said evidence was lacking to show that Clinton knew of the loan or that his testimony about it was "knowingly false."

Sun Sentinel Articles