February 9, 2007

From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:

Ten (plus) Unanswered Questions for Hillary

 

Remember all of those “old” Clinton-era scandals?  Well, now that Hillary Clinton is a candidate for President of the United States, what’s old is new.  These scandals are more than relevant as the American people decide just what kind of president Hillary Clinton will make.  Judicial Watch, of course, neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office.  Hillary is free to run for president.  But Americans are free to ask the tough questions and to hold her to account for her past crimes and ethical transgressions.

 

So, with that said, if I were to be granted an interview (admittedly most unlikely), here are the ten (plus) questions I would ask:

1.  Who in the Clinton administration devised the plan to sell taxpayer-financed trade missions in exchange for campaign contributions to the Clinton-Gore 1996 re-election campaign?  (Sworn testimony from Nolanda Hill, partner and confidante of the late Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, points to you as mastermind of the scheme.)

 

2.  Why did you give “factually false” testimony under oath in the investigation of the White House Travel Office firings, as former Independent Counsel Robert Ray stated in his final report.  (Ray said his office found "overwhelming evidence" you played a role in the dismissals of the seven longtime employees in the White House travel office, which you denied under oath.)

 

3.  Who hired former bar bouncer Craig Livingstone and ordered him to illegally obtain for the Clinton administration the FBI files of former staffers in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush?  (Sworn testimony and at least one FBI document shows you hired Livingstone.)

 

4.  Why did you fail to report more than $2 million in contributions to your Senate 2000 campaign?  (Testimony from the criminal investigation and trial of your National Finance Director, David Rosen, shows you knew the total costs of the fundraiser, yet failed to accurately report them.)

 

5.  Your brothers Anthony and Hugh Rodham allegedly brokered cash deals to obtain presidential pardons from your husband on behalf of convicted criminals.  Were you aware they were each paid large sums to obtain these pardons?  Did you play any role in any of the 140 presidential pardons provided by Bill Clinton in the waning days of his administration, bypassing the normal pardon review process?  How about the pardons of the Puerto Rican terrorists in the run-up to your first Senate campaign?  Did you have any input on those?

 

6.  Did you or your lawyers hire private detectives to investigate and intimidate critics of the Clinton administration?

 

7.  What did you instruct James Carville and George Stephanopoulos to say in order to discredit and defame Gennifer Flowers, a woman with whom your husband had an affair?  (Evidence suggests they smeared her at your behest.)  Did you play any role in smearing and defaming other women sexually and otherwise abused by your husband, including, but not limited to:  Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Dolly Kyle Browning, and Juanita Broaddrick?

 

8.  Records from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange reveal that you turned a $1,000 investment in cattle futures in 1978 into to more than $100,000.00 in ten months… a return of 10,000%.  How did you earn such an astronomical, and unbelievable, return on this investment?  

 

9.  How much money does Bill Clinton earn from his relationship with Ron Burkle, a contributor to your Senate campaigns, and Burkle’s company, Yucaipa?  Are these funds currently available in bank accounts to which you have access?  Will you use these funds for your campaign?  How about Bill’s speaking fees, some paid for by foreign interests and governments – what are the financial benefits to you?

 

10.  How do you explain the mysterious disappearance of your Whitewater billing records from the office of Vince Foster, the former Rose Law Firm partner and Clinton White House counsel who allegedly committed suicide in 1993?  How do you explain the mysterious reappearance of those same records in the White House with your fingerprints on them?

Stopping at ten questions is hard to do.  I want to ask about her illegal White House fundraising coffees, doing business with the state of Arkansas while her husband was governor, Web Hubbell, John Huang, Chinese generals, the Lippo Group, and paid sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom. 

 

Will timid Republicans, cowering competitors for the Democratic nomination, or a liberal media ask any of these questions?  I doubt it.  These questions are important and relevant, and we deserve some honest answers.  Perhaps the American people can have a conversation with her about them?

 

JW Receives Award in Case Involving Halliburton Subsidiary

 

In another Judicial Watch victory in the fight for government transparency, the Department of the Army has agreed to pay $24,000 in attorney’s fees and costs as part of a settlement agreement in the Judicial Watch FOIA case seeking information on the multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract awarded in 2003 by the Army to Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), then a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. 

 

The fees are intended to compensate for attorney time and expense in our challenge of the Army’s improper withholding of records pertaining to the contract in violation of FOIA law.

 

As most of you probably recall, Halliburton had a very high profile CEO at one point, Vice President Dick Cheney.  So, when the Army decided to award KBR a $7 billion contract, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process, we got a little curious and filed a FOIA request on April 6, 2003.

 

In response, Judicial Watch obtained an e-mail that showed possible involvement of the vice president in the awarding of the contract.  The March 5, 2003 e-mail says that a Pentagon official arranged for the contract for Kellogg Brown & Root "contingent on informing" the White House.  It said "We anticipate no issue; since action has been coordinated w VP’s office." 

 

During its investigation, Judicial Watch also uncovered the Halliburton whistle blower Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, the chief contracting officer for the Army Corps of Engineers.  Judicial Watch investigators interviewed Ms. Greenhouse after uncovering a document with her handwritten note expressing concerns about the contract:  “I caution that extending this sole source effort beyond a one year period could convey an invalid perception that there is not any intent for a [illegible] competition,” Ms. Greenhouse wrote.

 

Of course, obtaining these documents was no easy matter.  Throughout Judicial Watch’s investigation, the Department of the Army obstructed the open records process, which is one reason for the cash settlement.

 

Here’s just one example of what I’m talking about:  Judicial Watch uncovered an email from an Army Corps of Engineer official, which read:  “I am copying you on this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will never happen.”  The Army attempted to withhold this embarrassing document even though no appropriate legal exemption applied.  It took the intervention of a federal district judge to force the Army to release the document.

 

Judicial Watch faces this kind of stonewalling often, which is why we are often forced to sue in court to obtain documents.  Our lawyers deserve a tremendous amount of credit, not only for forcing the release of important documents, but for forcing accountability when the government engages in misconduct.

 

Pentagon Rejects Pelosi’s Request for Luxury Air Force Jet

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been in hot water all week long for demanding access to a luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her entourage back and forth from San Francisco non-stop.  Virtually no one in the Washington Establishment disagrees with the fact that Pelosi, as Speaker of the House,  deserves secure travel, but her demands border on the ridiculous, and seem to represent a significant deviation from precedent.  (House Speaker Dennis Hastert used an Air Force commuter-type jet to travel back and forth to his district after 9/11, and flew on commercial flights before then.)

 

Among the Speaker’s reported demands for “Pelosi One” (as some are calling it), a jumbo Air Force jet airplane large enough to fly from D.C. to her San Francisco district without refueling, 42 business class seats, a fully-enclosed state room, an entertainment center, a private bed and a state-of-the-art communications system.    

 

On Wednesday, the Pentagon reportedly sent a letter to Pelosi, informing the Speaker that it cannot guarantee the plane she wants.  Why?  The big factor is availability.  Only three planes at Andrews Air Force Base are able to make non-stop flights year-round.  “She’s effectively taking a bird out of the fleet,” one Defense Department source told The Washington Times.

 

Of course, placing himself smack dab in the middle of the controversy is Pelosi ally Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), chairman of the subcommittee which controls defense spending.  Murtha reportedly accused Pentagon officials of being sexist for not giving in to Pelosi’s demands before issuing threats.  “I don’t need to pressure them,” Murtha said in reference to his repeated calls to the Pentagon.  “I just tell them what they need to do.”  Murtha also noted that crossing Pelosi would be a mistake since, “she decides on allocations for them.”  Threats and extortion would seem to be at odds with Democratic efforts to combat the “culture of corruption.”

 

Pelosi, meanwhile, blamed the entire controversy on her supposed nemesis, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his allies in the Defense Department.  (Pelosi’s version of the “vast right wing conspiracy,” I guess.)  Pelosi suggested yesterday that Rumsfeld may have been involved with leaking her request in order to embarrass her.  She, of course, provided not a shred of evidence for her accusation.  The Bush White House, in a twist, continues to defend Pelosi’s request (though she also attacked them for being part of the conspiracy to embarrass her.) 

 

I tend to think the whole security mentality has gotten out of control here in Washington.  All across our nation’s capital, streets are closed, money is spent, and regular people’s lives are disrupted for seemingly miniscule security benefits.  The White House and city blocks surrounding it have been turned into a virtual no man’s land, cutting the city in two.  And the U.S. Capitol complex is being similarly transformed.  And don’t believe that it is all because of 9/11.  It started well before then and 9/11 simply accelerated the trend.  So an “Air Force 3” for the Speaker of the House is not a surprise, as DC security mentality can lead to elected officials seeing themselves as royalty rather than public servants.        

 

Earlier today, we filed an open records request on the Pelosi matter to get at some of the truths here.  I’ll let you know what we find. 

 

Until next week…

 

Tom Fitton
President

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