Posted on 02/09/2002 6:59:22 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
In an astonishing reversal of President Bush's nonchalant attitude towards an array of corruption charges against Bill and Hillary Clinton, the president and his aides are now said to be "quietly pushing" a probe into allegations that Clinton staffers trashed the White House in Jan. 2001.
What's more, they've asked that the newly revved up investigation focus on the East Wing, where former first lady Hillary Clinton had her offices.
The shift could mean the GAO probe will also examine evidence that Mrs. Clinton absconded with furniture and other White House artifacts to decorate her private mansions in New York and Washington.
"White House folks suggested we cast as wide a net as possible," GAO director Bernard Ungar told the New York Daily News Saturday, adding that the Bushies wanted to redirect the probe's previous focus from the Eisenhower office building to Mrs. Clinton official digs.
The request for action on the Clinton vandalism charges prompted complaints from GAO chief David Walker, who told the News, "they want us to do more work than is even reasonable."
The Clinton probe could prove distracting to Walker's focus in recent weeks: prying loose White House records on meetings between Vice President Dick Cheney and Enron officials.
Immediately after reports of White House vandalism, Bush seemed to take no interest in the episode and urged the media to look that other way.
"There might have been a prank or two, maybe somebody put a cartoon on the wall, but that's OK." he told reporters. "It's time now to move forward."
But after Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner complained last June that Clinton workers had been unfairly smeared and demanded the Bushies apologize, White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer said the destruction was more extensive then the president had let on.
A list of damages he released included:
75 phones that had been "tampered with," including 10 where the lines had been cut.
Twenty percent of the desks in the Eisenhower Office complex had been overturned.
Obscene graffiti was discovered by Bush staffers in six offices.
A 20-inch-wide presidential seal had been ripped off a wall.
One hundred computer keyboards had been rendered inoperable by the Clinton vandals.
Pornography was left behind in White House photocopiers.
Trash was spilled throughout the White House counsel's office, along with other assorted random damage.
One estimate put the cost of the destruction as high as $250,000.
Bush administration spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the White House counsel's office had photographs of the vandalism, but did not explain why they were not offered to the GAO when the agency first requested proof in April.
In releasing the list of damages, Fleischer explained, "We tried to be gracious, but the last administration would not take graciousness." Claims that Bush staffers had lied about the destruction had forced him to respond, he said.
After Fleischer's comments, the GAO's Ungar began backtracking on his April report that there was no unusual damage to the White House after Clinton staffers departed.
"Ungar said the GAO found accounts of damage that included telephones disconnected from wall jacks, phones with extension numbers defaced and tables and desks that were overturned," reported Newsday, in a follow up story on Fleischer's list.
It's not clear whether the White House's newly aggressive attitude will translate into action in the office of the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District, which has been accused of footdragging in its probe into the Clinton Pardongate scandal.
Oh, I see you have met my x-girlfriend
we shall all continue to pay for the last 8 years of treason. The price is far above monetary value, for it may include many more thousands of lives before all is said and done.
So is perjury, witness tampering, rape, obstruction of justice and murder but that hasn't stopped these criminals yet so why worry about something as petty as stealing?
They can't just leave it at that. Boy-boy, man-boy, man-man, or man-beast.
amazing ain't it? after passing on bank fraud, bribery, perjury, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, treason, murder (to name a few)...they're trying to take down the Klintonistas on charges of vandalism!! (al capone will be turning over in his grave)
What if this sticks with Hillary? Why would she want to either expose herself to the judicial system let alone open the door to the past? Her out card is the old man and she leaves center stage.
Sad. Very sad indeed. And probably true. I dispise what those two sociopaths did to our nation and am very sad that they took the DNC, already in trouble ethically, down into the depths wherein they slum.
Got a really hot tip for jr.'s Justice Dept. --- Hillary stole the towels and toliet paper when she left too.
I was home Saturday morning reading news when I found this, posted it thinking since it was weekend, even though the story was good it would die soon. Much to my amazement here we are today with still ongoing opinions.
Hillary was caught about as red-handed as you can get in the cattle-gate stuff. What happened? Nothing.
History will judge them poorly, but as far as the law goes they'' get off.
So you like? Got a million of them....LOL
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