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PREZ BILL KEPT DOZENS OF FOREIGN GIFTS SECRET
New York Post ^ | 10/10/02 | VINCENT MORRIS

Posted on 10/10/2002 12:00:03 AM PDT by kattracks

Edited on 05/26/2004 5:09:25 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

October 10, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton was showered with pricey gifts while he was in office from the leaders of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, but he didn't disclose them because they were earmarked for his presidential library in Arkansas, a new report yesterday revealed.


(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: art; bribes; bronzestatue; charlietrie; cheeseplate; chiefsblanket; chiluly; china; chinagate; christmastree; chung; clinton; clintonlibrary; countthesilver; crooks; dalechiluly; deniserich; financing; giftgate; gifts; giltframe; glass; gold; goldcross; handbags; handblownglass; hushmoney; indonesia; influencepeddling; jamesriady; jewelry; johnniechung; judithlieber; larryrockefeller; library; lieber; littlerock; mandela; marcrich; markrich; moneyandinfluence; navajoblanket; necklace; nelsonmandela; nigeria; nondisclosure; pardongate; pearlnecklace; porcelainteapot; presidentiallibrary; profiteering; riady; rockefeller; saudiarabia; sleaze; smoozing; southafrica; statueofanangel; sword; trie; unreportedgifts
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1 posted on 10/10/2002 12:00:03 AM PDT by kattracks
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To: kattracks
Former President Bill Clinton was showered with pricey gifts while he was in office from the leaders of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, but he didn't disclose them because they were earmarked for his presidential library in Arkansas...

...where his new apartment will be located.

2 posted on 10/10/2002 12:02:27 AM PDT by HAL9000
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To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
Ping.
3 posted on 10/10/2002 12:02:28 AM PDT by patriciaruth
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To: kattracks
he didn't disclose them because they were earmarked for his presidential library in Arkansas

AFTER they used them! The presidential library for the ClintonS is such a joke. That's an excuse for everything they do wrong and ILLEGAL. Just another way to funnel money and other goodies to them personally.

4 posted on 10/10/2002 12:06:58 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: Howlin; Miss Marple; Dog; JeanS; Carolinamom; Utah Girl; illstillbe
FYI
5 posted on 10/10/2002 12:08:13 AM PDT by kayak
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: kattracks
The lavish gifts included a $75,000 gold sword and clock, $45,000 diamond- and emerald-encrusted cufflinks and a watch, paintings and gold bracelets worth $31,540.

Clinton also got a $90,000 Harry Truman-signed letter from Malcolm Forbes, a $50,000 photograph owned by Vietnam War Memorial designer Maya Lin, and a $9,000 old Navajo blanket from Larry Rockefeller.

It seems the New York Times left out a few things. Imagine that?!

I'm sure the jewelry won't be used by them later on either. /sarcasm

7 posted on 10/10/2002 12:10:32 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: HAL9000
G.O.P. Inquiry Lists Gifts to Clintons in White House
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ


ASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — Denise Rich, Malcolm S. Forbes, Nelson Mandela and other friends and supporters of the Clintons showered the couple with roughly $1 million in previously unreported gifts during the Clinton presidency, according to documents released by Republican Congressional investigators.

The gifts vary from tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry, rugs and furnishings to a $90,000 framed handwritten letter by President Harry S. Truman, a $10,000 Mickey Mantle trading card from 1952 and nine rare books, according to the documents.

The gifts were not disclosed by the Clintons because the couple turned them over to Bill Clinton's presidential library, the investigators said. Under federal law, gifts that the first family do not keep for themselves are exempt from the public disclosure requirement on presidential gifts, the investigators said.

The findings are contained in a 319-page report that provides a detailed account of gifts that the Clintons received in the White House. The report was compiled after a months-long inquiry by Republican investigators on a House Government Reform subcommittee.

Responding to the report, James E. Kennedy, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton, said: "This story is so old, it's not just dated, it's carbon-dated."

Philippe Reines, speaking for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, also dismissed the report, saying, "Despite a concerted effort to turn a partisan preoccupation into a gift that keeps on giving, there is nothing new here."

The findings, compiled from information contained on the White House gift database, were released this morning during a meeting of the full committee. The report was commissioned by Representative Doug Ose, a California Republican, who is seeking to build support for legislation he has proposed to tighten the rules on gifts to presidents.

He suggested that the people who gave these gifts to the Clintons could have been trying to gain access to the White House and influence the administration's policy decisions.

In February the committee issued a preliminary report in which investigators detailed nearly $400,000 in gifts that the Clintons took with them upon leaving the White House. But the report said that the Clintons underestimated the value of dozens of those gifts.

The February report also said the Clintons did not report dozens of the gifts because their value was set below the threshold for reporting gifts on disclosure statements. The threshold was $250 from 1993 to 1998, and $260 from 1999 on.

The report released today contains a new round of potentially embarrassing information. It documents an array of gifts that the Clintons received and the names of the people who gave those gifts.

There was a $2,000 bronze statue of an angel from Denise Rich; a $9,000 hand-woven Navajo chief's blanket (circa 1885) from Larry Rockefeller; and an oil painted in a gilt frame, a cheese plate, a porcelain teapot, a gold cross and other items totaling $6,000 from Nelson Mandela.

Then there were other gifts that investigators say the Clintons may have used before donating them to the presidential library: nine custom-made tuxedo and dress shirts worth $900 from Walter and Selma Kaye; and four purses worth $8,680 from the handbag designer Judith Leiber.

The report also shows that the former first family received gifts from individuals who were at the center of the Clinton White House campaign finance scandals. To investigators and others, that suggests that the gifts became another avenue for influencing the administration.

There was a $2,100 sculpture of a goddess on a wooden base given by James Riady, an Indonesian businessman who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations last year and agreed to pay $8.6 million in fines for using foreign corporate money to back Mr. Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. The Clintons also received two sculptures worth $1,550 from Johnny Chung, who was at the center of a 1996 campaign fund-raising investigation.

The report prompted sharp criticism from government-reform advocates, who said the Clintons acted inappropriately if not illegally, by not reporting the gifts.

"It's a serious allegation if it's true," said Gary Ruskin, the director of the Congressional Accountability Project, a watchdog group. "The least you can say is that they are trying to evade gift reporting."



8 posted on 10/10/2002 12:14:12 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: kcvl
This is nothing. This is diddly. [Sigh.] A million dollars illegally acquired would be enough to get the Torch booted from highly liberal NJ, perhaps. A million dollars illegally acquired would be enough to get any conservative removed from the Senate or House [such as Trafficant], but this is a little nothing for Clinton, compared to his pardon of bomb terrorists, the transfer of nuclear tech to China for campaign cash, the strange death of Ron Brown, the TAINTED BLOOD scandal that killed thousands, Waco that happened to buff off four of his body guards, the Jerry Parks-Foster connection, the strange death of Betty Currie's brother [yes a strange death linked to Monicagate], the illegal firing of FBI director William Sessions, and a host of other things that dwarfs this petty little million dollar moment.
9 posted on 10/10/2002 1:44:40 AM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March
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To: rosebud
When????????
10 posted on 10/10/2002 2:35:52 AM PDT by Howlin
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To: HAL9000; kcvl
Isn't it a fact that, even though they are "donated" to the library, the Clinons have access to them for use at that multitude of "homes?"
11 posted on 10/10/2002 2:39:26 AM PDT by Howlin
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To: Howlin
that is my feeling too. too often we are left with this burning in our bellies over some Dem outrage and always we wait for them to get their's. it NEVER happens! when is justice going to prevail???
12 posted on 10/10/2002 2:44:39 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: Howlin
Yes, absolutely! They certainly know how to use and abuse everything they touch.

They can just run the donations(money or material things) through whichever "system" they decide to make it look legal but then transfer it without ever telling anyone. Who is going to hold them accountable? NO ONE so far is even willing to touch the subject.

Remember the $2,000 pearl necklace from the chinese guy(I'll think of his name in a minute...I think it started with a "T") who testified to giving it to Hillary but she COULDN'T REMEMBER. I don't see that listed either.

13 posted on 10/10/2002 2:50:20 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: xsmommy; Howlin
I appreciate how frustrating it is waiting for the Clinton's to get their just desserts. I hope and pray we are watching the beginning of that right now. I'm thankful that President Bush won the election (a miracle in itself considering the decades dems have had to perfect their cheating methods) and that he has brought dignity and honor back into the White House. Reno and other Clinton minions losses around the country are sure signs that things are turning around. Should we win back the Senate majority, the conservative agenda will make a comeback.

I'm a firm believer in 'what goes around comes around' and for the time being I'll be satisfied with the knowledge that Hillary's a$$ is getting bigger every day. Their selfish little world will crumble around them, I'm certain of it.
14 posted on 10/10/2002 2:55:41 AM PDT by Quilla
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To: Howlin
newly released transcripts of Trie's FBI interrogation revealed that the onetime Little Rock Chinese restaurateur was much closer to the first lady than generally had been known.

Yes, Trie had, on at least one occasion, given the first lady a pearl necklace; which may or may not be important. What's surely significant, though, is the level of familiarity between Mrs. Clinton and Trie's wife as indicated by his testimony.

"(Trie) said that Mrs. Clinton personally led an impromptu tour of the White House living quarters after recognizing Trie's wife among a group of Chinese visitors in 1995." (The Los Angeles Times -- Feb. 6, 2000)

The White House living quarters have always been regarded by the first lady as the Clintons' inner sanctum -- restricted to all but the most highly trusted allies and first family friends. It's unthinkable that Mrs. Clinton would have invited Charlie Trie's wife for a tour of her residence without knowing both her and her husband very well, including the fact that Trie himself was not particularly wealthy.

15 posted on 10/10/2002 2:56:01 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: kcvl
Charlie Trie.

You know, I can understand the letter and photograph being in the library, but not the jewelry, unless they are going to set up an exhibit like the CROWN JEWELS in the Tower of London, and what about the nine Tuxedo shirts? Why are THOSE at the library?

16 posted on 10/10/2002 2:59:35 AM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: Howlin
Howlin, when we were going over this stuff during the transition, there were two Judith Lieber handbags unaccounted for. NOW there are FOUR!

Judith Lieber handbags start at $1500 and go up from there. They are fancy evening bags in the shape of animals, shells, flowers, etc. and rich people collect them.

There is no reason to have four of those at the library. (Bet you that they were given to wives of heads of state and I will bet you the re-gifter wrote the gifts off on their taxes.)

17 posted on 10/10/2002 3:03:40 AM PDT by Miss Marple
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: Quilla
"Their selfish little world will crumble around them, I'm certain of it."

If there is a God! But really, is there always JUSTICE in our world?

19 posted on 10/10/2002 3:09:25 AM PDT by ChasingFletch
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To: skull stomper
We were warned a long time ago by Billy Dale just exactly what kind of trash the clintons were when he said he would stand outside of the WH when the clintons left, holding a sign that said "COUNT THE SILVER"!
20 posted on 10/10/2002 3:09:48 AM PDT by kattracks
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