A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Hillary Clinton’s right to privacy means draft indictments prepared during the 1990s-era Whitewater investigation should not be released publicly before Election Day.
The draft indictments, requested by conservative-leaning Judicial Watch, have never been published. The National Archives has, however, made a substantial number of records related to the independent counsel’s expansive probe available in the years since the case was closed in 1998. The draft indictments were written by the special prosecutor’s office.
Those files show investigators doubted the authenticity of Clinton’s statements regarding her relationship to Madison Guaranty, an Arkansas savings and loan trust at the center of a complex scandal that predated her husband’s presidency but made headlines throughout his administration.
The Clintons have always maintained Whitewater was nothing more than a failed real estate deal on which they lost money. But there were allegations they used their political and legal influence to unduly assist their business partners Jim and Susan McDougal.
Hillary Clinton was a partner in the Rose Law Firm, which represented Madison Guaranty during another failed venture. Bill Clinton was accused of applying pressure to help Susan McDougal obtain a six-figure loan, a charge he denied.
Whitewater was investigated by special prosecutors, Congress and reporters trying to untangle the financial relationships and determine whether the Clintons were guilty of any wrongdoing.
Files relevant to the Whitewater investigation went missing, including Hillary Clinton’s Rose Law Firm billing records. Files were allegedly removed from deputy White House counsel Vince Foster’s office after his 1993 suicide during her husband’s first term as president.
Madison Guaranty was shut down at a $73 million cost to the taxpayers. The McDougals and Jim Guy Tucker, Bill Clinton’s successor, were among those convicted as a result of the Whitewater probe.
Memos about the Whitewater case written in 1998, which were obtained by Judicial Watch earlier this year, indicate prosecutors had compiled a convincing volume of evidence against the Clintons and their business partners — and their subsequent attempts to conceal documents from investigators — before determining that the likelihood of convicting the Clintons was too low to pursue criminal charges.
The Monica Lewinsky scandal that resulted in Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the House and acquittal by the Senate ultimately grew out of the Whitewater investigation, which critics complained had become too broad.
