Hillary Clinton Inside the White House -
Millennials Don't know the real Hillary Clinton History
NEW
YORK — As a White House staffer who worked directly adjacent to Hillary
Clinton’s second floor West Wing office, Linda Tripp was afforded a front row
seat to some of the most infamous scandals to rock the Bill Clinton White
House.
Tripp
possesses insider information on the scandals known as Travelgate, Filegate and
Whitewater, and she personally witnessed the handling of documents from Vince
Foster’s office the morning after the Deputy White House Counsel was found dead
in an apparent suicide. Foster was heavily involved in defending the Clintons
in the Travelgate, Filegate and Whitewater cases. Tripp was the last person
known to have spoken to Foster before his death.
In
an exclusive interview, Tripp reopened each of those scandals – Travelgate,
Filegate, Whitewater and the issues surrounding Vince Foster’s death – and she
used her unique vantage point to explain how the notorious cases foreshadowed
many of the current Clinton controversies, from the Clinton Foundation to
Hillary Clinton’s private email server troubles.
Tripp
spoke in an hour-long interview set to air in full on this reporter’s Sunday
night talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” broadcast on New
York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia.
Tripp
is well-known for her role in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, documenting evidence
of the young intern’s relationship with Bill Clinton and submitting the
documentation to independent counsel Kenneth Starr, leading to the public
disclosure of the affair.
However,
many people may be surprised to learn of Tripp’s larger role in the West Wing,
and her firsthand experiences behind the curtain of the Clinton scandal
machine.
Tripp
was brought to the Clinton administration from the George H.W. Bush White
House, where she served as executive assistant to the deputy chief of staff to
the president, a role that enabled her to become familiar with the inner
workings of the West Wing.
During
the Clinton administration, she first served as support staff to the Immediate
Office of the President, where she sat just outside Bill Clinton’s Oval Office.
After three months, Foster asked Tripp to work for the White House Counsel’s
office as executive assistant to White House Counsel Bernie Nussbaum, who
played a lead role in defending the Clintons in their infamous scandals.
No
respect for classified, sensitive documents
As
a crossover staffer from the Bush White House, Tripp explained that she
observed significant differences in the manner in which classified material was
handled by both the Clinton and Bush administrations. She personally witnessed
behavior that may have foreshadowed Clinton’s future email issues in which the
presidential candidate sent sensitive data over her personal server and later
deleted about 30,000 emails.
During
the Bush administration, Tripp said that “everything I had to come to know as
protocol for the handling of classified information was followed very strictly…
In the Bush White House, classification was critical, followed and adhered to
with great, great detail.”
In
contrast, Tripp says, she observed a “cavalier, loosey-goosey, this isn’t
important, don’t be a prude [attitude]” toward the handling of sensitive
information.
“Because
I would often bring up the fact that this had to happen. That this was not a
luxury. This was a necessity. And classified material is just part and parcel
of working in the West Wing of the White House on a daily basis,” she
explained. “So there was sort of a disregard for any of the rules. They
certainly didn’t apply to them. And that was startling.”
One
of several examples Tripp cited during our interview was the manner in which
the Clinton White House handled the processing of comprehensive security and
background checks for incoming aides and advisors.
She
explained:
“When
the Clintons came in, I think one thing that was very startling right from the
beginning was in order to even work in the West Wing you have to have an
extremely comprehensive background security review. And it is generally a
90-day process. It costs thousands upon thousands of dollars per person. And at
the end of that time you receive your security clearance at whatever level you
are secured. Mine was top secret and above.
“Also
just as an example, …when I got to the Bush White House I couldn’t even enter
the West Wing even though I was hired to support the West Wing until my 90-day
security review had been completed.
“Now
in the Clinton White House it was a year before I would say 95% of the senior
advisors to President Clinton and their support staff in the West Wing even
filled out the paperwork.”
Filegate:
Hillary and her ‘sense of paranoia’
The
White House FBI files controversy, also known as “Filegate,” revolved around
the West Wing wrongly accessing FBI security-clearance documents on hundreds of
current and former government employees, including Republican figures such as
former top Republican presidential advisors.
During
our interview, Tripp discussed what she observed with regard to Filegate and
the scandal’s pivotal actor, Craig Livingstone, director of the White House’s
Office of Personnel Security. Livingstone ultimately resigned from his position
amid rumours he was not qualified for the position; that Hillary Clinton
personally requested and read the files; and that Livingstone was put in charge
of personal security at Clinton’s behest.
Tripp
viewed Hillary Clinton’s alleged involvement in accessing the secretive files
as “a great example of how she perceives life in general. There’s a huge sense
of them-versus-us. A huge sense of paranoia. A huge hatred of Republicans. And
it’s mind-boggling.”
Tripp
knew Livingstone fairly well from her position inside the West Wing. She
questioned Livingstone’s qualifications, explaining he was “known as someone
during the ‘92 campaign who had dressed up as a chicken and heckled the first
President Bush at his campaign stops.”
“And
he was also known as an intricate part of their opposition research,” Tripp
continued. “So essentially coming up with negative information about the first
President Bush during that campaign.”
She
added:
“The
reason that I had anything to do with him was that the chief of White House
security in a loose way reported to the counsel to the president (Bernie
Nussbaum), who was my boss. But Craig Livingstone was a former bar bouncer.
That was his claim to fame. So the notion that this former bar bouncer was the
chief of White House security was beyond chilling to anyone who knew how that
office functioned in the previous administration.
“It
just defied comprehension. And worse, his claim was that he was hired by
Hillary. And Bernie (Nussbaum) knew nothing about that. Bernie had no idea how
he was hired. He just knew that that was his job.”
…And
these were all files of perceived Clinton enemies. They were all Republicans.
And what was so chilling about that was Craig Livingstone himself having
essentially ownership of these raw data FBI Files.”
Tripp
says Filegate, especially the mistreatment of sensitive information, was a
sampling of a larger pattern that continues to this day.
“I
don’t think sensitive material – or classified information, for that matter –
was something they considered at all. And I know that is a strong statement to
make,” Tripp said. “But I believe that what was more important to Mrs. Clinton
was control. Control of the information flow. The ability to smear those who
would speak against them. And the ability to control the message. So
classification wasn’t a big deal and I think you can see that and what has
happened just this past year. With what happened at the state Department. It is
really just a continuation of a pattern.”
Vince
Foster Death Episode: Hillary oversaw document sifting
The
death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster on July 20, 1993 shocked the
nation.
His
untimely death came as Bill and Hillary Clinton were being investigated for the
White House travel office controversy, also known as Travelgate, the first
major public controversy for the Clinton administration.
Foster
was found dead in Virginia’s Fort Marcy Park with an autopsy concluding the
cause of death was a “perforating gunshot wound mouth-head.”
Five
official or governmental investigations concluded that he committed suicide.
The nature of Foster’s work, as well as the six days it took before Foster’s
suicide note was found, led to speculation and conspiracies about his death.
“He
was the one who was to oversee everything from Whitewater to Travelgate, to
Filegate, to everything that had anything to do with any of these scandals,”
recalled Tripp. “Regardless of whether these scandals had occurred before they
got to the White House or after.”
Tripp
recalled receiving a phone call from Bill Clinton’s secretary at around
midnight the night that Foster died, and “it was just a complete tragedy.”
“My
first question to the president’s secretary when she called and said, ‘Vince is
dead. He killed himself’ — my first question was, how did you know he killed
himself? This was midnight. I was in bed. It was just so surreal.”
Things
became “unusual and noteworthy from that point on,” she said.
Tripp
says she was shocked to show up for work the next day to find Foster’s office
not only unsecured, but with a White House staffer inside, handling documents.
She
said the office should have been secured because “at that point, there was no
definitive conclusion as to how he had died. At that point one would have
assumed it was still an investigation.”
Regarding
the sifting of documents, Tripp stated: “When I arrived, Bernie’s other
assistant was literally in Vince’s office going through papers… And I just
couldn’t understand how she couldn’t understand that this had to be a secured
scene.”
I
asked whether she saw the assistant remove any documents.
“I
didn’t,” she replied. “I asked the question and she said she was straightening
his office and then later I think it was said that she may have been looking
for a suicide note. I don’t know. I don’t attribute any nefarious intent to
her. I just felt at the time and strongly felt and believed that this was
inappropriate and that we had a duty and an obligation to preserve whatever
evidence might be there.”
“But
you know, again, it’s just another sort of example of a systemic problem that
existed in the Clinton White House. The rules don’t apply. Ever,” she added.
Tripp
says she was the one who called Secret Service to finally secure Foster’s
workspace:
“I
just couldn’t understand how she (Bernie Nussbaum’s assistant) couldn’t
understand that this had to be a secured scene. For many reasons but certainly
because this was a suspicious death at that point. Of a senior adviser to the
President of the United States. So in the midst of all the closed-door sessions
and the back and forth, finally I called the Secret Service and said, could you
send someone up to cordon off the office and to post a guard.”
The
real “scandal” of Foster’s death was the removal of documents from the
Counsel’s offices following the suicide, Tripp continued, adding that it was
Hillary Clinton who was personally leading those efforts:
“Hillary
oversaw everything that followed in the aftermath of Vince Foster’s death.
Hardly mourning, she sprang into action like a field commander. The very night
he died, her aides were packing up and moving boxes of files to the residence.
Some never surfaced for years, including the Rose Law Firm Billing records
which were under subpoena. They mysteriously surfaced years later in the
Residence of the White House, at a time where it made little difference. What
should have made a difference is that these law firm billing records showed
definitively how extensive her involvement was in the Whitewater mess,
something she had denied under oath.”
Foster’s
death was a watershed moment for the Clinton West Wing, Tripp explained. “From
then on in everything changed,” she said.
Tripp
continued:
“I
mean literally from one minute to the next. Bernie’s office had been an
open-door policy. After that, his door was always closed. And the most trusted
soldiers in the counsel’s office would huddle in there for days on end. And one
of those was Cheryl Mills, who long ago swore a blood oath to the Clintons. And
to this day, I am sure people may have heard her name as being involved in the
email scandal.”
Tripp
singled out Mills as being “extremely instrumental in the days that followed”
Foster’s passing.
She
mused at how Mills is continually involved in allegedly helping to scrub
Clinton scandals, from the Clinton Foundation to Emailgate.
“The
interesting thing about Cheryl Mills — and again this is getting down in the
weeds where most people are just probably not aware of it — but you will recall
the Justice Department allowed Cheryl Mills, who was a witness, if not a
subject to the email investigation, to invoke attorney-client privilege in
order to thwart the attempt to gain information about Clinton’s emails.
“And
she was literally a participant in that procedure. She oversaw the destruction
by bleaching of the emails. She was a critical player and still is. But it’s
interesting because when she was at the State Department, she was Hillary’s
chief of staff but she was not acting in the capacity of a lawyer.
“And
with her involvement personally with Clinton’s private email setup, it’s
amazing that she was an actor in the facts that are literally under criminal
investigation by the FBI. And yet she was allowed to sit in on Hillary’s FBI
investigation as a lawyer. She should never have been allowed to be a
participant as a lawyer. A few years after they both left the state department.
But she was allowed to do that.”
Mills
was also offered limited immunity in the email probe.
Whitewater:
Obstruction of Justice
Tripp
addressed the investigations into Whitewater, controversial real estate
investments by the Clintons and two associates who together formed a failed
company, the Whitewater Development Corporation, which was utilized to make the
at-times shady investments.
Immediately
following Foster’s death, White House senior officials reportedly removed files
from Foster’s office, including those pertaining to the Whitewater real estate
investments.
During
our interview, Tripp stated that “there was a White House task force with very
loyal folks who worked on a daily basis to ensure that no one, no controlling
legal authority at all, had unfettered access to documents or information
having to do with Whitewater.”
Tripp
views the Whitewater controversy as “all of a piece.”
She
stated:
“From
what I can see from my vantage point, Whitewater appeared to be a sleazy land
deal with questionable players. And Hillary at the Rose Law Firm being
personally involved and professionally involved representing some of the sleazy
characters. She didn’t want any of that to get out. You know, one of the
driving forces, sort of a dual quest for unparalleled power, unquestioned power
and the accumulation of vast wealth.
“And
Whitewater was just a get-rich-quick scheme that was questionable at best that
shows sort of the incestuous garbage that was going on in Arkansas, of which
they were a part. And she wanted no one to have access to this information.”
Tripp
opined that the “real” Whitewater scandal, “aside from highlighting an element
of sleaze, was the enormous steps that Hillary took to ensure that essentially
obstruction of justice went on.”
“So
this was an enormously expensive exercise to the taxpayer. And completely
unnecessary had she just provided the documents to begin with,” Tripp added.
Motives
After
the public disclosure of the Lewinsky affair, the news media largely attempted
to paint Tripp as a disloyal friend motivated by money; a greedy opportunist
who betrayed an impressionable young woman purportedly in a bid to sell a book.
The media spin machine went into overdrive, unfairly condemning her as the
villain in an attempt to frame Clinton’s behavior as adulterous rather than
predatory and abusive.
This
narrative falls apart on many levels, especially now, with the benefit of
hindsight.
“The
money I might have made on a book would never have overtaken what I gave up. My
career. My pension. I was making a very decent salary. There was just no way
that a book could have made up for what I would lose,” Tripp said.
“But
the media, in an attempt I suppose to support the Clintons’ perspective,
painted me that way,” she added. “So there is very little the average layperson
can do to fight that media saturation.”
And
Tripp never published a book, as she noted during our interview.
“It’s
actually kind of humorous in a way, if it weren’t so pathetically sad, that
many of the members of the media who painted me as an avarice-driven,
money-grubbing, horrible villain, themselves wrote best-selling books with
their version of events. So I find that somewhat ironic.”
Also,
looking back, Tripp seems to be doing quite well without ever having profited
financially from the Lewinsky affair. She and her husband own a successful
small business, and reportedly live on a $3 million farm in rural Virginia.
Her
difficult decision to expose the Lewinsky affair was motivated in part out of
concern for Lewinsky’s well-being, she said. The intern was acting erratically
toward the end of the affair and Bill Clinton had much to lose with a public
disclosure in light of the Paula Jones lawsuit, Tripp said in a previous
interview with me. And Tripp points out that before she went to Starr, Lewinsky
had informed Bill Clinton that Tripp knew about their relationship, putting
both Lewinsky and Tripp in the crosshairs of the Clinton machine.
“I
say today, and I will continue to say, that I believe Monica Lewinsky is alive
today because of choices I made and action I took,” she said. “That may sound
melodramatic to your listeners. I can only say that from my perspective, I
believe that she and I at the time were in danger, because nothing stands in
the way of these people achieving their political ends.”
But
perhaps most critically, Tripp points out that Clinton’s treatment of Lewinsky
was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the misdeed that finally prompted
Tripp to speak publicly after bearing witness to scandal after scandal,
offenses mostly hidden from the public. Tripp said there were numerous
instances in which she wanted to go public on other issues before the Lewinsky
debacle, but in the end, she was too afraid.
“The
West Wing of the Clinton White House was scandal central, without a doubt,” she
said. “But more importantly, it was a peak behind the corrupt curtain that few
have ever seen and I don’t think will see. And so I wanted to shout from the
rooftops back then and expose what I witnessed.
“But
in the end, I was honestly too much of a coward to do anything at all and that
was primarily because by that point I was a single parent,” Tripp continued.
“And I had had a 20-plus year government career. I would have lost my
retirement. My income. And I knew that it would not be a good outcome to say
much. But it ended up being the president’s horrific abuse of an emotionally
fragile young girl not much older than my own children that finally tipped me
over the edge. And that was years later.”
Tripp
says she is “not the only one who witnessed all of this in the Clinton White
House. But most remain silent. You know, those who dare to speak out are
completely decimated. Their credibility is shredded. Their motivations are
assailed.”
Tripp
said another issue Clinton whistleblowers had at the time was credibility,
explaining the public perception of the Clinton White House was very different
from that which she had experienced:
“You
know, it is very difficult for anyone who has seen behind the curtain to share
that with the general population because I think generally they are so
completely effective – and by them, I mean the Clintons – in their polished
approach to politics to destroy anyone who would speak out against them.
“…I
always wondered why am I being exposed to all of this and the general public is
seeing none of this? In fact, it was so black and white, topsy turvy, “Alice in
Wonderland”-like because virtually everything the public heard was in direct
opposition to what was true.”
From
old to new scandals…the Clinton legacy
Tripp
stressed how the Clinton scandals of the 1990’s foreshadowed many of the
Clinton’s future controversies.
“The
Clintons embody a culture of corruption,” she said. “And corruption can be
insidious. A look at the President, the Attorney General and the FBI Director
over this past year is illuminating. Their eager protection of all things
Hillary could not be construed as anything other than political favoritism. On
steroids. From the tortured interpretation of ‘intent’ by the FBI Director, to
the irregularities at Justice, including the Attorney General’s secret meeting
with Bill Clinton on the tarmac, to President Obama’s enthusiastic defense of
Hillary during a supposed active and ongoing FBI investigation, it all becomes
clear. In fact, President Obama and Hillary jetted off to a campaign event
aboard Air Force One just as Director Comey was announcing his long-awaited
findings. This unnerving split screen optic would simply never have been
allowed to occur had there been any doubt of the outcome.
“The
politicization of a federal criminal investigation should be alarming,” she
concluded. “That they may well have used the power of their offices to control
and manipulate the outcome of a presidential election seems a distinct
possibility. In America. The intent seemed to be to ensure Hillary’s ultimate
triumph over an opponent those in power found unsuitable. That used to be the
exclusive right of the American people. And that is the Clinton legacy.”
Aaron
Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter
