By Nick O'Malley
The scandals
- Gennifer Flowers
- White House Travel Office
- Vince Foster
- Paula Jones
- FBI Files
- Whitewater
- Rose Law Firm
- Monica Lewinsky
- Lincoln Bedroom
- Presidential pardons
- Benghazi
- Emails
- Clinton Foundation
- WikiLeaks
GENNIFER FLOWERS (1992)
THE ALLEGATION - That Bill Clinton had sex with multiple women during his marriage to Hillary Clinton. The rumours came to national attention in January 1992, when Gennifer Flowers told the supermarket tabloid The Star that she had a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton, who denied it, though he admitted on 60 Minutes of causing "pain" in his marriage.
RESULT - Flowers promised to produce audio tapes that would confirm the affair, but she never did and since she was paid for her story, the allegation failed to destroy Clinton's presidential campaign.
However, in a 1998 deposition with Paula Jones' lawyers, Clinton admitted to a one-night stand with Flowers in 1977.
WHITE HOUSE TRAVEL OFFICE (1993-1998)
THE ALLEGATION - That Hillary Clinton fired seven staffers in the White House travel office in 1993 and replaced them with a firm with ties to the Clintons.
Gennifer Flowers during a 1992 interview at the height of the Clinton affair scandal.Credit: AP
RESULT - Multiple investigations cleared the president of any involvement, though an investigation found Mrs Clinton played a "substantial role" in the firings, despite her assertion that she played no role at all. On the first day of Clinton's impeachment hearings – 17 November 1998 – independent counsel Kenneth Starr exonerated the Clintons.
VINCE FOSTER (1993)
THE ALLEGATION - Vince Foster, a childhood friend of Bill Clinton and a senior staffer in the White House, suffering from clinical depression, committed suicide in a federal park in Virginia. Republican conspiracy theorists suggested Foster was murdered by someone connected to the Clintons and his body dumped in the park.
RESULT - Three separate investigations found Foster committed suicide, brought on by depression which had been aggravated by attacks against him by Republicans and the Wall Street Journal.
PAULA JONES (1994-1998)
THE ALLEGATION - Former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones filed suit against Bill Clinton in May, alleging that in 1991 then-Governor Clinton approached her privately, exposed himself and propositioned her for sex. Clinton denied it and Jones claimed his denials amounted to defamation. She asked for $US750,000 in damages. Clinton tried to get the trial delayed until after his presidency, but the courts allowed the case to proceed. In August 1997 a judge dismissed the defamation charge and set a trial date for May 1998. Jones' lawyers then withdrew when she refused a settlement and her case was taken up by the right-wing Rutherford Institute. While the case was proceeding, Jones' lawyers learned President Clinton was carrying on a consensual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, who swore in an affidavit that she had not had sex with President Clinton. Meanwhile, Lewinsky's friend, Linda Tripp, recorded telephone conversations between the two women, during which Lewinsky discussed her sexual relationship with President Clinton. Tripp took the tapes to independent counsel Kenneth Starr, a Republican lawyer investigating Whitewater with little success. The judge in the Jones lawsuit eventually blocked all information about Lewinsky from the case.
RESULT - Jones' case was thrown out by the judge in April 1998. Jones appealed and Clinton eventually settled out of court with her for $US850,000 in November 1998.
FBI FILES (1996-1998)
THE ALLEGATION - Clinton White House chief of personnel security improperly requested and received personnel files on hundreds of people. Craig Livingstone resigned in disgrace, but Republicans alleged the President and Mrs Clinton were involved in the affair and used the files for political purposes.
RESULT - Investigators found no credible evidence of any involvements by the Clintons and they were cleared completely. On the first day of Clinton's impeachment hearings – 17 November 1998 – independent counsel Kenneth Starr exonerated the Clintons.
WHITEWATER (1992-1998)
THE ALLEGATION - That the Clintons knew of a fraudulent loan made to their partners in a real estate venture that resulted in a $60 million loss to taxpayers. The Clintons lost $67,000 on their investment. In January 1996, Clinton became the only First Lady in U.S. history to be subpoenaed and testify before a grand jury.
RESULT - After six years and $50 million spent investigating, no charges were filed against the Clintons due to "insufficient evidence." On the first day of Clinton's impeachment hearings – 17 November 1998 – independent counsel Kenneth Starr admitted there was insufficient evidence to charge the Clintons with any crime.
ROSE LAW FIRM BILLING RECORDS (1994-1996)
THE ALLEGATION - That Mrs Clinton was a frequent legal adviser to people involved in the Whitewater affair as part of her job as a partner at the Rose Law Firm. Her billing records were subpoenaed in 1994, but mysteriously disappeared until 1996.
RESULT - The billing records largely supported Ms Clinton's position, but their two-year disappearance has never been explained.
MONICA LEWINSKY (1998)
THE ALLEGATION - President Clinton had sex with White House staffer Monica Lewinsky and lied about it to investigators.
RESULT - President Clinton was impeached on a party-line vote in the House of Representatives, but acquitted in the Senate. President Clinton emerged more popular than ever, while his chief political antagonist, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, resigned in disgrace after his party was defeated in elections and he was found to have had extramarital affairs of his own. Ms Clinton blamed a "vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."
LINCOLN BEDROOM (1995-1997)
THE ALLEGATION - That President Clinton "rented" overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House to campaign contributors, including Hollywood heavyweights like Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.
RESULT - None. Unseemly, but not illegal and not entirely unusual.
PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS (2000)
THE ALLEGATION - President Clinton pardoned controversial persons in the waning months of his presidency, including tax evader Marc Rich, whose ex-wife made contributions to the Clinton library and Mrs Clinton's Senate campaign.
RESULT - Unseemly, but not illegal. President Clinton's popularity dipped slightly, but his wife was easily elected to the US Senate in 2000.
BENGHAZI (2012-Ongoing)
THE ALLEGATION - A 2012 attack by terrorists on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed four Americans, including the ambassador. Republicans blamed Secretary of State Clinton for an intelligence failure in not anticipating the attack and ordering CIA operatives to not rescue the consulate.
RESULT - Republicans are still investigating, but several Republican-led investigations in Congress have already cleared Clinton of any wrongdoing and concluded there was no stand-down order to the CIA.
E-MAILS (2012-Ongoing)
THE ALLEGATION - As Secretary of State Ms Clinton used a private email instead of the public email for much of her correspondence and thousands of those emails were deleted, thus making them unavailable for inspection as a matter of the public record. Republicans accuse Ms Clinton of illegally using a private email account for for classified information.
RESULT - Unless one of the tens of thousands of emails Ms Clinton turned over to the State Department is deemed "classified," it is very unlikely she will be found to have violated the law. Both her immediate predecessors, Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, used private email at times.
CLINTON FOUNDATION DONATIONS (2012-Ongoing)
THE ALLEGATION – That when Hillary became Secretary of State and her presidential ambitions became clear foreign governments, corporations and individuals donated to the Clinton family's private foundation in order to curry favour with the Clintons.
RESULT – Not even the most critical observers – including Peter Schweizer, author of Clinton Cash – have claimed any laws were broken. A less jaundiced analysis by the Washington Post was sympathetic to his case, but also noted the Clinton Foundation did significant good work around the world. But even some of Hillary's supporters are tired of defending this sort of behaviour and appalled by evidence of avarice.
WIKILEAKS (2016-Ongoing)
THE ALLEGATION - Appearances that some in the Clinton orbit are using the Clinton Foundation for influence peddling. In particular, a 13-page memo written in 2011 by Doug Band, an aide to Bill Clinton, demonstrates how Band solicited corporate donations to the Foundation while also trying to arrange personal business and speaking deals for Bill Clinton, who held no political office at the time. There appears to be no evidence in the leaked emails that Clinton actually did anything for the companies, though most assume he was able to introduce them to other influential people. Interestingly, the emails also show that Chelsea Clinton, the only daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, disapproved of Band's activities and attempted to stop them by creating barriers between the Foundation and Bill Clinton's personal businesses.
THE RESULT - Although various people on the right and at Wikileaks suggested the revelations would destroy Hillary Clinton's candidacy, the public has mostly shrugged at them and they appear to have had little or no impact on the election itself, at least so far. One explanation for this is that no illegal actions have been discovered and what has been discovered - the possibility that Bill Clinton introduces influential people to other influential people, possibly for money - is usually not illegal and is, in fact, the way politics frequently works.