Hillary Clinton conceived plan to sell seats on Commerce Dept. trade missions in exchange for political contributions, Panetta and Podesta ordered Ron Brown to obstruct justice, Judicial Committee evidence, Hillary lied Ron Brown died
“This time, the Clintons use a reluctant Air Force and a nearly mutinous Armed Forces Institute of Pathology to bury Ron Brown as quickly as possible, literally and figuratively. They exploit Brown’s death for political advantage and leave the truth buried with him. Without an autopsy or a serious investigation, that is where it remains to this day.”…WND September 29, 2004
“Hillary lied Americans died”…Citizen Wells
“The devil’s in that woman.”…Miss Emma, Clinton’s cook, governor’s mansion
The devil in the details in the White House
Hillary Clinton conceived the plan to sell seats on Commerce Dept. trade missions in exchange for political contributions as revealed by Judicial Watch and included in the House Judiciary Committee Evidentiary Record December 1998.
“IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON
__________
THE EVIDENTIARY RECORD
PURSUANT TO S. RES. 16
VOLUME VII
Transcript of October 5, 1998 presentations of David Schippers and Abbe
Lowell, and debate on H. Res. 581, beginning an impeachment inquiry.
Committee Print, Ser. No. 8, December 1998″
“Mr. Barr. Mr. Chairman, I also ask unanimous consent to
insert the Judicial Watch Interim Report dated September 28,
1998.
Mr. Hyde. Without objection.”
“Judicial Watch Interim Report on Crimes and Other Offenses Committed by
President Bill Clinton Warranting His Impeachment and Removal from
Elected Office”
“Through discovery in its civil lawsuit against the Clinton Commerce
Department, Judicial Watch also has found evidence that President
Clinton condoned and participated in a scheme, conceived by First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton and approved by the President, to sell seats on
U.S. Department of Commerce trade missions in exchange for political
contributions. Bribery is specifically highlighted in the U.S.
Constitution as an offense warranting impeachment.
In President Clinton’s push to sell taxpayer-financed government
services to raise money for his political operations, national security
likely was breached by his Commerce Department appointees and those
involved in his fundraising scheme, such as John Huang. While Judicial
Watch is at an interim stage of investigation in this sensitive area,
the breaches of national security uncovered at the Clinton Commerce
Department raise real questions of treasonous activities by the
President and members of his Administration.
To cover-up this illegal fundraising and likely national security
breaches, President Clinton’s top two staffers, then-Chief of Staff
Leon Panetta and Deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta, ordered late
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown to obstruct justice and defy federal Court
orders. The evidence also indicates that Secretary Brown personally
consulted with President Clinton in furtherance of this cover-up.
In addition to the illegal sale of taxpayer-financed services, such
as seats on government trade missions, for political contributions, the
President and Mrs. Clinton have illegally solicited and received monies
directly from private citizens and others. The creation and use of
legal defense funds is not only prohibited under federal law, but they
have proved to be a means whereby lobbyists, influence peddlers and
foreign powers have tried to influence the Administration, contrary to
U.S. national security interests.”
“After the elections of 1994, and the Democrats’ loss of
Congress, I became aware, through my discussions with [late
Commerce Secretary] Ron [Brown], that the trade missions were
being used as a fundraising tool for the upcoming Clinton-Gore
presidential campaign and the Democratic Party. Specifically,
Ron told me that domestic companies were being solicited to
donate large sums of money in exchange for their selection to
participate on trade missions of the Commerce Department. Ron
expressed to me his displeasure that the purpose of the
Commerce trade missions had been and were being perverted at
the direction of The White House.
Affidavit of Nolanda Butler Hill, January 17, 1998
(131)
* * * * *
Question: You are aware, however, that Alexis Herman would
set up briefing sessions for participants that went on trade
missions before they went overseas? You were aware of that?
Nolanda Hill: I was.
Question: And at those briefing sessions appeared the
President and Vice President.
Nolanda Hill: I was told that by Secretary Brown.
* * * * *
Question: You’ve mentioned, to some extent–I’ll let your
testimony speak for itself–Harold Ickes. Anybody else? . . .
Nolanda Hill: Ultimately, [Ron Brown] believed that the
President of the United States was, at least tangentially.
Question: Involved?
Nolanda Hill: Yes, sir. It was his re-election that was at
stake.
Question: Ron believed that the President of the United
States knew the trade missions were being sold and their
purpose being perverted?
Nolanda Hill: Yes, sir.
Nolanda Butler Hill Court Testimony, March 23, 1998
(132)
In the Fall of 1994, Judicial Watch first became aware of evidence
that the Clinton Commerce Department was illegally selling seats on its
international trade missions in exchange for political
contributions.(133) Reports in Business Week and The Wall
Street Journal showed that there was a high incidence of Democratic
Party contributors on these taxpayer-financed trade
missions.(134)
The fact that the President installed the former head of the
Democratic National Committee, Ronald H. Brown, as Commerce Secretary
also raised concerns about Clinton Commerce Department operations. When
Brown brought his entire DNC fundraising staff with him to Clinton
Commerce, these suspicions increased.
After Judicial Watch filed requests with the Clinton Commerce
Department for information regarding these trade missions under the
Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), it was immediately stonewalled
and was forced to file a lawsuit in 1995 to obtain the requested
information.(135) Even after filing suit, the Clinton
Administration continued to stonewall.(136)
Over the next three (3) years, Judicial Watch, in its efforts to
uncover what the Clinton Commerce Department was hiding from the
American people, found substantial, compelling evidence that seats on
Clinton Commerce Department trade missions were indeed being sold in
exchange for campaign contributions, with the knowledge and complicity,
if not at the direction of, officials at the highest levels of the
Clinton White House, including the President, Hillary Rodham Clinton
and Vice President Al Gore. In addition, Judicial Watch’s attempts to
uncover the truth were obstructed through perjury, obstruction of
justice, intimidation and retaliation that has marred other recent
investigation of Clinton scandals, including the Paula Jones and Monica
Lewinsky matters. In short, the court process was obstructed by Clinton
appointees at his Commerce Department and elsewhere by:
Perjury;
Submission of false sworn declarations;
Destruction and shredding of evidence;
Improperly withholding documents contrary to Court
orders;
Threats and intimidation of witnesses and
investigators; and
Misconduct by Clinton Administration lawyers.
Nevertheless, Judicial Watch, through its investigations and the
legal discovery process, found “smoking gun” documents detailing the
sale the trade mission seats for campaign contributions in the files of
the Clinton White House, Clinton Commerce Department, and the DNC,
including:
Memos from the Clinton White House files of Harold
Ickes and Alexis Herman showing that the $100,000 DNC Managing
Trustee Program included the sale of the Clinton Commerce
Department trade mission seats (among other government-financed
perks) and was designed to net President Clinton’s DNC
political operation $40 million; (137)
A brochure by the Democratic National Committee
showing that “foreign trade mission” seats were available for
$100,000 contributions to the DNC; (138)
A list of DNC minority donors found in the files of
a key Clinton Commerce Department Official; (139)
A Clinton Commerce Department memo indicating that
the DNC donors were input into the Commerce Department
government database;(140) and
A DNC memo showing that the DNC provided the names
of donors to the Clinton Commerce Department for trade missions
to Russia and Belgium.(141)
In January 1998, Judicial Watch uncovered a witness, Nolanda Butler
Hill, a close confidante and business partner of late Commerce
Secretary Brown, with whom Secretary Brown had shared key details about
the campaign-contributions-for-seats-on-trade-missions scheme, as well
as the Clinton Administration’s efforts to stonewall Judicial Watch’s
lawsuit. Secretary Brown had even shown important documents to Ms. Hill
that detailed this unlawful sale of taxpayer-financed government
services. With Ms. Hill’s uncontroverted testimony providing the
capstone to its investigation, Judicial Watch has proven beyond all
reasonable doubt that not only was the Clinton Administration engaged
in an unlawful scheme to sell seats on Commerce Department trade
missions in exchange for campaign contributions, but that a criminal
cover-up was ordered by President Clinton’s top aides to thwart
Judicial Watch’s Court-ordered investigation and to hide the
culpability of the President, Mrs. Clinton, the Clinton Administration
and the DNC for their use of Commerce Department trade missions as a
political fundraising vehicle.
Ms. Hill testified that then White House Chief of Staff Leon
Panetta and Deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta ordered Commerce
Secretary Brown to defy Court orders and obstruct the Judicial Watch
suit until after the 1996 federal elections. Ms. Hill’s sworn testimony
implicated the President’s top staff members in obstruction of justice.
Ms. Hill also tied the sale of trade mission seats directly to
President Clinton. In both a sworn affidavit and Court testimony, Ms.
Hill explained that:
The First Lady conceived of the idea to sell the
trade mission seats in exchange for political contributions;
The President knew of and approved this scheme;
The Vice President participated in this scheme;
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown helped implement the
illegal fundraising operation out of the Clinton Commerce
Department;
Presidential White House aides Harold Ickes and (now
Labor Secretary) Alexis Herman helped orchestrate the sale of
the Commerce trade mission seats;
The President’s top fundraisers at the DNC and his
reselection campaign (Marvin Rosen and Terrence McAuliffe)
helped coordinate the selling of these taxpayer resources in
exchange for political contributions;
Presidential Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and Deputy
Chief of Staff John Podesta ordered the cover-up of these
activities; and
The President’s appointees at the Commerce
Department have committed perjury, destroyed and suppressed
evidence, and likely breached our nation’s security.”
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