White House Travel Office Controversy - Investigations

Investigations

The travel office affair quickly became the first major ethics controversy of the Clinton presidency and an embarrassment for the new administration. Criticism from political opponents and especially the news media became intense; the White House was later described as having been "paralyzed for a week". Within three days of the firings, World Wide Travel voluntarily withdrew from the White House travel operation and were replaced on a temporary basis by American Express Travel Services. (Later, after a competitive bid, American Express received the permanent role to book press charters.)

Various investigations took place. The role of the White House staff in pressuring the FBI to launch an investigation had been heavily criticized; on May 28, 1993, the FBI issued a report saying it had done nothing wrong in its contacts with the White House. (This conclusion was reiterated by a March 1994 report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility.)

On July 3, 1993, the White House issued its own "strikingly self-critical" 80-page report on the firings. Co-written by Chief of Staff McLarty, it criticized five White House officials, included McLarty himself, Watkins, Kennedy, Cornelius, and another, for dismissing the Travel Office members improperly, for appearing to pressure the FBI into its involvement, and for allowing friends of the Clintons to become involved in a matter they had a business stake in. It said that the employees should instead have been placed on administrative leave. However, the White House said no illegal actions had occurred, and no officials would be terminated; this did not satisfy Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, who called for an independent investigation. As Chief of Staff McLarty personally apologized to the fired Travel Office employees — some of whom had all their personal documents and travel photographs related to years of service thrown out during the firing process — and said they would be given other jobs (which five of them were; Dale and his assistant director retired.) The White House report also contained the initial indications of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's involvement in the firings, saying that she had taken an interest in Travel Office mismanagement and had been informed two days in advance that the firings would take place. There was no indication of involvement from President Clinton himself, although he had earlier taken broad public responsibility for what had happened.

The travel office controversy was later judged to have been a factor in Vince Foster's depression and July 20, 1993, suicide. In his torn-up resignation note from a few days before, he wrote "No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the Travel Office. There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group. The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the travel staff". (In the last part, Foster may have been referring to lax customs treatment by the Travel Office of goods brought back from foreign trips by reporters.) Special prosecutor Robert B. Fiske tangentially investigated travel office events during the first half of 1994, as part of investigating the circumstances surrounding Foster's death.

In July 1993, Congress had requested the non-partisan General Accounting Office investigate the firings; on May 2, 1994, the GAO concluded that the White House did have legal authority to terminate the Travel Office employees without cause, because they served at the pleasure of the president. However, it also concluded that Cornelius, Thomason, and Martens, who all had potential business interests involved, had possibly influenced the decision. Moreover, the GAO report indicated that First Lady Hillary Clinton played a larger role than previously thought before the firings, with Watkins saying she had urged "that action be taken to get 'our people' into the travel office." The First Lady, who had given a written statement to the inquiry, said she did "not recall this conversation with the same level of detail as Mr. Watkins."

In August 1994, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr took over from Fiske in investigating Whitewater, Foster, and indirectly the travel office matter. On July 22, 1995, Hillary Clinton gave a deposition under oath to the Independent Counsel that touched on travel office questions; she denied having had a role in the firings, but was unable to recall many specifics of conversations with Foster and Watkins.

In late 1994, following the 1994 Congressional elections which switched Congress from Democratic to Republican control, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Pennsylvania Republican William Clinger, launched an investigation into the White House Travel Office firings. In October 1995, the committee began hearings on the matter; Clinger soon accused the White House of withholding pertinent documents and sought subpoenas to compel witnesses to appear.

Not all investigations were by governmental bodies. Anti-Clinton magazine The American Spectator latched onto Travelgate, as it would other Clinton scandals real and imagined, describing it as "a story about influence-peddling and sleazy deal-making... in the Clinton White House"; publisher R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. would claim that the magazine's early Travelgate stories provided useful material to the congressional investigations. In general, Clinton administration controversies such as Travelgate allowed opinion magazines and political debate television shows to attract subscribers and viewers.