{"id":50668,"date":"2016-09-29T19:17:02","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T23:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=50668"},"modified":"2016-09-29T19:17:31","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T23:17:31","slug":"50668","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=50668","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Linda Tripp Reopens Vince Foster, Filegate, Travelgate, Whitewater Scandals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ap_98080801088-2-640x480\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by<\/span> AARON KLEIN
\nBREITBART<\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 As a White House staffer who worked directly adjacent to Hillary Clinton\u2019s 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.<\/h2>\n

Tripp possesses insider information on the scandals known as Travelgate, Filegate and Whitewater, and she personally witnessed the handling of documents from Vince Foster\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview, Tripp reopened each of those scandals \u2013 Travelgate, Filegate, Whitewater and the issues surrounding Vince Foster\u2019s death \u2013 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\u2019s private email server troubles.<\/p>\n

Tripp spoke\u00a0in an hour-long interview set to air in full on this reporter\u2019s Sunday night talk radio program, \u201cAaron Klein Investigative Radio,\u201d broadcast on New York\u2019s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Tripp is well-known for her role in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, documenting evidence of the young intern\u2019s relationship with Bill Clinton and submitting the documentation to independent counsel Kenneth Starr, leading to the public disclosure of the affair.<\/p>\n

However, many people may be surprised to learn of Tripp\u2019s larger role in the West Wing, and her firsthand experiences behind the curtain of the Clinton scandal machine.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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\u00a0her to become familiar with the inner workings of the West Wing.<\/p>\n

During the Clinton administration, she first served as support staff to the Immediate Office of the President, where she sat just outside Bill Clinton\u2019s Oval Office. After three months, Foster asked Tripp to work for the White House Counsel\u2019s office as executive assistant to White House Counsel Bernie Nussbaum, who played a lead role in defending the Clintons in their infamous scandals.<\/p>\n

No respect for classified, sensitive documents<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s future email issues in which the presidential candidate sent sensitive data over her personal server and later deleted about 30,000 emails.<\/p>\n

During the Bush administration, Tripp said that \u201ceverything I had to come to know as protocol for the handling of classified information was followed very strictly\u2026 In the Bush White House, classification was critical, followed and adhered to with great, great detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, Tripp says, she observed a \u201ccavalier, loosey-goosey, this isn\u2019t important, don\u2019t be a prude [attitude]\u201d toward the handling of sensitive information.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause 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,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo there was sort of a disregard for any of the rules. They certainly didn\u2019t apply to them. And that was startling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She explained:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso just as an example, \u2026when I got to the Bush White House I couldn\u2019t even enter the West Wing even though I was hired to support the West Wing until my 90-day security review had been completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Filegate: Hillary and her \u2018sense of paranoia\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The White House FBI files controversy, also known as \u201cFilegate,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

During our interview, Tripp discussed what she observed with regard\u00a0to Filegate and the scandal\u2019s pivotal actor, Craig Livingstone, director of the White House\u2019s 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\u2019s behest.<\/p>\n

Tripp viewed Hillary Clinton\u2019s\u00a0alleged involvement in accessing the secretive files as \u201ca great example of how she perceives life in general. There\u2019s a huge sense of them-versus-us. A huge sense of paranoia. A huge hatred of Republicans. And it\u2019s mind-boggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tripp knew Livingstone fairly well from her position inside the West Wing. She questioned Livingstone\u2019s qualifications, explaining he was \u201cknown as someone during the \u201892 campaign who had dressed up as a chicken and heckled the first President Bush at his campaign stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he was also known as an intricate part of their opposition research,\u201d Tripp continued. \u201cSo essentially coming up with negative information about the first President Bush during that campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026And 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tripp says Filegate, especially the mistreatment of sensitive information, was a sampling of a larger pattern that continues to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think sensitive material \u2013 or classified information, for that matter \u2013 was something they considered at all. And I know that is a strong statement to make,\u201d Tripp said. \u201cBut 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\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vince Foster Death Episode: Hillary oversaw document sifting<\/strong><\/p>\n

The death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster on July 20, 1993 shocked the nation.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Foster was found dead in Virginia\u2019s Fort Marcy Park with an autopsy concluding<\/a> the cause of death was a \u201cperforating gunshot wound mouth-head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five official or governmental investigations concluded that he committed suicide. The nature of Foster\u2019s work, as well as the six days it took before Foster\u2019s suicide note was found, led to speculation and conspiracies about his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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,\u201d recalled Tripp. \u201cRegardless of whether these scandals had occurred before they got to the White House or after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tripp recalled\u00a0receiving a phone call from Bill Clinton\u2019s secretary at around midnight the night that Foster died, and \u201cit was just a complete tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first question to the president\u2019s secretary when she called and said, \u2018Vince is dead. He killed himself\u2019 \u2014 my first question was, how did you know he killed himself? This was midnight. I was in bed. It was just so surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things became \u201cunusual and noteworthy from that point on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tripp says she was shocked to show up for work the next day to find Foster\u2019s office not only\u00a0unsecured, but with a White House staffer inside, handling documents.<\/p>\n

She said the office should have been secured because \u201cat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the sifting of documents, Tripp stated: \u201cWhen I arrived, Bernie\u2019s other assistant was literally in Vince\u2019s office going through papers\u2026 And I just couldn\u2019t understand how she couldn\u2019t understand that this had to be a secured scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked whether she saw the assistant remove any documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t,\u201d she replied. \u201cI 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\u2019t know. I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know, again, it\u2019s just another sort of example of a systemic problem that existed in the Clinton White House. The rules don\u2019t apply. Ever,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Tripp says she was the one who called Secret Service to finally secure Foster\u2019s workspace:<\/p>\n

\u201cI just couldn\u2019t understand how she (Bernie Nussbaum\u2019s assistant) couldn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real \u201cscandal\u201d of Foster\u2019s death was the removal of documents from the Counsel\u2019s offices following the suicide, Tripp continued, adding that it was\u00a0Hillary Clinton who was\u00a0personally leading those efforts:<\/p>\n

\u201cHillary oversaw everything that followed in the aftermath of Vince Foster\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Foster\u2019s death was a watershed moment for the Clinton West Wing, Tripp explained. \u201cFrom then on in everything changed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tripp continued:<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean literally from one minute to the next. Bernie\u2019s office had been an open-door policy. After that, his door was always closed. And the most trusted soldiers in the counsel\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tripp singled out Mills as being \u201cextremely instrumental in the days that followed\u201d Foster\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

She mused at how Mills is continually involved in allegedly helping to scrub Clinton scandals, from the Clinton Foundation to Emailgate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interesting thing about Cheryl Mills \u2014 and again this is getting down in the weeds where most people are just probably not aware of it \u2014 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\u2019s emails.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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\u2019s interesting because when she was at the State Department, she was Hillary\u2019s chief of staff but she was not acting in the capacity of a lawyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd with her involvement personally with Clinton\u2019s private email setup, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mills was also offered<\/a> limited immunity in the email probe.<\/p>\n

Whitewater: Obstruction of Justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Immediately following Foster\u2019s death, White House senior officials reportedly<\/a> removed files from Foster\u2019s office, including those pertaining to the Whitewater real estate investments.<\/p>\n

During our interview, Tripp stated that \u201cthere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tripp views the Whitewater controversy as \u201call of a piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tripp opined that the \u201creal\u201d Whitewater scandal, \u201caside from highlighting an element of sleaze, was the enormous steps that Hillary took to ensure that essentially obstruction of justice went on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this was an enormously expensive exercise to the taxpayer. And completely unnecessary had she just provided the documents to begin with,\u201d Tripp added.<\/p>\n

Motives<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/a>, unfairly condemning her as the villain in an attempt to frame Clinton\u2019s behavior as adulterous rather than predatory and abusive.<\/p>\n

This narrative falls apart on many levels, especially now, with the benefit of hindsight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Tripp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the media, in an attempt I suppose to support the Clintons\u2019 perspective, painted me that way,\u201d she added. \u201cSo there is very little the average layperson can do to fight that media saturation.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Tripp never published a book, as she noted during our interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually kind of humorous in a way, if it weren\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> live on a $3 million farm in rural Virginia.<\/p>\n

Her difficult decision to expose the Lewinsky affair was motivated in part out of concern for Lewinsky\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she said. \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

But perhaps most critically, Tripp points out that Clinton\u2019s treatment of Lewinsky was the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back, the misdeed that finally prompted Tripp to speak publicly after bearing witness to scandal after scandal, offenses mostly hidden from the public.\u00a0Tripp 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe West Wing of the Clinton White House was scandal central, without a doubt,\u201d she said. \u201cBut more importantly, it was a peak behind the corrupt curtain that few have ever seen and I don\u2019t think will see. And so I wanted to shout from the rooftops back then and expose what I witnessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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,\u201d Tripp continued. \u201cAnd 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tripp says she is \u201cnot 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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 \u2013 and by them, I mean the Clintons \u2013 in their polished approach to politics to destroy anyone who would speak out against them.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I 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, \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d-like because virtually everything the public heard was in direct opposition to what was true.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From old to new scandals\u2026the Clinton legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tripp stressed how the Clinton scandals of the 1990\u2019s foreshadowed many of the Clinton\u2019s future controversies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Clintons embody a culture of corruption,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd 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 \u2018intent\u2019 by the FBI Director, to the irregularities at Justice, including the Attorney General\u2019s secret meeting with Bill Clinton on the tarmac, to President Obama\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe politicization of a federal criminal investigation should be alarming,\u201d she concluded. \u201cThat 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/big-government\/2016\/09\/29\/linda-tripp-reopens-vince-foster-filegate-travelgate-scandals\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by AARON KLEIN BREITBART NEW YORK \u2014 As a White House staffer who worked directly adjacent to Hillary Clinton\u2019s second floor West Wing office, Linda Tripp was afforded a front row seat to some of the most infamous scandals to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}