Bill Clinton

Clinton, in newly revealed emails, discussed classified foreign policy matters, secretive 'private' comms channel with Israel

A newly unearthed batch of heavily redacted, classified emails from Hillary Clinton's personal email server revealed that the former secretary of state discussed establishing a "private, 100% off-the-record" back channel to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that one of her top aides warned her that she was in "danger" of being "savaged by Jewish organizations, in the Jewish press and among the phalanx of neoconservative media" as a result of political machinations by "Bibi and the Jewish leadership."

The 756-page group of new documents, revealed Thursday as part of a transparency lawsuit by Judicial Watch, seemingly contradicted Clinton's insistence under oath in 2015 that she had turned over all of her sensitive work-related emails to the State Department, and included a slew of classified communications on everything from foreign policy to State Department personnel matters.

The files came from a trove of 72,000 documents the FBI recovered and turned over to the State Department in 2017.

The documents, representing a small proportion of the tens of thousands of emails still unaccounted for from Clinton's server, also underscored the apparently significant political threat that the Obama administration felt it faced at the hands of Israel.

Additionally, according to the email dump, Clinton chatted with former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair about classified foreign policy matters before she was sworn in, aided the application of at least one State Department applicant who was connected to her daughter, Chelsea, and apparently met with Putin-aligned Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili before he became prime minister on a staunchly pro-Russian platform -- and with reported help from a Russian interference operation.

Ivanishvili pointedly did not criticize Putin during his campaign, despite Putin's invasion of Georgia years earlier -- and in 2012, Ivanishvili made headlines for refusing to meet with Clinton unless it was a one-on-one sitdown.

Emails between Clinton and Tony Blair, seen here, were released. (Reuters, File)

Clinton's discussions with Blair included a classified 2011 conversation on foreign policy, and another classified, redacted 2011 conversation concerning a "speech." Clinton also apparently discussed job-related topics with Blair on January 16, 2009 -- while George W. Bush was still president but after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had approved her for the job. In one email thread with the subject line "Re: Gaza," dated January 16, 2009, Blair said he wanted to have a matter "resolved before Tuesday," apparently referring to Obama's inauguration.

Clinton replied: “Tony – We are finally moving and I am looking forward to talking w you as soon as I’m confirmed, tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. Your emails are very helpful so pls continue to use this address, hr15@att.blackberry.net."

FBI GENERAL COUNSEL THOUGHT CLINTON SHOULD FACE PROSECUTION UNTIL 'PRETTY LATE' IN PROBE

Blair responded: “It would be great if we could talk before any announcements are made.”

Democrats have long criticized former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for speaking with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump had been inaugurated, saying the contacts may have violated an obscure 1799 law called the Logan Act, which ostensibly bars private citizens from negotiating with foreign powers on behalf of the U.S. without authorization. The provision has never been invoked in a prosecution, and historians have suggested the law made more sense in an era without the instant communications technology that would enable a foreign power to recognize whether U.S. representatives are formally affiliated with the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, according to the documents, Retired Army Gen. Jack Keane sent Clinton a heavily redacted, classified email concerning Iraq policy, seemingly in 2009 -- on a topic so urgent that Keane noted he had tried to call Clinton personally before sending it.

Separately, two email chains showed the apparently close coordination between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation, which has long been accused by Republicans of operating essentially as a corrupt "pay-to-play" operation that effectively sold access to the Obama administration. Donations to the Clinton Foundation plummeted after Clinton's 2016 election loss.

In one email thread, top Clinton aides at the State Department, including Huma Abedin, coordinated a trip to Haiti with Clinton Foundation officials, including Clinton Foundation Director of Advance John Zimmerebner. Bill and Hillary Clinton were headed to Haiti to promote the Caracol Industrial Park, a $300M project funded by U.S. taxpayers through USAID that was heavily promoted to investors by the Clinton Foundation. Slate later called the park a "disappointment by any measure," noting it had no discernible positive impact on Haiti's economy and created tens of thousands fewer jobs than anticipated.

DOJ REACHED AGREEMENT WITH CLINTON LAWYERS THAT BLOCKED FBI FROM ACCESSING CLINTON FOUNDATION EMAILS, STRZOK ADMITS

And, Clinton Foundation employee Sidney Blumenthal sent Clinton a now-heavily redacted proposal from a former CIA officer concerning improvised-explosive devices, which Blumenthal called a "terrific project." Blumenthal told Clinton the CIA officer had been “unable to break through the bureaucracy with" the proposal.

In closed-door testimony last year, former FBI special agent Peter Strzok acknowledged that the Justice Department "negotiated" an agreement with Clinton's legal team that ensured the FBI did not have access to emails on her private servers relating to the Clinton Foundation, even as they probed her handling of classified information.

Sidney Blumenthal. (Reuters, File)

In a particularly striking January 2009 email uncovered by Judicial Watch, Blumenthal, citing sources, told Clinton that "Jewish institutional leaders" were working to derail President Obama's appointment of George Mitchell as Special Envoy to the Middle East. Citing the same sources, Blumenthal warned Clinton that "every one of your conversations and communications with Bibi Netanyahu flows directly and instantly back to top Jewish leadership ... You should, of course, assume that nothing involving him is private."

Blumenthal, attaching a memo titled "Good Cop, Bad Cop," said Mitchell was "politically vulnerable" because he was of “Arab descent," and was facing attacks "carefully scripted" by top Jewish leaders. Blumenthal advised Clinton and Obama to bring aboard a "bad cop" who was a “political appointee, Jewish, considered a true friend of Israel" to help resist the attacks.

Blumenthal invoked former Secretary of State James Baker, saying he was "savaged by Jewish organizations, in the Jewish press and among the phalanx of neoconservative media" for taking a tough stance on Israel that "stunned the Israelis."

"You are always in danger of being maneuvered into Baker's position," Blumenthal wrote to Clinton. "Mitchell is even more immediately in danger."

Blumenthal added: "Bibi and the Jewish leadership should be expected to use political means, including outsourcing personal attacks, to counter moves the administration seeks in any peace process or initiating any negotiations. As you know, Bibi is deeply connected to political networks in the US-media, Jewish groups, Republican leaders, and right-wing Christian right organizations."

Cheryl Mills, seen here in 2015, was Hillary Clinton's chief of staff while Clinton was secretary of state. (REUTERS, File)

Clinton replied: “Thanks for these. And I will call you in the next few days.”

In a classified September 2010 email exchange, Clinton adviser Lanny Davis seemingly hit on the same notes of concern as Blumenthal and offered to provide Clinton a “private and highly trusted communication line, unofficial and personal, to PM N[etanyahu]. ... [N]o one on the planet (other than your wonderful husband) can get this done as well as you...”

In response, Clinton wrote, “I will reach out to you directly and hope you will continue to do the same w me. The most important issue now is [Redacted].”

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But, a week later, Davis seemingly changed his mind, telling Clinton: “As soon as I wrote last email, I reverted to my old role as your crisis manager and worrier about you, read the word ‘optics’ I suddenly felt – oops. I am registered under FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] for one or more foreign governments or businesses. I don’t think it would look right. I want to avoid any even slight chance of misperception.”

That prompted Clinton to respond, "Thx for looking out for me, my friend. I’ll tell [Chief of Staff] Cheryl [Mills] to stand down.”

Pelosi’s no fan of impeachment: Just ask Clinton and Bush

WASHINGTON — The day after Democrats swept to power, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi stood before the cameras and declared impeachment was “off the table.” That was November 2006.

More than a decade later, Pelosi, again facing a restive left flank but one ready to confront President Donald Trump, says she’s “not for impeachment.”

It’s a remarkably consistent stance from Pelosi, who voted against the impeachment of Bill Clinton, tamped down efforts to impeach George W. Bush and now is leading the House through another moment when a vocal part of the electorate wants to end a presidency.

Pelosi’s reluctance to launch impeachment proceedings infuriates the left flank and is testing her ability to hold restive House Democrats in line. But it also shows the political calculation of a seasoned leader who knows “public sentiment is everything,” as she often says, and for now at least, Americans seem to prefer investigations to impeachment.

As Washington awaits special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, the Democratic leader knows her party has little to gain and much to lose if they launch headlong into impeachment proceedings that are seen as partisan. House Republicans learned as much when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich’s majority lost seats after their long campaign to impeach Clinton. When it comes to Trump, she recently told The Washington Post, “he’s just not worth it.”

“So many of you have said to me: ‘Why are you saying this now?’” she told reporters later. “Because I have said it almost every day. But if I frame it that way, it gets more attention.”

Rick Tyler, a GOP strategist and former Gingrich spokesman, says Pelosi has been a “keen observer” of history during her 30 years in the House and understands “impeachments are an inherently political process.”

Even if the investigations bear out that Trump is “worthy of impeachment,” he said, there’s the political reality of a divided Congress that must agree. The House impeaches and sends the case to trial in the Senate. There, Republicans have the majority and would have the final say on conviction and removal, and “she knows full well there’s no way in God’s green earth the Senate is going to convict Donald Trump.”

Pelosi has been down this road before. She stood on the House floor in 1998 and railed against Republicans for “hypocrisy” ahead of the votes against Clinton. Years later, as the Iraq war dragged on, her left flank led by then-Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio drew up articles of impeachment against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The day after the 2006 midterm elections that swept Democrats to power, Pelosi was asked how she, as the speaker-to-be from San Francisco, would handle those pushing the impeachment debate.

“Democrats are not about getting even,” Pelosi said at the time. “Democrats are about helping the American people get ahead, and that’s what our agenda is about. So while some people are excited about prospects that they have in terms of their priorities, they are not our priorities. I have said, and I say again, that impeachment is off the table.”

She also noted that while she takes “great pride” in representing her California district, she “very, very, very much” respects that she would serve “as the speaker of the full House, not of the Democrats.”

The Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee during the Bush era, former Rep. Henry Waxman of California, recalled that Pelosi was unwavering in her approach to impeachment, in part because she knew it would go nowhere in the Senate.

“A lot of our friends were saying, ‘Impeach him!’ because they didn’t like his policies,” Waxman said. “That wasn’t in the cards.”

By 2008, the House had voted to shelve Kucinich’s impeachment resolution.

As Pelosi campaigned last fall before Democrats again took the majority, she suggested that had Democrats pushed the impeachment issue during the Bush years, her party would have never won back the White House and Barack Obama would not have become president.

“People wanted me to impeach Bush because of the war in Iraq,” she told The Associated Press during a campaign swing ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If we had gone down that path, I doubt we would have won the White House the next time,” she said. “People have to see we’re working there for them.”

But this time is different. Billionaire Tom Steyer is running ads over impeachment, high-profile members of Congress are pushing the issue and Trump is facing more voluminous, if not more serious, allegations of collaborating with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.

Also Trump is just two years in office as impeachment talk swirls, intensifying the debate among Democrats ahead of Trump’s re-election bid. Bush had been in the final years of his presidency.

Pelosi is tamping down expectations ahead of Mueller’s report, saying the House will wait to see “the facts of the case” while the House committees conduct their own oversight of the Trump administration.

Another former Gingrich aide, Rich Galen, remembers the way the Clinton impeachment hearings just “sucked the oxygen out of the House side of the Capitol.” He also remembers the sinking feeling on election night in 1998 when House Republicans thought they would add to their ranks, but instead saw seats slipping away. Gingrich was later booted from party leadership.

“I’m not Pelosi’s biggest fan,” Galen said, “but I think she’s got that right.”

___

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'Poll tax': Clinton and Harris join Ocasio-Cortez against bill to charge Florida ex-convicts to vote

Hillary Clinton and Sen. Kamala Harris on Wednesday joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in denouncing a Republican-sponsored bill in the Florida legislature that would require felons seeking to have their voting rights restored to pay back the state for the cost of their trials.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Sen. Kamala Harris; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Photos: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters; Meg Kinnard/AP; Berit Roald, NTB scanpix via AP)

On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., likened the bill’s provisions to the Jim-Crow-era poll taxes meant to keep African-Americans from voting.

Former Democratic presidential nominee and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed on Wednesday, citing the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which outlawed poll taxes as of 1964.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., also decried the measure, describing it as a ploy by Republicans to keep felons who have already repaid their debt to society from voting.

The bill, which passed the Criminal Justice Committee of the Florida House on Tuesday, would require ex-convicts to repay the costs of their trials, which could amount to thousands of dollars, in order to have their right to vote restored. Until this year, Florida generally disenfranchised felons for life. A constitutional amendment to allow them to regain the right to vote passed with the support of 64 percent of the voters last year.

The amendment was largely supported by Democrats, although it isn’t clear that the party will benefit greatly. Data show that ex-felons vote at low rates and do not show a strong partisan affiliation, Vox News reported.

The bill, if it passes and is signed into law, will almost certainly be challenged in court on Constitutional grounds.

Plainfield Teacher, Holocaust Survivor Grandma Meet Bill Clinton

PLAINFIELD, IL — Aux Sable Middle School seventh-grade history teacher Jessica Matas along with her mother, Rochelle Brown-Rainey; and her grandmother, Holocaust survivor Magda Brown, met former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday, March 13 at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center's annual Holocaust Humanitarian Dinner in Chicago.

Brown is a member of the museum's Speaker's Bureau. She has shared her story of survival at several District 202 middle schools in the last 10 years including Aux Sable, Heritage Grove, John F. Kennedy and Timber Ridge.

Clinton was the keynote speaker at Wednesday's event which also marked the museum's 10th anniversary. The annual fundraising event pays tribute to Holocaust survivors and highlights the museum's achievements.

Visit www.magdabrown.com for more information about Brown and her speaking engagements.

Photo, from left: Jessica Matas, Matas' grandmother Magda Brown, former President Bill Clinton and Matas' mom Rochelle Brown-Rainey.

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Hillary Clinton makes endorsement in Dallas mayoral race

Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is wading into Dallas politics.

On Wednesday, the campaign for Dallas lawyer Regina Montoya announced she has the endorsement of Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former U.S. Secretary of State and first lady.

Clinton in a statement said she and Montoya have “been friends and colleagues for decades.”

“In that time, I have watched her grow as a civic leader,” the endorsement said. “She is committed to her community of Dallas, her state, and our country. Regina has dedicated her life to making sure everyone has access to opportunity. She is exactly the kind of leader and role model we need to have in public service today.”

While she is one of the biggest political names in the country, Clinton’s endorsement in the Dallas race isn’t much of a surprise. Montoya worked on Bill Clinton’s White House staff as his assistant for intergovernmental affairs in the early 1990s.

Montoya was also one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest Texas fundraisers in 2016. As one of a few dozen “Hillblazers” in Texas — bundlers who raised over $100,000 — Montoya and her husband, former U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins, hosted a fundraising stop for Clinton in November 2015.

The mayor’s race is nonpartisan, but Montoya said she was “proud to have the endorsement” of her “longtime friend.”

“I want to make a difference in people's lives, and her support in this mission means the world to me,” Montoya said.

The announcement of Clinton’s endorsement dovetailed with a fundraising push from Montoya’s campaign. The next deadline in the Dallas mayoral and City Council races is April 4, when the first of two campaign finance reports are due before Election Day.

In Annapolis, Bill Clinton toasts an ailing Maryland Senate President Mike Miller

Former president Bill Clinton said he would have walked to Annapolis from New York if he had to — anything to pay tribute to his longtime friend, Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.

“I can’t think of any public servant I know anywhere that has done it as well or as long as this man we honor tonight,” Clinton said Thursday after surprising Miller (D-Calvert), 76, at an annual dinner for the state Senate’s past and present members. “Mike Miller, we love you.”

More than 250 people, including Gov. Larry Hogan (R), U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), turned out to honor Miller, who is battling Stage 4 prostate cancer that has metastasized to his spine and pelvic area.

The larger-than-life Democratic lawmaker is undergoing chemotherapy treatments during the annual legislative session, and he has lost much of his hair and some of his energy. Doctors say the cancer may be containable, but there is no cure.

The relationship between Miller, the country’s longest continuously serving Senate president, and the 42nd U.S. president dates back three decades.

Clinton said Thursday night that he remembered the exact date the two met — August 18, 1987, a day before Clinton’s 41st birthday. At the time, he was serving as Arkansas governor. Miller — who had taken the helm of the Maryland Senate seven months earlier — was attending a national legislative conference in Little Rock.

“I’m talking to him for a couple of minutes, and I want to reach in my back pocket and make sure my billfold is still there,” said Clinton in a 16-minute speech that was part tribute and part roast.

Over the years, the senator held numerous fundraisers for Clinton, including one in Miller’s hometown of Clinton, Md. About 10 years after they met, the president said, he came to Annapolis at Miller’s request to talk about education.

Clinton said the two Democrats “just kind of always stayed in touch.”

The former president’s appearance in Annapolis was a shock to many in the audience. But not so much to Sen. Craig J. Zucker (D-Montgomery). Zucker said he knew P.J. Hogan, a former Democratic senator from Montgomery County who is president of the Society of Senates Past, was trying to pull off the surprise. He didn’t know it was a go until he saw bomb-sniffing dogs Thursday evening in the Senate garage.

“I think it was very touching and a good tribute, well deserved,” Zucker said. “I think it made his night. It made all of our nights.”

When it was his turn at the microphone, Miller was quintessentially himself, using rough slang to joke that he would speak briefly because he is on medication that requires him to use the bathroom frequently.

“I take pills . . . I gotta take water pills,” he said, while also discussing other drugs, including steroids, that have made his face swell and his hair fall out and made it difficult to sleep.

“This is a very serious event, I’m very honored to be here,” he said, to laughter from the audience. “But I’m so goddamn tired of hearing about that Mike Miller.”

On Friday, Miller presided over the daily legislative session from his high-backed leather chair in the Senate chamber. Fatigue has kept him from standing at the lectern some of the time this year.

He rose as the session ended, however, lashing out at education advocates who filed a lawsuit this week over education spending in Baltimore City and are planning a massive rally Monday night in Annapolis.

“We don’t respond to threats,” said Miller, who joined other Democratic legislative leaders this week to announce plans to significantly boost education funding to implement recommendations of the landmark Kirwan commission.

“People can file suit all they want. We’re not going to respond to lawsuits or mass rallies,” he said.

In the House on Friday, lawmakers advanced a bill that would ban plastic foam food cups and containers. The measure is expected to receive final approval next week. A Senate version of the bill was approved earlier this week.

Read more:

He’s wielded power for decades. Now a legendary lawmaker faces a deadly illness.

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Chelsea Clinton will be in Phoenix for a book signing at a very unusual location

Chelsea Clinton (Photo: Matt Slocum/AP)

Chelsea Clinton will be visiting the Phoenix Zoo to discuss and sign her children's book, "Don't Let Them Disappear: 12 Endangered Species Around the Globe."

Her appearance will be in conjunction with the Arizona Center for Nature Conservation and Changing Hands Bookstore. Clinton, an author who has reached No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list, will make her appearance at 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 15.

Seating is limited, with tickets available at changinghands.com or eventbrite.com. Tickets will not be sold at the door. Admission for one person and one signed hardcover book is $25 plus fees. Admission for two and one signed copy is $35 plus fees. Children under age 2 are free. But if you just want the signed book, it's $23.54 plus fees, and it includes shipping.

"Don't Let Them Disappear: 12 Endangered Species Across the Globe" is a children's book written by #1 New York Times best-selling author Chelsea Clinton. (Photo: Gianna Marino)

A portion of the proceeds will support the zoo's native species conservation programs.

Seating for the event is first come, first served. Doors open at 4:45 p.m. Leave additional Clinton family merchandise at home because they will not be signed.

The picture book introduces young readers to a group of endangered animals while they learn facts about them, what threatens them and how they can help save the creatures.

Clinton, the only child of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, is also the author of "She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World," "Start Now! You Can Make a Difference" and "It's Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going!"

Want to pitch a story idea? Reach reporter Samantha Incorvaia at sincorvaia@gannett.com or 602-444-4968. Follow her on Twitter at @_SamI520.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Want more stories about the best things to do, eat and see in the Valley? Subscribe to azcentral.com for guides, reviews and expert advice.

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Was Bill Clinton a ‘Felonious Draft Dodger’?

First Pardoned Federal Felon ever to serve as President of the U.S.

Bill Clinton’s Draft Records from the Freedom of Information Act files show he was a Pardoned Federal Felon

* Bill Clinton registers for the draft on September 08, 1964, accepting all contractual conditions of registering for the draft. Given Selective Service Number 3 26 46 228.

* Bill Clinton classified 2-S on November 17, 1964.

* Bill Clinton reclassified 1-A on March 20, 1968.

* Bill Clinton ordered to report for induction on July 28, 1969.

* Bill Clinton dishonors order to report and is not inducted into the military.

* Bill Clinton reclassified 1-D after enlisting in the United States Army Reserves on August 07, 1969 under authority of Col. E. Holmes. Clinton signs enlistment papers and takes oath of enlistment.

* Bill Clinton fails to report to his duty station at the University of Arkansas ROTC, September 1969.

* Bill Clinton reclassified 1-A on October 30, 1969, as enlistment with Army Reserves is revoked by Colonel E. Holmes and Clinton now AWOL and subject to arrest under Public Law 90-40 (2)(a) ‘registrant who has failed to report … remain liable for induction’.

* Bill Clinton’s birth date lottery number is 311, drawn December 1, 1969, but anyone who has already been ordered to report for induction, is INELIGIBLE!

* Bill Clinton runs for Congress (1974), while a fugitive from justice under Public Law 90-40.

* Bill Clinton runs for Arkansas Attorney General (1976), while a fugitive from justice.

* Bill Clinton receives pardon on January 21, 1977 from Carter.

* Bill Clinton FIRST PARDONED FEDERAL FELON ever to serve as President.

All these facts come from Freedom of Information requests, public laws, and various books that have been published, and have not been refuted by Clinton.

The arc of future President Bill Clinton’s controversial (in retrospect) activities in avoiding the military draft during the Vietnam War years of 1968-69 are difficult to trace with certainty in regard to all the details. By the time the issue became one of national interest in 1992, reporters and biographers were faced with reconstructing a 25-year-old account from the decades-old memories of those involved; some of the key participants were already dead, and the one person who knew the whole story, Bill Clinton himself, often responded to questions on the subject with misleading or inaccurate information. Nonetheless, available documentation and personal memories have enabled writers to reconstruct the essential elements of the tale.

The saga began when an eighteen-year-old Bill Clinton entered Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in the fall of 1964. As required by law of all 18-year-old males at the time, Clinton registered with the Selective Service System on 8 September 1964, and on 17 November 1964 he was assigned a 2-S (student deferment) classification by Garland County [Arkansas] Draft Board No. 26.

As American military involvement in Vietnam escalated in the mid-1960s, Clinton (like other male students his age) would reasonably have expected that his status as a college student would provide him with deferments from the draft for several more years, especially when in his senior year he was one of thirty-two American men selected to receive Rhodes Scholarships to study at Oxford University in England. However, on 16 February 1968 the federal government eliminated draft deferments for most graduate students, and Clinton would therefore no longer be eligible for additional student deferments after he completed his final term at Georgetown in the spring of 1968. Accordingly, his draft board reclassified him 1-A (available immediately for military service) on 20 March 1968.

In mid-1968 Clinton, who maintained that although he was not opposed to the military or war in general he was morally opposed to the Vietnam War in particular, began to seek ways of avoiding the draft. His first opportunity was provided through the political and social connections of Raymond Clinton, his uncle, and Henry Britt, a Hot Springs lawyer and former judge, who made arrangements with the commanding officer of the local Naval Reserve unit, Trice Ellis, to secure a billet for Clinton in the naval reserve:

The first relief Raymond Clinton and Britt found for Bill was a naval billet. This would not only give him more time — he would not have to fill it until after the school year ended in June — but it also would more likely keep him out of harm’s way in the war. Trice Ellis, the local naval commander, said he was only too happy to accommodate the request, which he did not consider out of the ordinary, and was “impressed by the chance to enlist someone with a college education.” He called the Navy command in New Orleans and secured a two-year active duty billet for young Clinton. Ellis assumed that Clinton would stop by that summer for an interview, but Clinton never did. When he asked Raymond Clinton what happened, Raymond told him not to worry, Bill would not be coming, he had been taken care of in another way.

The “other way” that had “taken care” of Clinton was a favor Henry Britt worked out with William S. Armstrong, chairman of the Garland County draft board, a favor that would provide Clinton with only temporary protection from the draft but would allow him to at least start his first year at Oxford without committing him to military service:

Britt called draft board chairman Armstrong, his close friend, and asked him, as he later recalled, to “put Clinton’s draft notice in a drawer someplace and leave it for a while. Give the boy a chance.” This is apparently what Armstrong did for several months. Another member of the Garland County Draft Board, Robert Corrado, later remembered Armstrong holding back Clinton’s file and saying that they had to give him time to go to Oxford.

As Clinton biographer David Maraniss pointed out, although the deliberate delay in issuing Clinton’s draft notice was undeniably a case of special treatment, it was by no means an unusual consideration granted to Rhodes Scholars:

Special consideration for Rhodes Scholars was not unusual around the country. The draft board in Alameda County, California, was so impressed by the achievements of the only black Rhodes winner that year, Tom Williamson of Harvard, that they granted him a graduate school deferment even though such deferments supposedly no longer existed. Darryl Gless, whose small home town in Nebraska was so proud of him that they strung a banner across the Main Street bank welcoming him back from his successful Rhodes interview, also was given a special deferment. Dartmouth scholar John Isaacson visited his draft board in Lewiston, Maine, and pleaded with them to let him go to Oxford, which they did. University of Iowa scholar Mike Shea went to England “happily but erroneously 2-S” for the first year. Paul Parish’s mother in Port Gibson, Mississippi, received a letter from the governor telling her that Paul should go to England because they were trying to get an exemption for Rhodes Scholars. For virtually every member of the Rhodes class of 1968 there was a similar story.

Clinton set sail from New York to begin his first year at Oxford in October 1968. At the end of his first term in December, Clinton received a notice from the Selective Service instructing him to undergo an armed forces physical examination at a U.S. air base near London, which he took (and passed) on 13 January 1969.

An Order to Report for Induction from the Garland County Draft Board followed three months later, but because the notice had been sent to England via surface mail it was late in arriving, and the assigned reporting date had already passed. Clinton had begun another school term by then (the academic year at Oxford consisted of three terms rather than two semesters), and the regulations allowed students who received draft notices to finish out their current terms before reporting — but Clinton would be obligated to report for induction after the end of the spring term unless he found an alternative before his new reporting date of 28 July 1969.

As Clinton headed home for Arkansas from England, his options for avoiding the draft were limited. He likely would not qualify for conscientious objector status because he did not have a history of opposing military service or war in general, only the Vietnam War specifically. The local Army National Guard and Reserve units were full. He took physicals for the Air Force and Navy officer programs but failed them both. (He was undersize and didn’t possess the visual acuity required for the Air Force program, and he failed the Navy exam due to substandard hearing.) Clinton’s only available out seemed to be joining the advanced ROTC program at the University of Arkansas, which had no quotas and was open to graduate students, but since Clinton had already received an induction notice he would have to obtain the approval of Willard Hawkins, the state Selective Service director (an appointee of the Arkansas governor) to enter the program.

Clinton called upon Cliff Jackson, an Arkansas College graduate who had been Clinton’s acquaintance at Oxford and was now working for the state Republican party, and Jackson in turn asked his boss, the head of the Arkansas Republican party, to arrange a meeting between Clinton and Selective Service director Hawkins. Clinton also received assistance from Lee Williams, an aide to U.S. SenatorJ. William Fulbright of Arkansas (for whom Clinton had worked as a staffer while attending Georgetown University). Williams, a University of Arkansas Law School graduate himself, contacted the director of the university’s ROTC program, Colonel Eugene J. Holmes, to help get Clinton enrolled.

After “an extensive, approximately two-hour interview,” Colonel Holmes agreed to accept Clinton into the ROTC program on 17 July 1969 (a mere eleven days before Clinton’s 28 July induction deadline), although Clinton would not actually be able to begin the program until he completed the basic training camp the following summer. Clinton’s draft notice was nullified, and his draft board reclassified him 1-D (reservist deferment) on 7 August 1969.

Clinton apparently did intend to begin attending the University of Arkansas Law School that fall, but sometime during the summer he changed his mind and decided to return for a second year at Oxford instead:

By Clinton’s account, he talked to Colonel Holmes and gained permission to return to Oxford for the second year since the basic training that he was required to attend before beginning advanced ROTC would not start until the following summer. Holmes said later that he allowed Clinton to return to Oxford for “a month or two,” but expected him to enroll in the law school as soon as possible. But a letter that Clinton wrote in December 1969 in which he apologized for not writing more often — “I know I promised to let you hear from me at least once a month” — is the strongest evidence that Holmes was aware of and approved Clinton’s plan to go back to Oxford. The rest of the ROTC staff was expecting Clinton to enroll that fall. Ed Howard, the drill sergeant, later recalled that there was great anger when word spread through the ROTC office that Clinton was not on campus.

The details of Clinton’s subsequent actions and decisions are murky, but sometime after returning to Oxford that fall (where he later helped organize anti-war protests in London), probably between 1 October and 15 October 1969, he changed his mind again and asked his draft board to drop his ROTC deferment and reclassify him 1-A. Given recent policy changes and rumors of upcoming policy changes by the Nixon administration at that time (graduate students who received induction notices were now allowed to finish out their school years rather than just the current terms; Nixon was said to be considering withdrawing 35,000 troops from Vietnam, temporarily suspending the draft, and changing the draft requirements so that only 19-year-olds would be called, and only “those draftees who volunteered for service there” would be shipped to Vietnam; and the administration was reportedly pushing for a draft lottery system based on birthdates which would expose eligible men to the draft for one year only), Clinton may have calculated that he was not risking much by opting to drop his ROTC commitment in favor of a 1-A classification, as biographer David Maraniss surmised:

The prrponderance of evidence leads in one direction: to the notion that with each passing week there were more signs that he might not get drafted even if he abandoned the deferment. If Clinton, acting through his stepfather, arranged to have the local draft board reclassify him 1-A after October 1, he would have known that it was largely a symbolic act providing him with the best of both worlds — the ability to say he had given up a deferment, and the knowledge that even though he was 1-A again, he would not be drafted that year.

When the first draft lottery of the Vietnam era was held on 1 December 1969, Clinton’s birthdate of 19 August was selected 311th, a number high enough to practically guarantee that he would not be drafted (and indeed he was not). A few days later, Clinton sat down and wrote the now-infamous letter to Colonel Holmes explaining his reasons for reneging on his agreement to enter the University of Arkansas and its ROTC program.

That Bill Clinton went to great lengths to avoid the Vietnam-era draft, that he used political connections to obtain special favors, and that he made promises and commitments which he later failed to honor, are all beyond dispute. However, the timeline quoted above jumps the tracks when it labels Clinton a “felon,” because none of his actions, no matter how unethical or morally questionable they might have been, were illegal. When Clinton agreed in July of 1969 to enter the advanced ROTC program at the University of Arkansas, his draft board rescinded his induction notice and reclassified him with a reservist’s deferment. That he later changed his mind in October 1969 and opted to forego the ROTC program and be reclassified 1-A did not constitute a “failure to report” or make him “AWOL.” At the time of his 1-Are-classification in October 1969 the previous induction notice was no longer in effect, and he was not subsequently re-drafted.

If Clinton had still been obligated to report for induction, his draft board could have got him any time they wanted: they certainly knew where to find him, yet no one ordered him to report to an induction center, no federal agents arrested him for draft evasion, and no MPs came and hauled him away for being AWOL, because he hadn’t broken any laws, civil or military. Likewise, President Carter’s executive order of 21 January 1977, which provided pardons and amnesty for those convicted or suspected of violating the Military Selective Service Act between 1964 and 1973 did not apply to Clinton because he committed no such violation.

Although what he did may not have been against the law, Clinton’s broken promises and contradictory statements about his efforts to avoid the draft were prime examples of the kind of self-serving doublespeak that later earned him the sobriquet “Slick Willie,” as Maraniss concluded in his Clinton biography, First in His Class:

“It was just a fluke,” Clinton would say decades later, when first asked how he had made it through this period without serving in the military. But of course it was not a fluke. A fluke is a wholly accidental stroke of good luck. What happened to Clinton during that fateful year did not happen by accident. He fretted and planned every move, he got help from others when needed, he resorted to some deception or manipulation when necessary, and he was ultimately lucky.

Pelosi's no fan of impeachment: Just ask Clinton and Bush

No result found, try new keyword!It's a remarkably consistent stance from Pelosi, who voted against the impeachment of Bill Clinton, tamped down efforts to impeach ... saying the House will wait to see "the facts of the case" while ...

Did Bill Clinton File for Divorce ‘This Morning’?

On 17 May 2017, a web site called Donald Trump Today published a fake news article appearing to report that former U.S. President Bill Clinton had filed for divorce from former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The majority of this article focused on rehashed rumors, all of which were either debunked, untrue, or unfounded, about the Clinton family before adding one single sentence about the purported divorce:

BREAKING: Bill Clinton Files For Divorce This Morning!

More than 25 years, the Clinton Family has been in the center of attention and the reason of so many scandals that always seem to end with a big damage. With no evidence to follow, how much do they know and did they personally cover them up?

For a big percentage of the American Population, the Clintons are criminals. They are guilty.

Now it seems that Bill Clinton himself is appalled at the actions of his own wife. A rash of bodies lately has culminated in not only the loss of his child, Danney Williams, to suicide, but to the discovery that Michael Ascott, another love child from the 1990s, was murdered and buried in a shallow grave at just 8-years-old. A letter left behind by his mother, Marie Ascott, pointed the finger directly at Hillary Clinton.

All of this seems to be too much for Bill Clinton, who filed for divorce in Arkansas this morning, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the cause.

Bill Clinton did not file for divorce from Hillary Clinton in May 2017. If this were true it would be front page news on nearly every web site and newspaper in the United States. Yet, we only found mention of this rumor on disreputable web sites such as Donald Trump Today and The New York Evening, a site that also traffics in fake news. Furthermore, this article is full of baseless and previously debunked claims, such as Bill Clinton having a “love child” named Danney Williams (unproven), that Williams was found dead of a suicide (false), and that the Clinton’s have left a “rash of bodies” in an attempt to cover up their alleged crimes (false and false and false and false).

Donald Trump Today also carried a disclaimer stating that they did not stand behind the accuracy of their reporting:

All the information on this website is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. DonaldTrumpToday.co does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this website (DonaldTrumpToday.co), is strictly at your own risk. DonaldTrumpToday.co will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website.

This is not the first time that unfounded divorce rumors have circulated about the Clintons. Shortly after Hillary Clinton lost her bid for the presidency, a hoax article reported that she had filed for divorce.

Bill Clinton defends foundation’s work against report’s findings

Former President Bill Clinton, during a campaign stop in Atlanta, pushed back on a report Wednesday that linked his wife’s meetings while secretary of state to donors to the Clinton Foundation.

After working the crowd at Manuel’s Tavern, the former president sought to downplay an Associated Press report that found more than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton at the State Department gave money to the foundation.

“We’re trying to do good things. If there’s something wrong with creating jobs and saving lives, I don’t know what it is,” Bill Clinton said. “The people who gave the money knew exactly what they were doing. I have nothing to say except I’m really proud of the work they’ve done.”

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has seized on the report as an indicator of the ethics challenges his Democratic opponent faces, saying she’s made “lie after lie” to cover up breaches. He and his surrogates, including Georgia U.S. Sen. David Perdue, have called for a special prosecutor to investigate the meetings as well as the private email server she used as secretary of state.

“Actions speak louder than words, and this is just another example of Hillary Clinton’s questionable ethics and integrity,” Perdue said. “Whether you are the secretary of state or want to be the commander in chief, pay-to-play politics is wrong.”

Clinton’s campaign has said the report was flawed because it didn’t include meetings with foreign diplomats or other U.S. government officials. And Bill Clinton on Wednesday highlighted the work the foundation has done targeting childhood obesity and boosting international health programs.

He also said that he would not raise money for the foundation if Hillary Clinton wins the November contest and that he would transition any responsibility over foreign or corporate donations to other nonprofits.

“I’m happy to do the transition as swiftly as we can, and we’ve already found partners who are going to take over some of this stuff,” he said. “But we have to do it in a way where no one loses their job, no one loses their income, no one loses their life.”

The visit came ahead of a fundraiser at a north Atlanta home that featured Atlanta artist Usher.

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75 days until vote

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Alan Krueger, economist who advised Clinton and Obama, dies at 58

Princeton University Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Alan Krueger . (photo credit: JONATHAN CROSBY/REUTERS)

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Alan Krueger, an economist who advised presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, has died at the age of 58.

Krueger was found dead on Saturday at his home in Princeton, New Jersey. His family said in a statement released by Princeton University, where he taught since 1987, that the cause of death was suicide.

Krueger was the chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor in 1994 and 1995 under Clinton and was an assistant secretary of the Treasury from 2009 to 2010 and the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2013 under Obama.

“Alan was someone who was deeper than numbers on a screen and charts on a page,” Obama said in a statement. “He saw economic policy not as a matter of abstract theories, but as a way to make people’s lives better.”

Krueger was pushing the field of economics toward a more scientific approach emphasizing data over theory. His latest book, which is scheduled to be released in June, discusses the economics of the music industry, according to The New York Times.

Krueger, Harvard economist Lawrence Katz and economist David Card are known for their research in the early 1990s that found that raising the minimum wage did not, as had been believed, reduce employment for low-wage workers.

Krueger graduated from Cornell in 1983, and earned a doctorate in economics from Harvard in 1987.

He is survived by his wife, Lisa, and two children.

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