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Greedy for Gifts
By MANDI STEELE
The former President and First Lady were reported to have taken over $190,000 worth of gifts out of the White House when they left. Some of the donors say that their gifts were intended for the White House not for the first couple. Former IRS commissioner Donald Alexander said that if the gifts were a "charitable contribution" to the White House, the Clinton's "have no business taking [the gifts] with them. That is conversion of government property and income to them." Dick Morris, a former advisor to Clinton who worked on Clinton's gubernatorial campaign and then later on his White House campaign, said, "Bill and Hillary Clinton's abuse of gifts in the closing days of their Administration is only half the story." "Hillary Clinton got many expensive and personal gifts during her eight years as First Lady and never disclosed them, as required by law," said Morris in an editorial for the New York Post. A public financial-disclosure statement, listing all the gifts given to the first couple, is required to be filed every year. An analysis of the disclosures "indicates virtually no personal gifts to Hillary Clinton." In 1995, many gifts were listed for the President such as saxophones, golf clubs, and sportswear, but nothing for Hillary. The other disclosures are similarly missing gifts for Hillary. However, it is known that Hillary did receive gifts. Judith Leiber, a designer of expensive evening bags, has said publicly that she had given Hillary three or four of her designs. But the evening bags, said to be worth over $10,000, "do not appear on any of the disclosure forms in the public record." Morris also asks why the five dresses that were publicly reported to have been given to Hillary by the King of Morocco and the gifts Hillary and Chelsea received during their trip to India, including a $500 gold bracelet, were not disclosed on any of the financial statements. Morris sums up the items missing from the statements when he says that "the Clintons have an undue appetite for gifts and a noted propensity to keep them from public view." A former White House aide, Linda Tripp, who was interviewed recently on Larry King Live, would probably agree with Dick Morris. She said that she was told by Clinton White House officials not to report gifts given to the Clintons. "Gifts were coming in from everywhere … I'm filling out gift unit forms. I know exactly what the procedure is. They didn't want any part of that," said Tripp. Tripp says that the White House "was floor to ceiling stacked with gifts that had come that were routinely sent to the gift unit." In the Clinton White House, she said, "most of it didn't make it to the gift unit." Larry King commented, "You think it went to them." Tripp responded, "I know on many occasions it went to them." Many gifts seem to have been either unreported or stolen by the Clinton's throughout their years in the White House. Only the first couple themselves could ever really know how many gifts they have taken illegally and how much money it all adds up to. Morris says, "The gift, once a minor facet of the Presidency has become a staple of the office, a permanent perk, after the Clinton years."
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