Troopergate (Bill Clinton)
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Troopergate is the popular name for a political controversy that emerged in the 1990s in which several Arkansas State Troopers claimed that they had arranged sexual liaisons for Arkansas governor Bill Clinton during his time in office (1979–81, 1983–92) and had helped deceive his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Core allegationsEdit
Template:Anchor Template:Anchor Template:Anchor The allegations by state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in the conservative magazine American Spectator,<ref name=slate>"Brock Attack" Template:Webarchive, Slate, May 18, 2004.</ref> in a piece entitled "His Cheatin' Heart"<ref name=Brock1/> that was released in December 1993 with a magazine publication date of January 1994.<ref name=npr/> Brock had learned of the story from a major donor to GOPAC who connected him with Cliff Jackson, a longtime critic of Governor Clinton.<ref name=apology/> Brock's story also included material from two other troopers who wished to remain unnamed.<ref name=Brock1>"His Cheatin' Heart" Template:Webarchive, American Spectator, January 1994.</ref> The same four troopers were also interviewed and their charges written about at length by the Los Angeles Times in a story published in December 1993 a day after the Spectator story came out.<ref name=later>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=latimes>"Troopers Say Clinton Sought Silence on Personal Affairs", Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1993.</ref> They also spoke on air to CNN in the same month.<ref name=AP >{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The core allegations that the troopers made were that, while on official duty, they:<ref name=Brock1/><ref name=latimes/>
- Scouted women and asked them for their phone number to give to the governor;
- Secured motel rooms and other assignation points;
- Drove Clinton in state vehicles to these assignation points and kept watch while Clinton was inside;
- Lent Clinton their own state cars to make his escapes less noticeable;
- Delivered gifts to the women afterward; and
- Informed Clinton about where his wife was and lied to his wife about where he was.
The troopers said that these episodes involved dozens of women, from long-running mistresses to single encounters.<ref name=Brock1/> As far as they were aware, all of the women involved had consented to the relationships and no alcohol abuse or drug abuse had been part of the encounters.<ref name=Brock1/> One of the long-running mistresses was Gennifer Flowers, who had come forward with her tale of a 12-year relationship with the governor at the start of the Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign; this had caused an early crisis in that endeavor which Clinton and his wife had to address in a televised and much-discussed 60 Minutes interview.<ref name=latimes/>
As for the governor and his wife, Brock wrote that, "As the troopers saw it, the Clintons' relationship is an effective political partnership, more a business relationship than a marriage."<ref name=Brock1/>
Context and responseEdit
The troopers said that only a select few of their ranks were privy to the Clinton secrets; several other troopers confirmed that they had no knowledge of such goings-on.<ref name=latimes/> The troopers conceded that they were interested in writing a book about their story.<ref name=waposup/> Nevertheless, a representative of two of the troopers maintained that their purpose was not prurient: "The issue was not his sexual proclivities. It was the abuse of power – the abuse of office that concerned them and concerned me."<ref name=waposup/> The Los Angeles Times story included documentary evidence that backed up some of the troopers' allegations.<ref name=later/>
During the latter part of 1993, Clinton and other administration officials made a determined effort to keep the troopers from going public with their claims.<ref name=waposup>Template:Cite news</ref> Two of the troopers said they had been offered federal jobs via the Clinton administration if they would maintain their silence.<ref name=latimes/> But no such offers actually materialized. Thus among Patterson's subsequent complaints was Clinton's alleged later behavior: "We lied for him and helped him cheat on his wife, and he treated us like dogs."<ref name=latimes/>
In response to the December 1993 trooper charges, Bruce Lindsey, who was a senior White House staffer, said: "These allegations are ridiculous. Similar charges were made, investigated and responded to during the campaign. There is nothing that dignifies a further response."<ref name=latimes/> Lindsey said that Clinton had specifically denied the central points of the allegations.<ref name=AP/> Regarding the specific question of whether troopers were offered jobs for silence, Lindsey said that Clinton had telephoned one of them, but "any suggestion that the President offered anyone a job in return for silence is a lie."<ref name=latimes/>
Jones lawsuitEdit
The Brock story had mentioned a woman named "Paula", a reference to the then-unknown Paula Jones.<ref name="apology">Template:Cite news</ref> This reference was cited by Paula Jones in her May 1994 sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. According to Gennifer Flowers's deposition in the suit, she claimed that Clinton told her to contact Larry Patterson or Roger Perry to communicate.<ref>"Declaration of Gennifer G. Flowers Template:Webarchive" The Washington Post, March 13, 1998</ref>
The lawsuit, Jones v. Clinton, was initially dismissed, whereupon Jones appealed. In 1998, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000, the entire amount of her claim, but without an apology, in exchange for her agreement to drop the appeal.<ref name=clqc>Template:Cite news</ref> Meanwhile, the Jones matter had begun a chain of events that led to exposure and instantiation of the Lewinsky scandal.<ref name=slate/> Thus, arguably, state-level Troopergate indirectly led to the federal Impeachment of Bill Clinton.<ref name=slate/>
Later developments with troopersEdit
Following Brock's article, in 1994 four troopers conducted interviews with various allegations about Clinton and subsequently the New York Daily News stated that "one of the troopers is an accused wife beater, another was caught sleeping on the job, a third pleaded guilty to starting a barroom brawl and a fourth allegedly slept with a fellow trooper's wife."<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>
Then in 1994 and 1995, Jerry Falwell paid $200,000 to Citizens for Honest Government, who in turn paid two Arkansas state troopers who had made allegations supporting a conspiracy about Vincent Foster in the Clinton Chronicles video.<ref name="falwell">The Falwell connection Template:Webarchive by Murray Waas Salon.com</ref> The two troopers, Roger Perry and Larry Patterson, also were paid after making their allegations in the Jones-Clinton trial.<ref name="falwell"/>
Trooper Patterson, whose name would always be linked with the allegations, retired from the state force in 1999.<ref name=Quit/> In 2000 he was named the police chief of Quitman, Arkansas.<ref name=Quit>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2005, Patterson was convicted of making false statements to the FBI about an unrelated incident.<ref>Linda Satter, "Ex-Arkansas State Trooper Larry Patterson sentenced for lying to FBI agent," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 12, 2005</ref>
Brock apologyEdit
In a 1998 article for Esquire magazine, Brock said he wished he had never written the original Spectator story.<ref name=apology/> Following the admission, Brock publicly apologized to President Clinton for his Troopergate story, which he stated was written not "in the interest of good government or serious journalism," but as part of an "anti-Clinton crusade."<ref name=npr>Template:Cite episode</ref><ref name="apology"/>
However, in his apology Brock did not say that anything in his 1993 article was specifically false: "I'm saying that story was bad journalism, that I don't stand by the story any more. I can't point to anything specific ... [that] might be wrong."<ref name=apology/> He said that both he and the troopers had had impure motivations.<ref name=apology/>
In his 2002 book, Blinded by the Right, Brock claimed that in order to maintain journalistic integrity, he agreed to write the Troopergate article only if the four troopers whom he interviewed were not paid. In 1998, a conservative fundraiser, Peter W. Smith, admitted that he had set up a "Troopergate Whistle Blower Fund" to support the troopers and their legal fees. He also arranged for the troopers to give paid speeches.<ref name="Rempel">Template:Cite news</ref> Smith says he eventually paid about $80,000 on the case, including a $5,000 payment to Brock.<ref name="Rempel"/> Brock says the trooper payments were made without his knowledge.