Editing Whitewater controversy (section)

===The Kenneth Starr investigation===
In August 1994, [[Ken Starr|Kenneth Starr]]<ref name="cnnstar"/> was appointed by a three-judge panel to continue the Whitewater investigation, replacing [[Robert B. Fiske]], who had been specially appointed by US attorney general [[Janet Reno]], prior to the re-enactment of the [[United States Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel|Independent Counsel]] law. Fiske was replaced because he had been chosen and appointed by Janet Reno, Clinton's attorney general, creating the appearance of a [[conflict of interest]].

====David Hale====
The key witness against President Clinton in Starr's Whitewater investigation, was banker [[David Hale (Whitewater)|David Hale]] who alleged in November 1992 that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, pressured him to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater deal.<ref name="salon031798"/>

Attorney Randy Coleman's defense strategy was to present Hale as the victim of high-powered politicians who forced him to give away all of the money.<ref name="salon03032000">{{cite news |title=Nabbing David Hale |first1=Joe |last1=Conason|author-link1=Joe Conason|first2=Gene|last2=Lyons|author-link2=Gene Lyons |url=http://www.salon.com/2000/03/03/hale_2/ |newspaper=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |date=March 3, 2000 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref> This characterization was undermined by testimony from November 1989, wherein FBI agents investigating the failure of Madison Guaranty had questioned Hale about his dealings with Jim and Susan McDougal, including the $300,000 loan. According to the agents' official memorandum of that interview, Hale described in some detail his dealings with Jim Guy Tucker (then an attorney in private practice, later Bill Clinton's [[Lieutenant governor (United States)|lieutenant governor]]), both McDougals, and several others, but never mentioned Governor Bill Clinton.

Clinton denied that he pressured Hale to approve the loan to Susan McDougal. By this time, Hale had already pleaded guilty to two felonies and secured a reduction in his sentence in exchange for his testimony against Bill Clinton. Charges were made by Clinton supporters that Hale had received numerous cash payments from representatives of the so-called [[Arkansas Project]], a $2.4 million campaign established to assist in Hale's defense strategy, and to investigate Clinton and his associates between 1993 and 1997.<ref name="salon031798"/>

These charges were the topic of a separate investigation by former Department of Justice investigator, Michael E. Shaheen Jr.<ref name="salon091198">{{cite news |title=Where's Whitewater? |first=Jonathan |last=Broder |url=http://www.salon.com/1998/08/30/newsd_3/ |newspaper=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |date=August 30, 1998 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref> Shaheen filed his report in July 1999 to Starr, who stated that the allegations that Hale had been paid in hopes of influencing his testimony were "unsubstantiated or, in some cases, untrue". No further charges were brought against Hale or the Arkansas Project outlet, ''[[The American Spectator]]'',<ref name="nyt072999">{{cite news |title=National News Briefs; Whitewater Report Finds No Proof of Tampering |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/29/us/national-news-briefs-whitewater-report-finds-no-proof-of-tampering.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 29, 1999 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref> though Hale later pled guilty in the Whitewater case to two felonies and served 21 months of a 28-month sentence.<ref name="Hale Guilty of Lying About Firm">{{cite news | work = washingtonpost.com | date = March 26, 1999 | title = Hale Guilty of Lying About Firm | agency = Associated Press | url =  https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/hale032699.htm }}</ref> Writers from [[Salon (website)|''Salon'']] have complained that the full, 168-page report had not been made public, a complaint still being reiterated by ''Salon'' as of 2001.<ref name="salon051701">{{cite news |title=Why won't the government release the Shaheen Report? |first1=Joe |last1=Conason|author-link1=Joe Conason |url=http://www.salon.com/2001/05/17/shaheen_report/ |newspaper=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |date=May 17, 2001 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref>

State prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Hale in early July 1996, charging that Hale had misrepresented the solvency of his insurance company, [[National Savings Life]], to the state insurance commission. The prosecutors also alleged in court papers that Hale had made those misrepresentations to conceal the fact that he had looted the insurance company. Hale said that any infraction was a technicality and that no one had lost any money.<ref name="nyt032699">{{cite news |title=National News Briefs; Whitewater Figure Guilty in Insurance Case |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/26/us/national-news-briefs-whitewater-figure-guilty-in-insurance-case.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 26, 1999 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref> In March 1999, Hale was convicted of the first charge, with the jury recommending a 21-day jail sentence.<ref name="nyt032699"/>

Starr drafted an impeachment referral to the House of Representatives in the fall of 1997, alleging that there was "substantial and credible evidence" that Bill Clinton had committed perjury regarding Hale's allegations. Hale pleaded guilty in the Whitewater case to two felonies and served 21 months of a 28-month sentence.<ref name="Hale Guilty of Lying About Firm"/>

====Webster Hubbell====
Attorney [[Theodore B. Olson]], who with several associates launched the plan that later became known as the "Arkansas Project", wrote several essays for ''The American Spectator'', accusing Clinton and many of his associates of wrongdoing. The first of those pieces appeared in February 1994, alleging a wide variety of criminal offenses by the Clintons and others, including [[Webster Hubbell]]. These allegations led to the discovery that Hubbell, a friend and former Rose Law Firm partner of Hillary Clinton, had committed multiple frauds, mostly against his own firm. Hillary Clinton, instead of being complicit in Hubbell's crimes, had been among his victims. In December 1994, one week after Hubbell pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion, Associate White House Counsel, [[Jane C. Sherburne]], created a "Task List" which included a reference to monitoring Hubbell's cooperation with Starr. Hubbell was later recorded in prison saying to his wife, "I need to roll over one more time" regarding the Rose Law firm lawsuit. In his next court appearance, he pleaded the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]] against self-incrimination (see ''[[United States v. Hubbell]]'').

In February 1997, Starr announced he would leave the investigation to pursue a position at the [[Pepperdine University School of Law]]. However, he "flip flopped" in the face of "intense criticism" by conservatives and new evidence of sexual misconduct,<ref name="cnnstar">{{cite news |title=Kenneth W. Starr Profile |url=http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/01/27/profiles/starr/ |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=January 27, 1998 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref> diverted to some degree by the burgeoning [[Clinton–Lewinsky scandal]]. Starr's investigations in Arkansas were winding down, with his Little Rock [[grand jury]] about to expire.<ref name="time041398">{{cite news |title=Meanwhile, Back In Arkansas... |first=Eric |last=Pooley |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988138,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216220450/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988138,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 16, 2008 |newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=April 13, 1998 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref>

====Susan McDougal====
Hubbell, [[Jim Guy Tucker]], and [[Susan McDougal]] had all refused to cooperate with Starr.<ref name="time041398"/> Tucker and McDougal were later pardoned by President Clinton. When the Arkansas grand jury did conclude its work in May 1998, after 30 months in panel, it came up with only a contempt indictment against Susan McDougal.<ref name="salon091198"/> Although she refused to testify under oath regarding the Clintons' involvement in Whitewater, Susan McDougal did make the case in the media that the Clintons had been truthful in their account of the loan, and had cast doubt on her former husband's motives for cooperating with Starr. She also claimed that James McDougal felt abandoned by Clinton, and told her "he was going to pay back the Clintons". She said to the press, again not under oath, that her husband had told her that Republican activist and Little Rock lawyer, [[Sheffield Nelson]], was willing to "pay him some money" for talking to ''The New York Times'' about Bill Clinton, and in 1992, he told her that one of Clinton's political enemies was paying him to tell ''The New York Times'' about Whitewater.

From the beginning, Susan McDougal charged that Starr had offered her "global immunity" from other charges if she would cooperate with the Whitewater investigation. McDougal told the jury that refusing to answer questions about the Clintons and Whitewater wasn't easy for her, or her family. "It's been a long road, a very long road...and it was not an easy decision to make", McDougal told the court. McDougal refused to answer [[Susan McDougal#Whitewater grand jury and civil contempt of court|any questions while under oath]], leading to her being imprisoned by the judge for civil [[contempt of court]] for the maximum 18 months, including eight months in isolation. Starr's subsequent indictment of McDougal for ''criminal'' contempt of court charges resulted in a [[Hung jury|jury hung]] 7–5, in favor of acquittal. President Clinton later pardoned her, shortly before leaving office (see [[list of people pardoned by Bill Clinton]]).

====Starr Whitewater Report====
In September 1998, Independent Counsel Starr released the [[Starr Report]], concerning offenses alleged to have been committed by President Clinton, as part of the Lewinsky scandal. The report mentioned Whitewater only in passing; Clinton friend and advisor, [[Vernon Jordan]], Clinton aide [[Bruce Lindsey]], and Clinton chief of staff [[Mack McLarty]] had helped Webster Hubbell financially by getting him "no-show" consulting contracts while he was under pressure to cooperate with the Whitewater investigations.<ref name="salon091198"/><ref name="Schmidt"/><ref name="Washington Post"/> Indeed, it was on this basis that Starr took on the Lewinsky investigation, under the umbrella of the Whitewater Independent Counsel mandate.<ref name="salon091198"/>

There was much acrimony from the most fervent critics of the Clintons, after the release of the Starr report on the Foster matter and after Starr's departure and return to the case. The death of Foster had been the source of many conspiracy theories. [[Christopher Ruddy]], a reporter for [[Richard Mellon Scaife]]'s ''[[Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]],'' and later CEO of [[Newsmax]], helped fuel much of this speculation with claims that Starr had not pursued this line of inquiry far enough.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Strange Case of Christopher Ruddy |first=Michael |last=Isikoff |author-link=Michael Isikoff |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/1997/10/the_strange_case_of_christopher_ruddy.html |newspaper=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=October 19, 1997 |access-date=August 8, 2013}}</ref>

==== Criminal referrals ====
Starr received several criminal referrals from Congress but declined to prosecute. [[Susan Thomases]] and [[Webster Hubbell]] were alleged to have lied to Congress, and [[Harold M. Ickes]] was accused of misleading Congress.<ref>{{Cite web|title=AllPolitics - Whitewater - Cast of Characters|url=https://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/resources/1999/whitewater/players.html|access-date=October 3, 2021|website=CNN}}</ref>