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| For Immediate Release | |
| Aug 30, 1999 | Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 |
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(Washington, August 30) Judicial Watch today called attention to recent press reports in The Washington Post which imply that the Clintons' Legal Expense Trust Fund will allow Bill and Hillary Clinton to qualify for a mortgage on a multi-million dollar home in New York. By law, neither the President of the United States, nor any other federal employee, can supplement his income with cash gifts. So Bill Clinton, as President, can't use cash gifts to pay off his legal bills or supplement his income. Therefore he cannot use cash gifts to qualify for a mortgage. It is also improper for banks or other lenders to count the Clintons' future earnings potential when considering them for a mortgage. One qualifies for a mortgage based on current earnings and savings, not pie-in-the-sky future earnings "estimates." "If traditional lending practices are followed, Bill and Hillary Clinton simply cannot get the million dollar mortgage they require to move into the mansion they're considering in New York," stated Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman. "And they certainly shouldn't be able to use illegal cash income from their Legal Defense Fund to supplement their income, such that other revenues can be used to buy a mansion." Judicial Watch sued the first incarnation of the Clintons' legal defense trust fund, pointing out its inherent illegality and warning that it would be a way for influence peddlers to get to Clinton. Sure enough, a federal judge found the Clintons' first legal defense trust fund raised "major public policy, legal and ethical questions." Chinagate figure Charlie Trie later tried to launder hundreds of thousands of Communist Chinese and cult cash into the fund in exchange for, among other things, a special letter from Clinton on America's intentions with respect to China and Taiwan. "We will scrutinize carefully any mortgage the Clintons obtain to make sure that it is above board. However, based on the shady financial dealings of the First Couple, it looks as if more laws will be violated as they attempt to buy their multi-million dollar home with ‘other people's money,'" Klayman concluded. |
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