NewsMax.com
Monday, Jan. 29, 2001

The Sunday Telegraph of London has reported that:

A Clinton aide contacted the White House last Friday to request a written report of all damage left behind by his staffers as they vacated their offices to make room for the incoming administration of President Bush on Jan. 20.

It was not known whether this was to include an accounting of damage the Clinton personnel did in looting the Air Force One plane Bush allowed Clinton and his entourage to use to fly to New York after the inauguration of the new president.

Clinton's former press secretary, Jake Siewert, said: "We'd like a fuller explanation of what, if anything, was amiss.

"I was one of the last to leave the West Wing, and I saw nothing obviously wrong.

"If there was any serious vandalism, it's something President Clinton would like to hear about and have some way of redressing."

Clinton stepped in only after it became known publicly that what was first described as mere "pranks" by his departing officials may have been far more serious than W's missing from computer keyboards.

Estimates of damage have been as much as $200,000.

Those reports created a firestorm of outrage among Americans already incensed by Clinton's flood of last-minute pardons and the estimated $190,000 in gifts he and his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, had accepted just before she came under the Senate's ban on its members' receiving expensive gifts.

At first, Clinton-Gore administration officials and their allies in the news media hotly disputed there was serious damage done to the White House.

One veteran Clinton appointee said, "Other than the offices being dirty and big bags of trash, I didn't notice anything."

And Siewert said newspaper reporters aboard Clinton's final flight on Air Force One noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

"At one point," Siewert said, "as we were about to drink some toasts we hit turbulence, and eight or 10 glasses on a tray fell off and broke.

"I have since checked with the stewards, and apart from maybe one or two hand towels missing, that was it."

Earlier, the Washington Times reported just about everything aboard the specially equipped giant Boeing 747 that could be removed had been looted.

Among the vindictive damage done in the White House, according to witnesses:

• Telephone lines were cut.

• Extensions were switched to cause confusion.

• Desks were overturned.

• Filing cabinets were glued shut.

• Lewd graffiti was scribbled on walls.

• Pornographic images emerged from computer printers.

• Unflattering pictures of Bush were interspersed into stacks of photocopier paper.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Clinton Scandals

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