TO: Supporters of CIC

Subject: Hillary's Travel Expenses

From: Clinton Investigative Commission a project of the Council of Volunteer Americans, Inc.

Notes on Contacts with Various Executive Branch Contacts

In response to press and supporter inquiries, here is an amplification of a report on CIC attempts to obtain a listing of costs for the many trips to New York by Hillary Clinton at taxpayer expense and to find out exactly which federal officials have been assigned to "service" with the First Lady, another source of taxpayer funding of her campaign. These are Executive Branch contacts, a partial listing. There will be more listings at a later time.

Partial Listing

June 10, 1999

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"It's been frustrating trying to track down the info on Hillary, but CIC contacted the General Accounting Office of Congress; the General Services Administration; 4 House Committees--- Budget, Appropriations, Oversight and Commerce--; Friends of Giuliani; DOD/Air Force; U.S. Secret Service (big snub here --- call transferred); and the First Lady's Office at the White House (no comment -- message). All of them had NO information available."
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Thursday, July 1, 1999

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".....The following is a logged report, of calls and contacts regarding Hillary’s expenditures.

CIC kept record of every office contacted. Also, please note that there may be call backs from messages left, but to this date/time, there are none. These people have had ample enough time to respond to repeated inquiries, and are now a part of the problem (i.e. cover-up).

CIC spoke to the General Services Administration (GSA) on 6/10 and 6/24 but was told that they have no "accounting" nor government reports of information on Hillary’s office or travel expenditures. CIC was referred to the White House, and the Government Printing Office.

Likewise, CIC contacted on the same above GSA dates the General Accounting Office (GAO), Congress’ supposed "watchdog" over the expenditure of federal funds. Like other bureaucratic agencies, they too could not provide any information on the First Lady. And their "searchable" web site also elicited zero information.

CIC contacted the Office of the First Lady on 6/10 and was given no information, but left a message for Marsha Berry, her chief spokeswoman. On 6/29 CIC called again and spoke with an Eric Woodard and reiterated our message to Ms. Berry, but was referred to the WH Counsel office and PR office. So CIC called these offices directly and left precise messages with a Dawn Chirwa of the Counsel’s Office and a Julie Mason of Press Relations, and CIC is waiting to hear back (no response to date).

CIC contacted the Secret Service on 6/10 and 6/16 and was immediately referred to the WH mainline. CIC called again on 6/29 and explained more thoroughly the purpose of CIC’s call, and was referred to a Shawn Yawnt of the public affairs office of the Secret Service. CIC left a precise message of request, and CIC is still waiting for a response.

CIC also contacted the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the "premiere" White House agency which should, quite frankly, know everything (this is what a staffer told CIC on the Senate budget committee). After being bounced around, CIC was forced to leave a message with a Sarah Richardson of the OMB Public Affairs Office. Like before, CIC left a precise request for the information, and CIC is waiting for a response to this message. To this date......none so far.

For a another source, CIC contacted the publications office of GPO and the GPO "electronic office" (re: on-line info) on 6/23 and was told that no report exists on expenses of the First Lady. CIC called again on 6/29 and spoke with a Steven Morbley of the official GPO bookstore and was given the same answer. Likewise, a search on their web site produces no records or reports.

Finally, in addition to specific searches on the government web sites of the GAO, GPO, the Federal Web Locator and the Library of Congress, numerous searches on 8 internet search engines (and the electric library) produced no information (save the AP and London Telegraph articles on travel --- which you already have copies of).

CONCLUSION: Hillary is wasting Americans’ tax dollars for her own selfish, political reasons, and no one is able to find out the truth of her spending because of the wall of secrecy around the White House."
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July 23, 1999

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"CIC followed up this week with more calls to Congress and the White House to get more info on Hillary.

>From Congressional contacts, CIC learned as for travel expenses, in particular, there is far more detailed information from the House Approps. Ctee. hearing on "Treasury, Postal Service, and General Gov't Appropriations for FY 1997, hearings, part 3" of the 104th Congress. In this volume, from pp. 108-147, there is a detailed listing (which is only summarized in the CRS report we have) about all of the trips of Clinton, Gore and Hillary in 1995 and 1996 and actual dollar figures for White House budget only (DOD expenses, of course, are separate for air cost). These other costs include all miscellaneous expenses incurred by the "Executive Office of the President" and are distinguished by official and non-official trips. Though this is the most current info available, at least this will buttress CIC estimates of Hillary’s trips costing $250,000 per trip and give us a good idea of expenditures from past trips to compare with current ones.

---Another interesting thing CIC discovered from House staffers is that when it comes to reimbursements for "political" expenses (i.e. Hillary's NY fundraisers for congressional candidates) the "reimbursements" of these portions of her trip is never more than 30% (in fact, much lower). The candidates campaigns only reimburse first-class ticket price at best, but the problem is that Hillary is mixing official/non-official functions of her trips, so it is possible that these candidates do not have to reimburse anything. It all depends how the trips are classified --- which is done by the WH Counsel's Office. CIC thinks it's worth checking the FEC records again when the candidate disclosure forms are publicly available

---With regards to annual budget expenses of Office of the First Lady, according to the Hill sources I contacted, it is almost impossible to find out the actual dollar expenditures since these costs fall under the

"Office of Administration" (they were last allocated $28+ million) and they decide what is spent and where.

CIC again contacted the various White House entities again to try to get more info both on travel, annual budget and staff/salaries. As expected, it was a total roadblock again --- but CIC at least tried again. The first lady's office again refused to answer any questions and referred me to the WH Counsel's Office --- where they referred me to Dawn Chirwa (again) and have left several messages, but have yet to hear back. CIC also contacted the OMB again, and CIC is still waiting to hear back from CIC messages. CIC also called the Office of Administration itself and was referred to their "Financial Management" subdivision, where CIC was promptly put on speaker phone when CIC told them who we were and the information we were looking for. CIC had three ladies quizzing us about who or what CIC was, why CIC wanted to know how much Hillary spends on her staff and budget, etc. etc. This was quite an interesting call and we wish we could have gotten some of their names, but CIC was intimidated by being put on a speaker phone. The call ended when they very curtly refused to answer any questions, and they told CIC that we had to write a FOIA and direct it to the WH Counsel's Office. (Isn't this an interesting pattern? ANY question about Hillary is always directed to the WH lawyers!)

CIC also contacted the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and was told that they do not have any records available on White House staffers, who they are and what there salaries are (this all in-house at the WH). I was told the only records they have are what's called "Register of Separations" which documents all federal workers, their titles, actual salaries/benefits, etc. after they have left their jobs. In other words, we could get info on past Hillary and WH staffers, but not current ones."
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end of notes here, FOR NOW