One last heist! Bubba and Hillary haul off unprecedented $190,000 worth of gifts

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Clintons Take Away $190,000 in Gifts Hollywood Helped With Furnishings By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 21, 2001; Page A18

Former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), faced with multimillion-dollar houses to furnish here and in suburban New York, left the White House yesterday with an unprecedented $190,027 worth of gifts received over the last eight years.

In their financial disclosure forms, the Clintons reported a variety of assets and receipts, including "over $1 million" in a Citibank personal account in New York; blind trusts, insurance policies and some common stock worth more than $1 million; and the payment of $1.05 million in legal fees by the Clinton Legal Expense Trust.

Bill Clinton continues to owe "between $1 million and $5 million" to each of two law firms, Williams and Connolly and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, resulting primarily from his defense in House and Senate impeachment proceedings, along with a number of other investigations.

Many of the gifts the Clintons are taking with them are from Hollywood figures, Democratic donors and a wide array of friends and associates, including his Georgetown University classmates.

Most of the gifts are artworks, flatware, furniture, china and rugs for a couple who for nearly two decades have not had a home of their own but now suddenly have two large houses, one in Northwest Washington, the other in Chappaqua, N.Y.

The Clintons received, for example, five gifts of china ranging in value from $2,110 from Jill and Ken Iscol, of Pound Ridge, N.Y. -- two of Sen. Clinton's new constituents -- to $5,000 from Mr. and Mrs. Bill Brandt of Winnetka, Ill.

Actor-actress couple Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen of Los Angeles spent $4,787 for china, but they didn't quite match the $4,920 that movie director and producer Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, paid for the china they gave the Clintons. Altogether, the Clintons reported receiving $21,819 worth of china.

The Clintons will have no problem with silver and flatware for their guests in the future: They received five gifts of flatware worth a total of $17,966, including $4,944 worth of settings from Ghada Irani of Los Angeles and $4,967 worth from Edith Wasserman of Beverly Hills.

One of the biggest gifts was from Steve Mittman of New York, who gave the Clintons two sofas, an easy chair and ottoman worth $19,900. That was more than double the value of the china cabinet, travel humidor, chandelier and copy of Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union speech, together worth $9,683, from Mr. and Mrs. Walter Kaye, of New York.

In addition, the Clintons left the White House with $52,021 worth of furniture, $71,650 in artworks and three carpets valued at $12,282.

Bill Clinton's 1968 class at Georgetown University gave the former president and new senator a basket by artist Dale Chihuly said to be worth $38,000, and Chihuly gave the couple a $22,000 glass sculpture.

In addition to the home furnishings, the most common gift given to the Clintons was golf equipment. Ten people gave drivers, putters and other golf paraphernalia worth $300 to $650. Actor Jack Nicholson gave Clinton a $350 driver.

Actor Sylvester Stallone gave the couple boxing gloves.

In seven previous years, the most the Clintons had reported receiving in gifts was $23,602 in 1999.

Clinton's predecessor in the White House, George Bush, listed $52,853 in gifts in 1992.

Researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

One last heist! Bubba and Hillary haul off unprecedented $190,000 worth of gifts

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), January 22, 2001

Answers

So they didn't heist anything. All this stuff was given to them by rich suck-ups and Hollywood sychophants. If those people wanted to give these things to the Clintons, that is their problem.

The Clintons are not ripping off the permanent White House art collections and furnishings are they? That is the way it sounded from your subject line.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 22, 2001.


Subject: One last heist! Bubba and Hillary haul off unprecedented $190,000 worth of gifts

Um, yep Lars that is what she said.

So, um, where is the heist?

Pathetic there aint, come on, you can do better clintoon bashing than that, we've seen ya in action. :-)

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), January 22, 2001.


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