Papers from Bill Clinton presidency show White House in spin mode
Documents from Bill Clinton administration show efforts to manage media coverage of scandals over Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky
White House staff under former president Bill Clinton explored ways to manage public relations and fend off the national press as a series of scandals brewed in the 1990s, a new batch of previously withheld documents shows.
The seventh and final release of Clinton administration documents from the Clinton Presidential Library and the National Archives comes as former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton considers a possible White House bid in 2016.
The nearly 10,000 pages of documents released on Friday did not appear to contain revelations that would affect her possible campaign. But the papers did offer inside looks at a Bill Clinton White House dealing with controversies such as the 1993 death of White House lawyer Vincent Foster, and the 1998 scandal surrounding Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
In a July 1998 email, White House adviser Sidney Blumenthal had harsh words about Linda Tripp, a former White House aide who secretly taped Lewinsky talking about her relationship with Clinton.
Blumenthal wrote that Tripp was an unreliable witness who might have "initiated" the creation of a key document, and said if this were true Tripp "would be a liar, a worthless witness and open to prosecution herself".
In another email, Blumenthal encouraged a journalist to write an unflattering story about conservative literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, who helped introduce Tripp to journalists and conservative activists.
Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives over the Lewinsky affair but acquitted by the Senate.