The draft letter, the 1975 rape case, Watergate and Mena
1969The draft letter, the 1975 case, Watergate, Mena
RECORD / AT A GLANCE
Mixed
The draft letter is real and in his own words. Hillary Clinton did defend Thomas Taylor, and aggressively; she did not volunteer, and she did not laugh at the victim. She was not fired from the Watergate inquiry. No investigation tied the Clintons to drug smuggling at Mena.
THE EVENTS / THE INVESTIGATION / THE STORY
The chronology.
3 Dec 1969
Draft letter
Bill Clinton writes to Col. Eugene Holmes, thanking him for “saving me from the draft.”
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The draft letter
“Saving me from the draft,” in his own hand.
In December 1969 Bill Clinton, then a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, wrote to Col. Eugene Holmes of the University of Arkansas ROTC: “First, I want to thank you, not just for saving me from the draft, but for being so kind and decent to me last summer.” He wrote of people “still loving their country but loathing the military,” and that he had decided to accept the draft “to maintain my political viability within the system.” [1]
He had signed up for ROTC, which deferred his service, then put himself back in the draft pool; he drew a high lottery number and was never called. Critics call it draft-dodging; he called it a hard decision about a war he opposed.
What we can’t tell you. Holmes and Clinton later gave different accounts of what was promised.
She was appointed, defended him hard, and did not laugh at the victim.
In 1975 Hillary Rodham, 27 and running a legal-aid clinic at the University of Arkansas, was appointed to defend Thomas Taylor, 41, accused of raping a 12-year-old girl. The prosecutor confirmed she asked to be taken off the case. She sought a psychiatric exam of the girl, citing an affidavit that called her “emotionally unstable with a tendency to seek out older men.” [1]
Taylor pleaded guilty to unlawful fondling of a minor and got a year in jail. In a 1980s interview recording she laughs while describing the polygraph he passed, which she said “forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs,” and other oddities of the case. PolitiFact rated false Trump’s claim she laughed at the victim. [1][2]
What we can’t tell you. The victim, Kathy Shelton, later said Clinton’s tactics hurt her; that is her account, and it matters.
Plays the tape against the claim: she laughed at points about the legal system, not about the victim.
“Fired from Watergate”
Pay records show she stayed until the work ended.
A viral post says Jerry Zeifman, a Democratic counsel, fired Hillary Rodham from the Watergate staff for lying. In 1999 Zeifman said, “If I had the power to fire her, I would have fired her.” Later he said he “terminated her, along with some other staff members” no longer needed. Committee pay records show she was paid through 4 September 1974, after Nixon resigned and after the final report. [1]
What we can’t tell you. Zeifman’s low opinion of her was real; he died in 2010.
Shows she stayed on the impeachment staff until it disbanded after Nixon resigned.
Mena airport
Real drug smuggling in the 1980s; no tie to the Clintons found.
Mena, Arkansas, was a base for the drug smuggler Barry Seal in the 1980s, and stories later claimed Governor Clinton protected a CIA-linked drug and gun operation there. In 1996 the CIA inspector general reported: “No evidence has been found that the CIA was associated with money laundering, narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling or other illegal activities at or around Mena, Ark., at any time.” [1]
What we can’t tell you. The CIA investigated itself; only a six-page summary was released.
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