Money
The “trashed White House” and the furniture
RECORD / AT A GLANCE
Partly documented
There were pranks and some damage, including missing “W” keys, though not the scale first claimed. The Clintons took gifts and furnishings and, under criticism, paid for or returned more than half.
THE EVENTS / THE INVESTIGATION / THE STORY
20 Jan 2001
Bush staff report damage and pranks in the White House complex.
Feb 2001
The Clintons agree to pay for $86,000 of gifts and return $28,000 of furnishings.
Jun 2002
Federal auditors confirm damage, theft, vandalism and pranks.
READ THE FILE
It happened, on a smaller scale than the first stories.
They took $190,000 of gifts and returned or paid for much of it.
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OPEN THE RECORD
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The federal audit behind the “missing W keys” story, with both the incoming staff’s reports and former staff’s responses.
Contemporaneous report on the returned furnishings.
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It happened, on a smaller scale than the first stories.
The GAO found that “damage, theft, vandalism, and pranks occurred” during the 2001 transition. Twenty-six staff said they saw 30 to 64 keyboards with missing or damaged “W” keys; two former Clinton staff saw three or four. The White House bought 62 keyboards for $4,850. GAO could not determine how many were deliberately damaged. [1]
Former Clinton staff told GAO that the trash was normal for a move, that some furniture was broken before, and that many reports were not vandalism. [1]
What we can’t tell you. Documentation was thin, so GAO could not price the damage.
The federal audit behind the “missing W keys” story, with both the incoming staff’s reports and former staff’s responses.
They took $190,000 of gifts and returned or paid for much of it.
After criticism for taking $190,000 in china, flatware, rugs, sofas and other gifts, the Clintons agreed to pay for $86,000 worth and to send back $28,000 of household goods that may have been meant as gifts to the White House, not to them. [1]
What we can’t tell you. Which items were gifts to the family and which to the house was disputed item by item.
Contemporaneous report on the returned furnishings.
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