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This unaltered story was originally published at ProPublica.org. [1]
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Almost $2 Million Spent in Magazine's Anti-Clinton Project, but on What?
Author Name, ProPublica
1998-04-15 00:00:00
In December 1993, Richard Mellon Scaife, a reclusive multimillionaire and benefactor of many conservative causes, began subsidizing a large-scale effort at The American Spectator magazine to unearth damaging information about President Clinton.
By the time his grants ended in the fall of 1997, Mr. Scaife had given The American Spectator $2.4 million, according to a preliminary internal audit at the magazine. Of that amount, $1.8 million was specifically allocated to obtain information about the activities of Mr. Clinton and his wife, Hillary, during their years in Arkansas. This came to be known at the magazine as ''The Arkansas Project.'' White House officials have described it in a different way: as a major component of a ''vast right-wing conspiracy'' to damage Mr. Clinton.
And what did Mr. Scaife get for his money? The most obvious and immediate fruits of the Arkansas Project were a handful of lengthy articles in The Spectator portraying the Clintons as a slick political couple addled by greed and ambition, a view that reflected the magazine's unrelentingly critical view of the President.
But Federal investigators will soon look into whether Mr. Scaife's money bought something more. Attorney General Janet Reno has said that there should be an investigation of accusations that some of Mr. Scaife's money went to influence the testimony of David L. Hale, a major witness against President Clinton in the Whitewater investigation. The Justice Department and Kenneth W. Starr, the Whitewater prosecutor, are engaged in a quiet but intense battle over who will conduct the investigation into possible witness-tampering.
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