白水事件(Whitewater scandal) 是一件美国政治丑闻,发生在比尔.克林顿的第一个总统任期,白宫副法律顾问文森特.福斯特(Vincent Foster)死后。人们获知，白宫总法律顾问伯纳德.努斯鲍姆(Bernard Nussbaum)从福斯特的办公室毁掉了关于白水开发公司(Whitewater Development Corporation)的文档。克林顿总统和他的妻子曾投资这家公司；在联邦证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)对麦迪逊投资担保公司(Madison Guaranty,一家阿肯色州信托公司)破产的调查中，克林顿被控与这次投资相关的欺诈。
At Clinton's request, an independent counsel was appointed in 1994 by the Department of Justice to investigate the legality of Whitewater transactions. Two further accusations then surfaced: that Clinton had exerted pressure on a Little Rock, Arkansas businessman to make a loan that would benefit him and the owners of Madison Guaranty, and that an Arkansas bank had concealed transactions involving Clinton's gubernatorial campaign in 1990.
The Clintons were cleared of any wrongdoing in two reports subsequently prepared by the San Francisco law firm of Pillsbury Madison and Sutro for the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was overseeing the bankruptcy of Madison Guaranty.
When the Whitewater scandal first surfaced, Attorney General Janet Reno appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the matter. This prosecutor, a Republican former United States Attorney named Robert Fiske, was subsequently replaced by Kenneth Starr when the investigation was transferred to the jurisidiction of the Office of the Independent Counsel.
1996年1月26日, Hillary Clinton testified before a grand jury concerning her investments in Whitewater.
Three associates, James McDougal, Susan McDougal, and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker were convicted on several federal charges not directly related to the Clintons in 1996.
In 1994 Paula Jones had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton which was unrelated to the Whitewater investigation. Clinton testified in this lawsuit in 1998 and gave the impression through his testimony that he had not had an affair with an intern named Monica Lewinsky.
Unknown to either Lewinsky or Clinton, a former White House staffer Linda Tripp had recorded Lewinsky talking about her relations with Clinton. Tripp turned these tapes over to the Whitewater investigators who sought and received an expansion of the scope of the investigation to cover the President's Paula Jones testimony.
Starr Report
In 1998, the independent counsel Kenneth Starr sent a report to Congress in which he charged Clinton with perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and abuse of authority in the Paula Jones lawsuit. The report contained details, sometimes explicit, of Clinton's liaisons with Lewinsky. Detractors of the independent counsel criticized Starr for expanding the investigation beyond its initial scope and for the graphic nature of the report.
Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in December 1998, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, and tried by the Senate in January 1999. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate on both counts.
Clinton's supporters claimed that the charges made against Clinton did not rise to the severity required for the impeachment and removal of a sitting President since they had nothing to do with his official duties. They viewed the wide-ranging investigation as a "witch-hunt" based on the President's personal life. Clinton's detractors stated that the President was effectively the chief law enforcement officer and that false testimony in a court of law was grounds for removal. The heated clashes between Clinton supporters and detractors continued in the media throughout the investigation and impeachment and came to dominate the headlines during the period.
Republicans suffered a substantial political backlash in the wake of the investigations and impeachment. Clinton served his last two years in office without any further attacks of a serious legal nature but continued to be criticized by his detractors for the scandals. Clinton's job approval rating remained high throughout his term even though his personal approval ratings slipped.
In April 1999 Judge Susan Webber Wright found Clinton in civil contempt of court for misleading testimony in the Jones case but did not press for any criminal charge. Wright referred her ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court. Rather than undergo a review by the Arkansas Supreme Court, Clinton voluntarily surrendered his Arkansas law license.
Ray Report
Kenneth Starr's successor, Robert Ray, released a report in September of 2000 that stated "This office determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either President or Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in any criminal conduct." Ray's report effectively ended the Whitewater investigation.
