Whitewater Investigation Launches Under Special Counsel Robert Fiske

Attorney General Janet Reno appoints Robert Fiske, a moderate Republican and former U.S. Attorney, as special counsel to investigate the Whitewater controversy involving President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. The investigation focuses on the Clintons’ 1978 investment in the Whitewater Development Corporation, an Arkansas real estate venture, and their relationships with Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association, which was owned by their business partner James McDougal and later failed at a cost of $65 million to taxpayers.

The Whitewater investigation examines whether the Clintons received improper benefits from McDougal’s lending institution and whether there was improper handling of documents related to the investment, particularly after the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster in July 1993. The inquiry represents the beginning of what would become a sprawling, multi-year investigation that eventually consumed more than $50 million in taxpayer funds.

Fiske’s tenure as special counsel would be short-lived. In August 1994, following passage of the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act, a special three-judge panel replaced Fiske with Kenneth Starr, whose investigation would dramatically expand beyond the original Whitewater allegations. Neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton was ever prosecuted for involvement in Whitewater, as investigators ultimately uncovered no criminal wrongdoing by the Clintons themselves, though several associates were convicted of related crimes.