The Hidden Tale of Travelgate

...According to that information and documents released earlier by the House committee investigating the scandal, the takeover of the Travel Office was just the first step in a much larger plan involving the president, the first lady, and their Arkansas/Hollywood friend Harry Thomason...

...Here's the proof, they said: She did it and she lied about it...

...And he produced the inaugural events that ushered the Clintons into office...

...There is ample documentation to show that Foster was up to his ears in the scandal...

...Things were moving very quickly...

...The heat forced White House officials to conduct an investigation in which they found themselves guilty of insensitivity and slapped their own wrists...

...The Travel Office takeover seemed a relatively small part of the plan...

...Thomason performed all sorts of very public services for the Clintons during the campaign and transition...

...He said he could save the taxpayers millions of dollars by running the government's 1,800-plane fleet more efficiently...

...In the memo, Martens recommended that he and Thomason visit Washington to meet with officials at the Department of Transportation and the White House to discuss the plan...

...Now that all the preliminaries were taken care of, Martens told Lindsey, the president should (a) issue an executive order giving ICAP the authority to order the audit, and (b) enter into a consulting agreement with Thomason and Martens's firm to do the actual work...

...During the months of February, March, and April, Thomason and Martens were making a case for the ouster of the long-time office staff...

...For example, the administration has said that Foster's briefcase contained drafts of executive orders, but it will not release the executive orders, claiming they are privileged material...

...He was at the White House almost constantly in the days before and after the firings, which occurred on May 19...

...meeting with Thomases...

...Documents indicate Thomason was in close contact during those days with the president, the first lady, their top advisers, and Mrs...

...He also mentioned that the project might have to be put up for competitive bidding...

...2, 1995, issue of The Weekly Standard...

...Nonetheless, with White House backing, the idea moved ahead...

...The new information shows just how extensive the plan was...

...The FBI lied in their report to the AG...

...On one track, they were planning a major project that might eventually result in TRM taking over large chunks of U.S...

...The White House says the files did not contain such a document...

...Information obtained by The Weekly Standard indicates Thomason was in the White House each day from early morning until evening from May 10 through May 21...

...What is the bigger picture of Travelgate...

...meeting with Mack McLarty, and a 3 p.m...

...Now we have an opportunity to make a substantive contribution to the deficit reduction plans...

...The "right person" turned out to be the one in the Oval Office...

...The best answer yet is contained in Martens's January 29 memo...

...he also contacted a lawyer about what he believed would be further investigation of the matter...

...Later that day, Thomason met separately with White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster and the first lady...

...In early May, Thomason told the first lady and others he had a plan in place to have the Travel Office up and running smoothly within an hour of any firings...

...We've demonstrated our capabilities to the President by coordinating all aircraft activities for the Clinton For President Committee," Martens wrote...

...And indeed it was, if one only considers the Travel Office...

...A short time later, Thomason discussed the memo with the president...

...Those officials, no doubt, wished the whole thing would just go away...

...Such as regenerating single-engine aircraft production in America . . ." (Thomason also owned an aircraft repair business in California...

...He estimated the cost of the one-year audit at $499,000...

...The GOP has lied and misrepresented its knowledge and role and covered up a prior investigation...

...His suicide shocked the White House to the core and sent top officials scurrying to collect those papers the Clintons considered most sensitive...

...But what about Thomason...

...I also understand that, several weeks ago, the White House advised OMB that no government action should be taken on this proposal...

...The third was to her closest adviser, Susan Thomases...

...On February 11, citing the president's statement, Martens wrote a second and more detailed memo to Thomason...

...In discussing this with Harry Thomason after our meeting," Martens wrote, "he noted the same synergistic opportunities we discussed...

...I want to confirm and reiterate the prior instruction that no government action be taken on this proposal...

...The presence of more Travelgate documents in Foster's office would help explain the first lady's actions in the wake of Foster's death...

...Meanwhile, Martens was making incredible claims for the project...

...He proposed a "plane by plane" inventory of the government's fleet...

...In that atmosphere, Thomason's aircraft project died a quiet death...

...Martens's security paperwork said he was being considered for a White House staff position, reporting to Harry Thomason and David Watkins...

...In the papers that have been released so far, there is little mention of the TRM consulting project after May 1993...

...The new president certainly owed him a favor...

...They'd be in...

...By February 17, the memo had been stamped "THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN...

...In his memo, Watkins wrote that "once this made it onto the First Lady's agenda, Vince Foster became involved . . . Foster regularly informed me that the First Lady was concerned and desired action...

...Thomason did it all without pay...

...What most intrigues them are questions absent from the press coverage in the past two weeks...

...On the 13th, Thomason met again with the president in the Oval Office-this time for 30 minutes, from 8:45 to 9:15 a.m...

...The new evidence uncovered by both the House committee investigating Travelgate and the Senate Whitewater Committee suggests the two scandals merged in Foster's office...

...The papers were taken out of the briefcase by Nussbaum and later placed in Foster's "Travel" file...

...Once that was accomplished, the next step was to propose a large-scale consulting project to be done by TRM...

...He produced The Man From Hope, the treacly if effective biographical film played at the convention that nominated Clinton...

...government aviation...

...Yet one of the first lady's first reactions when she learned of Foster's death was a desire to talk to Harry Thomason...

...A very conservative estimate would be $300 million initially and $150 million per year thereafter...

...The memo laid out a plan for Thomason and Martens to play significant roles in the world of federal aviation...

...But there is a still larger picture: Investigators believe that without an understanding of Travelgate, it is impossible to comprehend the series of events surrounding the death of Vincent Foster that now form the core of the investigation being carried out by the Senate Whitewater Committee...

...The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the travel staff...

...The aircraft project also helps answer another lingering question: If Thomason is so rich, and the Travel Office is so small, why was he involved...

...Finally, Martens added that TRM should be involved in "FAA Administrator: selection assistance, policy recommendations...

...Congressional investigators have also asked the White House about a memo described to investigators as a compilation of the allegations of wrongdoing in the Travel Office gathered by Thomason, Martens, and Travel-gate figure (and Clinton cousin) Catherine Cornelius...

...He had the documents...

...But on the 19th, it all blew up in the administration's face...

...There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group...

...This Jan...

...The plan to take over the White House Travel Office was moving along simultaneously...

...Several of Foster's other statements seem to be related to Travelgate-including his statements, "I did not knowingly violate any law or standard of conduct," and "the public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their loyal staff" (some observers believe the last phrase actually reads "their legal staff...

...Based on your discussion with President Clinton of my 2/11/93 memo," he wrote Thomason, "I began the process of obtaining specific information regarding the scope of the work . . .the President believes in it...

...On May 12, according to information obtained by congressional investigators, Thoma-son met with Clinton in the Oval Office from 8:30 to 8:45 a.m.-and though 15 minutes doesn't sound like a lot of time, it's not an inconsiderable appointment with a president, whose day is planned down to the minute...

...The first was to her chief of staff, Maggie Williams...

...Martens wrote that if he and Thomason were to "pursue Washington opportunities," they had to "obtain some form of official status...

...On the 11th, for example, Thomason had a message to call the first lady, a message to call Susan Thomases, a 2 p.m...

...It would provide them the institutional base they needed-the office, the letterhead, the White House address-if they were going to run their proposed aviation business out of the White House...

...To that end, Thomason and Martens each received a White House pass...

...Martens contacted officials of the General Services Administration, which runs something called the Interagency Committee on Aviation Policy, or ICAP There is evidence that the officials didn't really like the idea-one wrote "the fact is this is a relatively low priority from a government-wide standpoint...

...These guys are sharp," he wrote, forwarding the memo to chief of staff Mack McLarty, McLarty deputy Mark Gearan, and White House administration director David Watkins for action...

...we have more important uses for ICAP funds...

...Martens's idea was a plan to "review all non-military government aircraft to determine financial and operational appropriateness...

...He also mentioned that they should "determine who controls the scheduling of the White House press corps aircraft...

...Why do the small job when the bigger one beckoned...

...The Travel Office firings stirred up a storm of press attention and forced the administration to retreat from its original plans for the office...

...Clinton jotted a few notes in the margins...

...They made a six-figure income each week, she boasted...

...The savings would come from better management of the fleet and a plan to shift much of the government's air business to private companies-like TRM...

...With the president's approval, Martens went to work planning the details...

...Specifically, why did a sense of panic grip the administration the night Foster killed himself...

...He didn't really know Foster, unlike some administration figures who had known Foster for decades...

...But students of Travelgate have long known Mrs...

...Although I have been advised of a few meetings and memoranda regarding this proposal, I understand that no government action has been taken with respect to it...

...Oddly, it resurfaced briefly in August, when at least two officials, deputy chief of staff Roy Neel and White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum, felt the need to write memos saying they never had anything to do with the aircraft project...

...On April 12, he sent a memo to Lindsey...

...On January 29, 1993, Martens wrote a memo to Thomason...

...The two-track nature of the actions taken by Thomason and the White House is especially baffling...

...Thomason and Martens seemed to be planning to set themselves up as a sort of kitchen-cabinet Federal Aviation Administration...

...The Hidden Tale of Travelgate By Byron York When a recently released memo placed First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the center of the White House Travel Office firings, some called it the smoking gun of Travelgate...

...Byron York is a writer and television producer in Washington, D.C...

...And the call in the middle was to . . . Harry Thomason...

...I now believe that TRM can identify savings to the government of several hundred million dollars," he wrote to Thomason on March 12...

...If we are to pursue Washington opportunities," Martens wrote, TRM needed to "obtain some form of official status as advisors [sic] to the White House for general aviation policy matters...

...When one adds the aircraft project, things look a little different...

...If you want to know why they did what they did, the answer may not be Whitewater...

...It seems only reasonable to ask whether they were talking about Travelgate, which was bigger than any outsider knew at the time...

...Notified while at her mother's home in Arkansas, she made three longdistance calls that night...

...Clinton's friend Susan Thomases, who also seems to have played a central role in the firings...

...Foster's diary entries indicate he had doubts about the actions the White House took in firing the Travel Office workers...

...It is easy to forget just how extravagant it all was-remember the national bell-ringing, the Monticello bus trip, the Lincoln Memorial concert, the Hollywood-style gala featuring Barbra Streisand...

...On May 6, Martens sent detailed plans of the ICAP project to top officials at the Office of Management and Budget...

...What was going on in the White House that led the First Lady and top officials to rush into action on such a seemingly insignificant issue, firing seven longtime officials and siccing the FBI on them as well...

...Investigators have inquired whether they included a draft executive order-never signed-to implement the Thomason/Martens aircraft project, as outlined by Martens's memo of April 12...

...This can be done by TRM, much as the campaign aircraft were handled...

...In addition, Thomason and Martens came up with yet another reason to do the deal...

...And, unlike Whitewater, Travelgate is specifically mentioned several times in the note found torn up in Foster's briefcase: "No one in the White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the travel office...

...On the 14th, according to the newly released account by David Watkins, the first lady "cited Thomason's plan as support for the need for immediate action...

...Questions like: Why was the Travel Office so important to the new administration...

...His article "Reelecting Clinton: A Conservative Case" appeared in the Oct...

...It appears that the payback began barely a week into the new administration...

...All that was needed, he continued, was for someone to "put me in front of the right person at the White House and I will prove the value of both the project and Thoma-son's capabilities...

...Congressional investigators believe that critical Travelgate documents were in Foster's office when he died and that the White House may still be withholding them...

...Clinton was a major player...

...Remember what Thomason's wife and partner, superstar sitcom producer Linda Blood-worth-Thomason, said at the time...

...It may be Travelgate...

...Under the plan, Thoma-son and his partner in the aircraft consulting firm TRM, Darnell Martens, would have been given a profitable and permanent role in government-all quite apart from the White House Travel Office...

...Despite all the attention given to Whitewater matters, Travelgate may play a more significant role in answering the question...

...Running the White House Travel Office would have given them that status...

...At a February 10 Cabinet meeting, Clinton mentioned that his "staff" had told him that lots of money could be saved by reviewing the operation of all government aircraft...

...the handwriting is unclear...

...New information obtained by The Weekly Standard provides at least some of the answers...

...Both Williams and Thomases have described the conversations as outpourings of grief...

...Add it all together, and it is impossible to understand Travelgate without understanding the aircraft project...

...On the other, they were plotting to take over the relatively small operation of the White House Travel Office...

...29 document is astonishing in the breadth of its ambitions...

...Nussbaum's August 9, 1993, memo to then-Office of Management and Budget director Leon Panetta reads in part: "I have been advised of a proposal for an audit of federal aircraft by TRM...

...Why would she and her husband say, " 'Ooh, I'm going to like, take my six-figure salary a week and fly off to Washington and see if I can't get those seven little guys out of that travel office in the White House.' It's sort of the equivalent of taking over a lemonade stand...

...On April 7, Martens met with presidential aide Bruce Lindsey to go over the plan...

...What all this reveals is that not only was the first lady deeply involved in Travelgate, but so was the president himself...

...Lest any more reason be needed, Martens added that "this project falls solidly under the heading of re-inventing government...