‘Dead broke’: A deep dive into the Clintons’ finances
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Version 0 of 1. This post has been corrected. Much has been made of Hillary Rodham Clinton's assertion to ABC's Diane Sawyer that when her husband, Bill, left the presidency, the couple was "dead broke." The assertion, as we noted Monday, is true. In 2000, the couple had no more than $2 million in assets, but perhaps as much as $10 million in debt, according to Clinton's financial disclosure documents she filed as a senator, available via the Center for Responsive Politics. That debt was legal fees, accrued over the course of Bill Clinton's presidency as he battled investigations into the couple's Whitewater investments and then, of course, Monica Lewinsky. But if the couple was broke as they walked out of the White House, it took very little time to recover financially. In 2001, Bill made $13 million in speaking fees, and Hillary brought in nearly $2.5 million, presumably from her advance for "Living History." By 2004, the debt was erased. We looked at Bill Clinton's 1998 financial disclosure and expanded the details on the Clintons' financial life (as best as we can glean it). As the years have passed, the Clintons' finances have become more sophisticated. After Clinton left office, a staffer to the former president noticed that Bill Clinton "was keeping a balance of a million dollars in an ordinary checking account," as we reported at the time. By 2006, Clinton owned an investment company called WJC International Investments Gp., LLC, according to the filings. There are four categories in the tables and charts below. Even at the outset of the Lewinsky scandal, the Clintons' legal bills had started to mount. The disclosure document (which is all that was available on the CRP site) indicates that the couple accepted a $2.6 million gift from the Clinton Legal Expense Trust, which helped pay down those costs. Not included in the data below are ongoing receipts from sales of Hillary Clinton's book "It Takes a Village," which were donated to charity each year. In 2001, Hillary Clinton started getting income from her book "Living History." Bill Clinton hit the speaking circuit, and began collecting his government pension. Remember, the spike in net worth is only a range. The legal fees increased slightly in 2002 because, as a note indicates, one law firm found invoices from 1998 that it had never provided to the Clintons. While the Clintons reported continued legal debt, there's an important note in the 2003 disclosure: Two of the three firms still owed money had been fully repaid by year's end. The legal debt is gone. Thanks largely to Bill Clinton's continued efforts on the speaking circuit, the Clintons no longer have any significant debt. The debt that reappears in 2005 is credit card debt. In 2006, Hillary Clinton's blind trust is unblinded to comply with rules surrounding her bid for the presidency. Our thanks to Selina Davis, who pointed out an error in how we were calculating net worth totals. |