The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas is at first glance, a five-story, 153,779-square-foot ultramodern academic research facility sitting on 17 acres of land in the state’s capital.
It gives scholars and everyday citizens access to the former president’s papers and archives and giving a place of honor to the artifacts and achievements of our last impeached commander-in-chief.
Like most presidential libraries, the Clinton Library is cloaked in a mantle of bombast and ostentation, the site of high-minded events such as art exhibits, talks and lectures. Most presidential libraries are funded through a combination of private and public donor money.
In the case of Bill Clinton’s Library (the largest presidential library yet built), a good chunk of the reported $165 million cost came from donor Denise Rich, ex-wife of disgraced fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, who was notoriously pardoned on Clinton’s last day in office for his crimes of tax evasion dating back to 1983.
Rich’s former advisors, friends, business partners and lawyers also contributed liberally to the building’s construction expenses. In fact, the Clintons have never released a full list of all the contributors to the library, but some clues to their identities could likely be found by perusing the materials contained in it.
Coincidentally, the library has in the past blocked access to papers related to the pardon of Rich and other individuals, but these are almost surely not the only papers the institution must have on its “restricted” list.
Whether or not Denise Rich’s or Marc Rich’s friends’ contributions were quid-pro-quo arrangements will never be known. But for sure, building a monument such as this one isn’t cheap or easy, and when you’re “dead broke,” as Hillary Clinton famously declared the Clintons to be when they left the White House in 2001, a few million here or there comes in very handy when you’re trying to organize a collection of rare books and papers (and perhaps emails?) you’ve amassed while looting America’s First Residence.
In the case of the Clinton Library, a secret is held on the very top level of the building, in the form of an exclusive 5,000-square-foot residential suite occupied on numerous occasions by the former president himself. In fact, one would be tempted to call it a bachelor apartment, if its primary tenant were not already famously married.
However, that hasn’t stopped Bill Clinton from entertaining female visitors at his private suite, luring them out to its 14,000-square-foot roof garden, featuring 90 species of specially selected plants, to take in views of the Arkansas River and the surrounding city.
One such visitor, a 20-something intern at the library, was instructed to give the former president foot, neck and shoulder massages while partaking of red wine and food from “42,” the building’s restaurant.
As recollected in the new book, “Guilty as Sin” by researcher Edward Klein, the intern said that Clinton flirted with her as he did with all the female staffers at the library and insisted that she call him “Bill,” rather than “Mr. President.”
“One day he looked at me with this horny look… I sort of knew then that I was in,” she guiltily admitted. She also overheard the ex-president say that Hillary was “f***ing over the FBI” and heard him complain that Hillary thought he was interfering in her campaign.
She said that Clinton confessed that Hillary loved the smartphone app Snapchat because its electronic messages disappear by themselves.
This same intern said that Bill Clinton argued regularly with his wife and once nearly hung up on Hillary on a phone call between the couple. He then went to the golf putting green of the roof garden of the apartment and chipped shots into the Arkansas River below.
Clinton said that Hillary “can do whatever the f*** she wants” as he talked about plans to put in a swimming pool on the roof of the building so that women could swim naked at pool parties as they did at the White House when JFK was president. The intern said the rooftop suite is completely secure, so no press or photographers could ever access it to get photos.
“Bill has a bunch of women he regularly invites to his apartment,” she said. “Most of them are young and good looking. He loves being surrounded by pretty girls… I was there at one of his parties on a hot, steamy day. He served champagne and cold beer and handed out roses, which he grows on the terrace and which are named after his mother, Virginia Kelley. At one point, he got out a hose and sprayed some of the girls. ‘Keep that up,’ I told him, ‘and you’re going to have the first wet T-shirt contest ever held at a presidential library.’ ”
At that prospect, the former president most likely thought he was getting his money’s worth for his expensive pied-à-terre. It’s probably safe to say that most of us will never be privy to all of the shenanigans taking place there.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
