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Clintons will pay for gifts received in last year
Former president Bill Clinton and his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, announced Friday they will pay more than US$85,000 for gifts given to the first family during the president's last year in office "to eliminate even the slightest question" of impropriety.
"As have other Presidents and their families before us, we received gifts over the course of our eight years in the White House and followed all of the gift rules," Bill Clinton said in a statement. "While we gave the vast majority of gifts we received to the National Archives, we reported those gifts that we were keeping."
The gifts being repaid include flatware, televisions, clothing, china and artwork.
The statement quoted Hillary Clinton as well, a reflection of stinging suggestions that accepting the gifts in the period between her election and her swearing-in was improper.
As New York's junior senator, I intend to focus all my energies on the interests of my constituents," she said. "I believe the step we are taking today reaffirms that I am fully committed to being the best senator I possibly can be for New York."
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