The White House travel office controversy, sometimes referred to as Travelgate,"Untangling Whitewater", The Washington Post special report, 2000. Retrieved June 5, 2007.A Google News Archive search conducted July 24, 2011, for the years 1993–2010 found about 10,000 hits for "White House" "travel office" and about 6,000 hits for "Travelgate". was the first major ethics controversy of the Clinton administration. It began in May 1993, when seven employees of the White House Travel Office were fired. This action was unusual because executive-branch employees typically remain in their posts for many years (even though they can be terminated by, and serve at the pleasure of, the President).

The White House stated the firings were done because financial improprieties in the Travel Office operation during previous administrations had been revealed by an FBI investigation. Critics contended the firings were done to allow friends and campaign donors of President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to take over the travel business and that the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted. Heavy media attention forced the White House to reinstate most of the employees in other jobs and remove the Clinton associates from the travel role.

Further investigations by the FBI and the Department of Justice, the White House itself, the General Accounting Office, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and the Whitewater Independent Counsel all took place over the subsequent years. Travel Office Director Billy Dale was charged with embezzlement but found not guilty in 1995. In 1998, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr exonerated Bill Clinton of any involvement in the matter.

Hillary Clinton gradually came under scrutiny for allegedly having played a central role in the firings and making false statements about her involvement therein. In 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued his final report on Travelgate. He sought no charges against her, saying that while some of Clinton's statements were factually false, there was insufficient evidence that these statements were either knowingly false or that she understood that her statements led to the firings.

The White House Travel Office

The White House Travel Office, known officially as either the White House Travel and Telegraph Office"White House – Travel Office Operations" GAO Report GAO/GGD-94-132, Government Accountability Office. May 2, 1994. or the White House Telegraph and Travel Office, dates back to the Andrew Jackson administration and serves to handle travel arrangements for the White House press corps, with costs billed to the participating news organizations.Toni Locy, "For White House Travel Office, a Two-Year Trip of Trouble", The Washington Post, February 27, 1995. Retrieved June 17, 2007. By the time of the start of the Clinton administration, it was quartered in the Old Executive Office Building, and had seven employees with a yearly budget of $7 million. Staffers serve at the pleasure of the president;"Amid Partisan Sniping, Committee OK's Travelgate Report", CNN.com, September 18, 1996. Retrieved June 16, 2007.Online News Hour, "FBI Files" , PBS, June 6, 1996. Retrieved June 16, 2007. however, in practice, the staffers were career employees who in some cases had worked in the Travel Office since the 1960s and 1970s, through both Democratic and Republican administrations.Robert Ray, "Final Report of the Independent Counsel ... of Matters Related to the White House Travel office" – Introduction , United States Government Printing Office, October 18, 2000.

Travel Office Director Billy Ray Dale had held that position since 1982, serving through most of the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, and had started in the Travel Office in 1961. To handle the frequent last-minute arrangements of presidential travel and the specialized requirements of the press, Dale did not conduct competitive bidding for travel services, but relied upon a charter company called Airline of the Americas.

Initial White House actions According to the White House, the incoming Clinton administration had heard rumors of irregularities in the Travel Office and possible kickbacks to an office employee from a charter air company.Richard L. Berke, "White House Ousts Its Travel Staff", The New York Times, May 20, 1993. Retrieved January 10, 2009. They looked at a review by KPMG Peat Marwick which discovered that Dale kept an off-book ledger, had $18,000 of unaccounted-for checks, and kept chaotic office records. White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty and the White House counsels thus decided to fire the Travel Office staff and reorganize it. The actual terminations were done on May 19, 1993, by White House director of administration David Watkins. There was also a feeling among the White House and its supporters that the Travel Office had never been investigated by the media due to its close relationship with press corps membersGerald S. Greenberg, Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Independent Counsel Investigations, Greenwood Press, 2000. . pp. 342–344.Joe Conason, , Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1996. Retrieved June 17, 2007. . Retrieved April 17, 2018. and the plush accommodations it afforded them and favors it did for them.Margaret Carlson, "Shear Dismay", Time, May 31, 1993. Retrieved June 28, 2007.Ken Gormley, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, Crown Publishers (New York), 2010. . pp. 70–71. (Congress would later discover that in October 1988, a whistleblower within the Travel Office had alleged financial improprieties; the Reagan White House counsel looked into the claim but took no action.), Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1996. Retrieved July 1, 2007.

Republicans and other critics saw the events differently. They alleged that friends of President Bill Clinton, including his third cousin Catherine Cornelius, had sought the firings in order to get the business for themselves. Dale and his staff had been replaced with Little Rock, Arkansas-based World Wide Travel, a company with a substantial reputation in the industry but with several ties to the Clintons. In addition, Hollywood producer and Inauguration chairman Harry Thomason, a friend of both Clintons, and his business partner, Darnell Martens, were looking to get their air charter company, TRM, the White House business in place of Airline of the Americas. The Clinton campaign had been TRM's sole client during 1992, collecting commissions from booking charter flights for the campaign.Robert Ray, "Final Report of the Independent Counsel ... of Matters Related to the White House Travel office" – Business Entities and Campaign Staff that Provided Travel Services to the Clinton-Gore Campaign and the Press Covering the Campaign Wanted to Provide Travel Services to the Clinton Administration , United States Government Printing Office, October 18, 2000. pp. 44–48, 61–65. Martens wanted the White House to award TRM a $500,000 contract for an aircraft audit, while also seeking Travel Office charter business as an intermediary which did not own any planes.Robert Ray, "Final Report of the Independent Counsel ... of Matters Related to the White House Travel office" – Martens Complained to Thomason About His Rejection by the Travel Office, Which Ultimately Was Communicated to the President, First Lady, and Other Senior White House Staff , United States Government Printing Office, October 18, 2000. pp. 66–69.

Attention initially focused on the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), since on May 12, 1993, a week before the firings, associate White House counsel William Kennedy had requested that the FBI look into possible improprieties in the Travel Office operation.George J. Church, "Flying Blind", Time, June 7, 1993. Retrieved June 16, 2007. FBI agents went there and, although initially reluctant, authorized a preliminary investigation. Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster became worried about the firings about to take place and ordered the KPMG Peat Marwick review, asking the FBI to hold off in the meantime. The accounting review started on May 14 and the report was given to the White House on May 17."White House – Travel Office Operations", General Accounting Office, May 2, 1994. p. 32 KPMG was unable to do an actual audit, because there were so few records in the Travel Office that could be audited and because the office did not use the double-entry bookkeeping system that audits are based upon. One KPMG representative later described the office as "an ungodly mess in terms of records" with ten years of material piled up in a closet.Robert Ray, "Final Report of the Independent Counsel... of Matters Related to the White House Travel office" – The Events of April–May 1993. , United States Government Printing Office, October 18, 2000. p. 47. When the review came back with its reports of irregularities, Watkins went ahead with the terminations on May 19.

Investigations The travel office affair quickly became the first major ethics controversy of the Clinton presidency"Bill Clinton", The History Place. Retrieved June 30, 2007. and an embarrassment for the new administration. Criticism from political opponents and especially the news media became intense; the White House was later described as having been "paralyzed for a week".Stephen Labaton, "First Lady Urged Dismissals At Travel Office, Study Says", The New York Times, May 3, 1994. Retrieved June 30, 2007. The effect was intensified by cable television news and the advent of the 24-hour news cycle. Within three days of the firings, World Wide Travel voluntarily withdrew from the White House travel operation and were replaced on a temporary basis by American Express Travel Services.Richard L. Berke, "Travel Outfit Tied to Clinton Halts Work for White House", The New York Times, May 22, 1993. Retrieved March 23, 2008. (Later, after a competitive bid, American Express received the permanent role to book press charters.)

Various investigations took place.

FBI

On May 28, 1993, the FBI issued a report saying it had done nothing wrong in its contacts with the White House. (This conclusion was reiterated by a March 1994 report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility.)

Meanwhile, the FBI investigation of the Travel Office practices themselves continued, soon focusing on Travel Office Director Billy Dale. who was charged with embezzlement but found not guilty in 1995. During the summer of 1993, the other staffers of the office were informed that they were no longer a target of the investigation.

Clinton White House report