President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton may be face new questions about their role in the Whitewater land deal.
The Clintons bought the property at questionably high prices in a quick turnaround land sale, records show.
The significance of the transaction is unclear, but could be as simple as a bad investment or as complicated as a plan to run up the value of the land.
The Clintons and partners Jim and Susan McDougal bought the 230-acre property on Aug. 3, 1978, for $ 883 an acre from a group of local investors called 101 River Development, according to Marion County, Ark., land records.
101 River Development had bought the land just one day earlier as part of a purchase of 3,600 acres for $ 1.4 million from Arkla Land Co. 101 River Development - formed just two weeks earlier - immediately turned around and sold 2,700 of the acres for $ 1.4 million to 15 investors. All 15 investors were local - except the Clinton-McDougal partnership, who had not yet created the Whitewater Development Co. Inc.
In buying the undeveloped parcel, the Clintons and McDougals paid far more than any local investors. A similar property on the White River was sold to a local investor for $ 308 an acre. The highest amount paid by local investors was about $ 650 an acre - but that was for more valuable land located on a main highway.
Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, dissatisfied with the White House's call for a special counsel to probe Clinton's ties to a failed Arkansas savings and loan and the Whitewater deal, said Sunday he still wants congressional hearings. Leach, top Republican on the banking committee, said on CBS's Face the Nation Congress should explore whether Clinton violated the "public trust."
Investigators are trying to determine whether funds from McDougal's Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan were diverted to Whitewater or to help Clinton repay a $ 50,000 loan for his 1984 gubernatorial campaign.
The White House on Friday turned over the last five boxes of Whitewater-related documents to the Justice Department but won't reconsider its decision not to make them public. "There are no current plans by the White House to release documents," said David Gergen, counselor to Clinton, on NBC's Meet the Press.
"All the information has been turned over, every scrap of it. A special counsel (is being) appointed. What do you want?" said Vice President Gore on ABC's This Week with David Brinkley.
Sam Heuer, McDougal's lawyer, said Sunday on the Brinkley show he doesn't believe there's anything "sinister" in the documents. "I would suspect if there were some secrets, we would have known them long before now," he said. - Judy Keen and Dennis Cauchon in Yellville, Ark.
