The sudden disclosure of information Thursday night by the Clintons - information they have until now declined to provide - is likely to raise many new questions.
President Clinton acknowledged something that he and his wife had laid the groundwork for in past weeks - that they had overstated the magnitude of their loss on the Whitewater land development.
"I am now sure that we lost something less than $ 70,000," Clinton said.
But in providing the first real figures of how much the president and first lady misfigured the loss, Clinton clearly erased the earlier suggestion this was a small bookkeeping error. Clinton said the actual Whitewater loss was about $ 47,000 - not the $ 69,000 the Clintons said in the campaign.
Clinton said he came to the realization the figure given in the campaign was not correct after hearing a television interview with his former Whitewater investor, James McDougal, who said he thought one loan counted against Whitewater was actually a personal loan to the Clintons.
That's when Clinton said he realized the original Whitewater loss figure included $ 20,700 he loaned his late mother, Virginia Kelley, to buy a lakefront cabin in Hot Springs, and $ 1,500 in principal payments he made on the house.
Clinton said he came across a mention of his financial involvement with his mother while reading the galleys of her soon-to-be-published autobiography recently.
But House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich questioned how anyone making $ 39,000 a year could forget a $ 20,700 loan - even to one's mother.
It was unclear Thursday night why this adjustment in the loss estimate on Whitewater would not result in the Clintons having to make additional back taxes on Whitewater. "I do not believe we owe any back taxes," Clinton said.
Still, the president said he was releasing three years of previously unreleased taxes, for 1977, 1978 and 1979.
Once before, the Clintons have filed an amended return and paid taxes on an improper Whitewater deduction. Thursday night, Clinton left himself room to maneuver again.
"If it is determined we do, we will pay," he said.
The Clintons have long resisted releasing those tax returns, arguing it was an invasion into their privacy.
Fairly or not, that raised questions, including one at Thursday night's news conference, about whether the Clintons were trying to mask something - either the extent of the losses and tax deductions incurred from Whitewater or the extent, and source, of a sudden increase in the Clintons' wealth at that time.
The New York Times reported last week that Hillary Rodham Clinton made $ 100,000 in commodities trading, with the help of a high-powered Arkansas lawyer who worked for a poultry company that benefited from state decisions while Clinton was governor. The release of the tax documents should help determine whether there is nothing of significance there, as aides say.
