Back to the 1990s: Fact-checking Whitewater

Former President Bill Clinton said in a recent interview that questions over Hillary Clinton’s trustworthiness have been put to rest in the past and will be again.

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Clinton compared the media frenzy over leaked emails, speaking fees, and Clinton Foundation donations with a 1995 Whitewater report that he said "completely exonerated" Hillary Clinton.

"There had been a lot of discussion in this period about disclosure," he said. "You know, everybody wants disclosure, but I think what's good for the goose is good for the gander here. For example, I remember when Hillary was completely exonerated, when I was in the White House, in all that Whitewater business, when an official federal inquiry said that her billing records, they wished for her sake could have been found earlier, because they completely corroborated everything she'd said. 

"And the next day, there was nothing in the media about it. There was stunning nondisclosure. So, now we have got social media, and we can have disclosure. And we can all live under the same rules. And it's going to be fine."

We delved into the details of Clinton's comments in two fact-checks. As for whether Hillary Clinton was "completely exonerated," we rated that Mostly True. As for whether the media ignored the story the next day, we rated that Half True. Read our fact-checks to take a trip in time back to the '90s.