White House Aide Paid $1,352 in Back Taxes for Part-Time Nanny

A former law partner of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton who is now a White House attorney failed to pay Social Security taxes for a part-time nanny until just before his move to Washington.

William Kennedy III paid $1,352.52 in back taxes and penalties before starting work in February, 1993, for the taxes owed from 1992, White House Communications Director Mark D. Gearan said Tuesday.

Kennedy’s duties as associate White House counsel include ferreting out unethical or embarrassing information about candidates for White House jobs. About the time of his repayment, the White House faced a controversy over Zoe Baird’s failure to pay Social Security taxes for domestic help. The flap scuttled her nomination for attorney general.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Kennedy’s delinquent taxes were paid under his wife’s maiden name by an accounting firm, raising the possibility that he did not want the FBI to discover the lapse in its background check of him.

But Gearan said Kennedy told him he was not trying to conceal the matter. Kennedy told Gearan that his wife wanted to use her maiden name, Gearan said.

Kennedy was reprimanded by the White House for “inappropriate” contacts with the FBI during last year’s controversy over the firing of White House travel office employees.