Memos Probed in Aid to Banks Tied to Clinton

Hours before congressional investigators showed up, Treasury officials hastily composed memos justifying $11 million in grants to banks owned by friends of the Clintons, congressional investigators said.

The memos were undated, written in the present tense and inserted into the files, apparently to make investigators think they had been written when the grants were made instead of after the fact, according to Republicans on the House Banking Committee investigating the matter.

The Treasury Department said it considers the matter serious and is investigating.

A letter signed by six Republicans and sent Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said Treasury officials Kirsten Moy and Steve Rohde “clearly calculated to mislead the subcommittee.”

“There appears to be no plausible explanation for the decision to leave the documents undated other than to foster a false impression that they had been prepared contemporaneous with the grant decisions,” the letter said.

The inspector general’s report found that of the 32 entities awarded money from Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution Fund in July 1996, the four with connections to the Clintons did not have evaluation memos, a routine part of the application process, investigators said.

Rohde said the memos are not misleading because they reflect the actual evaluation process and were based on notes he made when the grants were awarded.

Shorebank official Robert Weissbourd said the bank and its affiliates deserved the federal assistance. “No one has said that those institutions on the merits don’t deserve the awards,” he said.