The owner of a failed Arkansas savings and loan association raised money for Gov. Bill Clinton in 1985 to help relieve the Clinton family of a $50,000 personal debt that the Clintons would otherwise have had trouble repaying, newly discovered documents show.
The disclosure that the money covered a heavy private debt, rather than a less personally onerous campaign obligation, shows that the savings and loan executive, James McDougal, performed a more valuable favor for Clinton than has been previously known.Federal investigators and congressional officials are looking into the collapse of McDougal's savings and loan, and one aspect of the inquiries is whether his friendship with the governor influenced the state regulatory treatment he received.
The government took over the institution, Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, in 1989 at a cost to taxpayers of more than $60 million. That was five years after federal regulators first found numerous violations at Madison and three years after they acted to remove McDougal.