
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995                   TAG: 9508070126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

LETTERS REVEAL TAX KNOWLEDGE

President and Hillary Rodham Clinton have long said they made a simple error when they deducted from their personal taxes two loan interest payments actually made by the Whitewater company. New documents suggest the Clintons should have known what they were doing at the time.

The Clintons acknowledged during the 1992 campaign they had taken the improper deductions, totaling $5,133, in 1984 and 1985. They've blamed the mistake on the fact that bank statements had been sent to them, and not the Whitewater Development Co.

But documents the White House released Friday in advance of the next round of Whitewater hearings show the Clintons were clearly advised Whitewater had made the payments.

The Clintons' personal attorney, David Kendall, was out of town Saturday and unavailable for comment.

In written answers to investigators last spring, Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged McDougal had sent a Whitewater ``check for me to send to the bank in order to pay the interest and to make a principal reduction.''

She did not address why she then took the tax deduction.

- Associated Press

by CNB