We did not remove the “W” key from these keyboards.
Decades later, former President Bill Clinton spoke out about allegations that his staff had caused damage to the West Wing ahead of his administration's exit from the White House in 2001.
According to news reports at the time, the “W” key on keyboards suddenly began to disappear in response to President-elect George W. Bush to make it harder for staff to type his name.
Some were found stuck to doorways, and others had been replaced with other locks, Bush officials complained to the General Accounting Office. The person who conducted a year-long investigation into this issue.
Clinton, 78, fumed in her new memoir, Citizen: My Life After the White House, saying she had “no knowledge” of the “prank.”
“All of that bothered me because I had been clear that I wanted a smooth and collaborative transition, and we did just that,” he wrote.
“Within a few days, some people finally went on record saying that either no harm had occurred or that 'W's' prank claims were greatly exaggerated.”
But the theft didn't end there.
It was also reported that the presidential plane was “stripped bare” by souvenir-hunting members of the outgoing administration's staff during President Clinton's final flight.
Items reported missing included pottery, silverware and salt and pepper shakers.
Graffiti on walls, obscene phone messages, filing cabinets glued shut, and pornographic photos left on blank sheets of paper in printers are also among the damages awarded to GAO. It was.
Meanwhile, the contents of desk drawers were “dumped on the floor,” the glass desk top was “broken” and rotting food was left in an unplugged refrigerator, the complaint said.
And “six to eight 14-foot trucks were required to recover the usable materials that were discarded,” GAO said in a 2002 report.
Mr. Clinton's staff caused about $15,000 worth of “damage, theft, vandalism, and mischief,” including removing keyboard keys, smearing glue on desk drawers, and leaving obscene voicemail messages. The GAO found that some of the incidents, such as “clearly intentional,”
Intentional damage is a federal crime, but no one was charged in the case.
Mr. Clinton, who was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998 after it was revealed that he had lied about his affair with 22-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky, also openly confessed to having an affair in this book.
