The NYTimes has had an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons for far too long. Let's see what another source says:
OMG! There was some temporary confusion about whether the gift was personal or to the White House!! So Corrupt™!!11
Cheers,
Scott.
In general, presidents are “free to accept unsolicited personal gifts from the American public,” according to a 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service. Federal law requires that all gifts valued at more than $350 be disclosed in financial disclosure reports each year, but the president is free to keep them after moving out of the White House.
However, gifts from the public given directly to the White House are considered the property of the U.S. government and cannot be taken from the White House by the president or family members when the president leaves office.
[...]
Mittman, Noe and Joy Ficks, the widow of Lee Ficks, told the Post that their donations were gifts to the White House, not the Clintons. The contributions were intended to complement a 1993 White House redecoration project.
That was apparently news to the Clintons and their transition team, which said that they were not aware that the gifts were not intended to go to them.
“All of these items were considered gifts to us,” Hillary Clinton said in 2001, according the Post. She added, “That’s what the permanent record of the White House showed. … But if there is a different intent, we will certainly honor the intention of the donor.”
Martinous told the Post that he wanted the Clintons to keep the rug he gave to the White House. Schiller couldn’t be reached for comment by the paper, but the lamps he gave were intended as gifts to the Clintons, according to a spokesman for Clinton’s transition team, who told the Post that’s what Schiller told the transition office.
In any case, the $28,000 worth of furniture the Clintons took with them upon leaving the White House was returned in February 2001, according to the National Park Service.
In a statement, the NPS, which oversees the White House as a national park, said: “As a result of questions about the status of certain property donated to the White House during the Clinton administration, the National Park Service will accept the return of the property in question and act as a custodian of such property.”
Although the Clintons were not “forced” to return the gifts, Jim McDaniel, a National Park Service spokesman, said the items returned were indeed property of the federal government. So it is possible that the Clintons would have been forced to return them, if they did not do so voluntarily.
“I feel 99 percent certain that everything that’s been returned to us is government property,” McDaniel was quoted as saying in an Associated Press story.
Prior to returning those gifts, the Clintons also agreed to pay for $86,000 worth of other items that they received in their last year in office.
OMG! There was some temporary confusion about whether the gift was personal or to the White House!! So Corrupt™!!11
Cheers,
Scott.