Clintons to return $28,000 in White House furnishings

WASHINGTON -- White House Chief Usher Gary Walters tells CNN that former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have notified the White House they intend to return $28,000 in furnishings they removed from the White House when moving out in January.

Critics have raised persistent questions about whether removing the furniture was appropriate -- and whether the furniture was a gift to the Clintons or to the White House. Walters told CNN that the Clintons said they wanted to avoid any questions of impropriety, although they insisted that a check of the records indicated the gifts were available to them.

The Park Service serves as a steward for the White House and is the only unit with the legal authority to accept gifts for the White House, according to the Post. A gift meant for the current White House occupants, by contrast, is routed through the White House gifts office, a separate unit.

Two of the furniture makers whose donations the Clintons took with him told the Washington Post earlier this week their gifts were part of a widely publicized, $396,000 redecoration of the executive mansion and not meant for Clinton personally.

"When we've been asked to donate, it was always hyphenated with the words, 'White House,"' New York manufacturer Steve Mittman told the Post of his family-owned business, which gave two sofas, an easy chair and an ottoman, worth $19,900 and listed by Clinton as part of the gifts he took with him.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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