NY Daily News falsely suggested rift between Sen. Clinton, longtime friend

Summary: A New York Daily News article about the recent contributions by former deputy Treasury secretary Roger Altman to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign falsely suggested that there had been a rift between the two. In fact, Clinton and Altman have worked together on New Jobs for New York, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving economic growth in New York that they launched in 2003.

A March 22 New York Daily News article about the recent contributions by Roger Altman, who served in the Clinton administration for two years as deputy Treasury secretary, to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) Senate campaign, claims that the contributions indicate that Altman is "back in the fold" -- falsely suggesting that there had been a rift between the two. In fact, Clinton and Altman have worked together on New Jobs for New York, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving economic growth in New York that Clinton and Altman launched in 2003. The Daily News reported on Clinton's involvement with New Jobs for New York in July 2004.

The March 22 Daily News article, headlined "Whitewater pal's back in Hil's corner" repeatedly suggested that Altman is returning to the Clinton camp after an absence:

One of Sen. Hillary Clinton's best friends during the Whitewater scandal is back in the fold after backing [Sen.] John Kerry [D-MA] for President, election records show.

Roger Altman, who was Kerry's top economic adviser in 2004, wrote a $5,000 check to Clinton's political committee, HILLPAC, last month, following an equal donation last year.

Altman, a college pal of former President Bill Clinton's, resigned as the deputy Treasury secretary in 1994 after admitting he tipped off the White House to a pending criminal probe by the federal Resolution Trust Corp. into the Whitewater real estate deal.

[...]

After pushing for Kerry in 2004, Altman has handed Clinton an additional $14,000 since - even though Kerry hasn't ruled out making another bid for the White House in 2008.

Analysts say more friends of Hillary Clinton will resurface as 2008 nears.

Altman's support for Kerry's presidential campaign does not do much to support the notion that he was out of the Clinton "fold" -- both Bill and Hillary Clinton also supported Kerry's campaign.

On July 20, 2004, the Daily News reported a New Jobs for New York survey, describing the organization as "an economic-development nonprofit organization set up by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)."

The reporter who wrote the March 22 article, Michael McAuliff, was also credited on a March 21 Daily News article that falsely suggested Sen. Clinton stopped criticizing the port deal that would have allowed a company owned by a member state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to take over port operations at six U.S. ports after it was revealed that Bill Clinton advised UAE officials on how to handle the controversial deal.

—J.F.