The Clinton Chronicles showed Bill Clinton was tied to drug smuggling
| The Clinton Chronicles showed Bill Clinton was tied to drug smuggling | |
|---|---|
| UNSUPPORTED | |
| "As governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton protected a cocaine smuggling operation run through the airport at Mena, Arkansas, and was linked to killings to cover it up." | |
| Domain | Crime & Public Safety |
| Tactic | Conspiracy Theory Propaganda Technique |
| Era | Historical |
| First seen | 1994 |
| Origin | The 1994 video The Clinton Chronicles, produced by Citizens for Honest Government and promoted by televangelist Jerry Falwell |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on Crime & Public Safety | |
The Clinton Chronicles was a 1994 video that accused Bill Clinton of involvement in drug smuggling, money laundering and murder during his time as governor of Arkansas. It was promoted heavily on Christian broadcast networks and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Investigations into drug smuggling through the airport at Mena, Arkansas, were real, but none produced evidence that Clinton was involved.
The claim
The video tied Clinton to the operations of drug smuggler Barry Seal, who used Mena as a base in the early 1980s, and suggested that people who knew too much had been killed.
What the evidence shows
- Real smuggling, no link. Barry Seal did run drugs through the Mena area before becoming a federal informant. Federal, state and congressional inquiries examined activity at Mena and did not find evidence connecting Governor Clinton to it.
- Years of scrutiny, no charges. Clinton faced years of hostile investigation in the 1990s, including by independent counsel Kenneth Starr. None of it produced charges or findings connecting him to drug smuggling.
- Unsourced allegations. The video's most serious claims rested on interviews with critics and anonymous sources rather than documents or testimony that could be tested.
Why it persists
It wraps a true story about a real smuggler in unsupported claims about a famous politician, so the parts that check out lend credibility to the parts that do not.
See also
Sources
- Wikipedia, "The Clinton Chronicles."