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President Bill Clintons White House staff worked for years to keep Hillary Clinton from becoming a political liability during investigations into the couples Arkansas land deal known as Whitewater.

After Bill Clinton became president in 1993, the couple endured scrutiny over a 1978 Arkansas real estate deal they had taken part in. While several Clinton associates were convicted of fraud in the failed venture, the Clintons were eventually cleared of wrongdoing.

The investigations included inquiries into Hillary Clintons legal work for a savings and loan that failed.

For a March 24, 1994, press conference president Bill Clinton was giving, the second bullet point on a draft of talking points reads: Defend HRC, using the acronym for Hillary Rodham Clinton. The memo was among the papers published online today by the William J. Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, as part of a regular release of documents from his presidency.

Stress her ethics and accomplishments as a lawyer and in doing public service work, it reads. No distance between you and HRC regarding Whitewater.

As Bill and Hillary Clinton prepared to do a joint television interview in March of 1994, a memo from Democratic strategist Paul Begala urged the president to take the lead.

In many joint interviews, the president defers to the First Lady, the memo reads. This may or may not be real, and it might be as simple as Southern manners, but its important that the President take the lead on this issue.

Other points in the Begala memo relate to defending the first lady from the public perception that she had become a political liability and wielded too much power in the White House.

Every First Lady has had her share of controversy, the memo reads. It goes on to cite poll numbers that showed high approval ratings for the first lady.

Hillary is the first First Lady to come to the job from a distinguished career of her own, independent of her husbands, Begala wrote. Like many two-career couples, the Clintons have had to find their own way in uncharted waters, juggling career and family.

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Clinton Advisers Urged White House to Defend HRC