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Hillary Clinton: US 'dangerously divided'

While speaking at the New York State Democratic Convention in New York on Thursday, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about former president Donald Trump and said the country is "deeply and dangerously divided." (Feb. 17)

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On June 17, 1972, five burglars were arrested at the Democratic National Committee headquartersin the Watergate complexfor attempting to wiretap office communications. The scandal resulted in the resignation of former President Richard Nixon after a series of investigations found he was involved in the operation.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was part of the impeachment inquiry staff. But decades later, some social media users are spreading false claims about her involvement.

A Facebook post shared over three years agoshows a black-and-white photoof Clinton next to other politicians.

"As a 27 year old staff attorney for the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation, Hillary Rodham was fired by her supervisor, lifelong Democrat Jerry Zeifman," reads text above the image.

The post claims Zeifman said inan interview that he fired Clintonbecause she was "an unethetical, dishonest lawyer."

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The post generated close to 1,000 shares after being published in February2019, and it has recently regained traction on Facebook. Similar posts have spread widely on the platform.

But the claim is wrong on multiple fronts, as independent fact-checking organizations have reported.Zeifman was not Clinton's direct supervisor, and Judiciary Committeerecords indicate Clinton was not fired from the inquiry, since she was paid even after Nixon resigned.

USA TODAY reached out tosocial media users who shared the claim for comment.

The timeline is key to this claim.

The House Judiciary Committee adoptedthree articlesof impeachment against Nixon on July 27, 1974. However, Nixonavoided impeachmentin the Houseafter heresigned from office Aug. 9of that year.The case ended Aug. 22 when the final impeachment report was published.

In 2016, Washington Post librarianAlice Crites unearthed JudiciaryCommittee records that showClinton was paid$3,377.77 from July 1, 1974, to Sept. 4, 1974, whichindicates she was active throughout the investigation. Clinton's 2008 presidential campaignsaid on its websitethat shewas not fired.

Zeifman, who died in 2010, did claimhe terminated Clinton in an interview, as the post says.

But there are significant problems with his story.

Zeifman contradicted this claim himself in a 1999interview with the Scripps Howard News Service, saying, "If I had the power to fire her, I would have fired her," according to PolitiFact. In other words, he's saying he didn't fire Clinton.

And several sources say Zeifman wasn't in a place to make a firing decision on Clinton.

The quote in the post stems froma 2008columnby Dan Calabrese, which waslater published by the Canada Free Press in 2013. But John R.Labovitz, a lawyer on the impeachment staff, told Calabrese in the same column that Zeifman did not work "on the impeachment inquiry staff directly."

John Doar, a former Justice Department lawyer, was given the responsibility to direct the impeachment inquiry staff in December of 1973, during which time he assembled a staff, according to the Congressional Quarterly Almanac.

In a2018 interview with American historian Timothy Naftali, Clinton said Doar invited her over the phone to work on the impeachment inquiry staff, and she accepted.

An impeachment inquiry staff list compiled by Washington Post journalist Glenn Kessler showsClinton listed as counsel under Doar while Zeifman was listed as general counsel under committee staff, which indicates Doar was Clinton'ssupervisor.

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USA TODAY reached out to Clinton's office for comment.

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Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Zeifman fired Clinton during the Watergate scandal. Zeifman was not Clinton's direct supervisor, and Judiciary Committee pay records indicate she was active throughout the investigation. Zeifmanhasalso contradicted his own claim, saying at other times that he did not fire Clinton.

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Fact check: False claim that Hillary Clinton was fired during Watergate resurfaces online - USA TODAY