Bill Richardson

Richardson was born in Pasadena, California.[10] He grew up in the borough of Coyoacán in Mexico City.[11] His father, William Blaine Richardson, Jr. (1891–1972), who was of Anglo-American and Mexican descent, was an American bank executive from Boston who worked in Mexico for what is now Citibank.[12] His mother, María Luisa López-Collada Márquez (1914–2011), had been his father's secretary — she was the Mexican-born daughter of a Mexican mother and a Spanish father from Villaviciosa, Asturias.[13] Richardson's father was born on a ship heading towards Nicaragua.[10] Just before Bill Richardson was born, his father sent his mother to California to give birth because, as Richardson explained, "My father had a complex about not having been born in the United States."[10]

Richardson, a United States citizen by birth, spent his childhood in a lavish hacienda in Coyoacán's barrio of San Francisco[11][13] where he was raised as a Roman Catholic.[14] When Richardson was 13, his parents sent him to the U.S. to attend Middlesex School, a preparatory school in Concord, Massachusetts, where he played baseball as a pitcher.[10] He entered Tufts University[15] in 1966, where he continued to play baseball.[16]

In 1967, he played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League, pitching for the Cotuit Kettleers; he returned to the league in 1968 with the Harwich Mariners.[17][18] A Kettleers program included the words "Drafted by K.C." Richardson said:

When I saw that program in 1967, I was convinced I was drafted.... And it stayed with me all these years.[19]

Richardson's original biographies stated he had been drafted by the Kansas City Athletics and the Chicago Cubs to play professional baseball, but a 2005 Albuquerque Journal investigation discovered he never was on any official draft. Richardson acknowledged the error, which he claimed was unintentional, saying he had been scouted by several teams and told that he "would or could" be drafted, but he was mistaken in saying that he actually had been drafted.[20]

He earned a Bachelor's degree at Tufts University in 1970, majoring in French and political science, and was a member and president of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He earned a master's degree in international affairs from the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971. He had met his future wife Barbara (née Flavin) when they were in high school in Concord, Massachusetts, and they married in 1972 following her graduation from Wheaton College.[21]

Richardson is a descendant of William Brewster, a passenger on the Mayflower.[22]

After college, Richardson worked for Republican Congressman F. Bradford Morse from Massachusetts. He was later a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Richardson worked on congressional relations for the Henry Kissinger State Department during the Nixon administration.

Bill Richardson as a congressman

In 1978, Richardson moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and ran for the House of Representatives in 1980 as a Democrat, losing narrowly to longtime 1st District representative and future United States Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan (R). Two years later, Richardson was elected to New Mexico's newly created third district, taking in most of the northern part of the state. Richardson spent 14 years in Congress, representing the country's most diverse district and holding 2,000 town meetings.

Richardson served as Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the 98th Congress (1983–1985) and as Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Native American Affairs in the 103rd Congress (1993–1994). Richardson sponsored a number of bills, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments, the Indian Dams Safety Act, the Tribal Self-Governance Act, and the Jicarilla Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act.

He became a member of the Democratic leadership as a deputy majority whip, where he became friends with Bill Clinton after they worked closely on several issues, including when he served as the ranking House Democrat in favor of NAFTA's passage in 1993.[13][23] For his work as a back channel to Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexico's president at the time of the negotiations, he was awarded the Aztec Eagle Award, Mexico's highest award for a foreigner.[24] Clinton in turn sent Richardson on various foreign policy missions, including a trip in 1996 in which Richardson traveled to Baghdad with Peter Bourne and engaged in lengthy one-on-one negotiations with Saddam Hussein to secure the release of two American aerospace workers who had been captured by the Iraqis after wandering over the Kuwaiti border. Richardson also visited Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, India, North Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sudan to represent U.S. interests and met with Slobodan Milošević.[13] In 1996, he played a major role in securing the release of American Evan Hunziker from North Korean custody[25] and for securing a pardon for Eliadah McCord, an American convicted and imprisoned in Bangladesh.[26] Due to these missions, Richardson was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times.[13]

As U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations between 1997 and 1998, Richardson flew to Afghanistan to meet with the Taliban and Abdul Rachid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord. The ceasefire he believed he had negotiated with the help of Bruce Riedel of the National Security Council failed to hold.[27]

Richardson as Secretary of Energy

The Senate confirmed Richardson to be Clinton's Secretary of Energy on July 31, 1998. His tenure at the Department of Energy was marred by the Wen Ho Lee nuclear controversy. As told by The New York Times in a special report,[28] a scientist later named as Lee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory was reported as a suspect who might have given nuclear secrets to the Chinese government. The article mentioned Richardson several times, although he denied in sworn testimony that he was the source or that he made improper disclosures.[29] After being fired and spending nine months in solitary confinement as an alleged security risk,[30] Lee was later cleared of espionage charges and released with an apology from the judge.[31] Eventually, Lee won a $1.6 million settlement against the federal government and several news outlets, including the Times and The Washington Post, for the accusation.[32][33] Richardson was also criticized by the Senate for his handling of the espionage inquiry, which involved missing computer hard drives containing sensitive data, and for not testifying in front of Congress sooner.[34][35] Richardson justified his response by saying that he was waiting to uncover more information before speaking to Congress.[36] Republican Senators called for Richardson's resignation, while both parties criticized his role in the incident, and the scandal ended Richardson's hope of being named as Al Gore's running mate for the 2000 presidential election.[13]

Richardson tightened security following the scandal, leading to the creation of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA, not to be confused with the NSA and the NSC). This foreshadowed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in reaction to the 9/11 attacks. Richardson also became the first Energy Secretary to implement a plan to dispose of nuclear waste. He created the Director for Native American Affairs position in the department in 1998, and in January 2000, oversaw the largest return of federal lands, 84,000 acres (340 km²), to an Indian Tribe (the Northern Ute Tribe of Utah) in more than 100 years.[37] Richardson also directed the overhaul of the department's consultation policy with Native American tribes and established the Tribal Energy Program.

Richardson as UN Ambassador

With the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001, Richardson took on a number of different positions. He was an adjunct professor at Harvard Kennedy School and a lecturer at the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West.[38] In 2000, Richardson was awarded a United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellowship. He spent the next year researching and writing on the negotiations with North Korea and the energy dimensions of U.S. relations. In 2011, Richardson was named a senior fellow at the Baker Institute of Rice University.

Richardson also joined Kissinger McLarty Associates, a "strategic advisory firm" headed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty, as Senior Managing Director.[39] From February 2001 to June 2002, he served on the board of directors of Peregrine Systems, Inc. He also served on the corporate boards of several energy companies, including Valero Energy Corporation and Diamond Offshore Drilling. He withdrew from these boards after being nominated by the Democratic Party for governor of New Mexico, but retained considerable stock holdings in Valero and Diamond Offshore. He would later sell these stocks during his campaign for president in 2007, saying he was "getting questions" about the propriety of these holdings, especially given his past as energy secretary, and that it had become a distraction.[40]

Richardson is on the board of directors of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD),[41] which was created after the 2011 Tucson shooting that left six dead and 13 wounded, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.[42]

Richardson campaigning in Elko, Nevada; July 2007

Richardson speaks during the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

Richardson was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election but dropped out on January 10, 2008, after lackluster showings in the first primary and caucus contests. Despite his long history and friendship with the Clinton family, Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination on March 21, 2008, instead of Hillary Clinton.[70] Commentator and Clinton ally James Carville compared Richardson to Judas Iscariot for the move.[71] Richardson responded in a Washington Post article, feeling "compelled to defend [himself] against character assassination and baseless allegations."[72]

Richardson was a rumored vice presidential candidate for Senator and Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama, and was fully vetted by the Obama campaign,[73] before Obama chose Joe Biden on August 23, 2008.[74]

See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet

Following Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election, Richardson's name was frequently mentioned as a possible Cabinet appointment in the incoming Obama administration. Most of this speculation surrounded the position of Secretary of State, given Richardson's background as a diplomat.[75] Richardson did not publicly comment on the speculation.[76] Hillary Clinton was Obama's nominee for Secretary of State.

Richardson was also being considered for the position of Commerce Secretary. On December 3, 2008, Obama tapped Richardson for the post.[77] On January 4, 2009, Richardson withdrew his name as Commerce Secretary nominee because of the federal grand jury investigation into pay-to-play allegations.[3] The New York Times had reported in late December that the grand jury investigation issue would be raised at Richardson's confirmation hearings.[57] Later, in August 2009, Justice Department officials decided not to seek indictments.[78]

According to his autobiography, then-United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson was asked by the White House in 1997 to interview Monica Lewinsky for a job on his staff at the United Nations. Richardson did so, and later offered her a position which she declined.[79] The American Spectator alleged that Richardson knew more about the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal than he declared to the grand jury.[80]

In 2011, Richardson was under investigation for his role in alleged campaign finance violations. A former member of Richardson's campaign claimed that during Richardson's 2008 presidential campaign, Richardson and members of his campaign paid an unknown woman $250,000 to keep her from exposing an alleged affair they had in 2004.[81][82]

During the 2012 trial United States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm, the former CDR employee Doug Goldberg testified that he was involved in giving Bill Richardson campaign contributions amounting to $100,000 in exchange for his company CDR being hired to handle a $400- million swap deal for the New Mexico state government. During his testimony, Doug Goldberg stated that he had been given an envelope containing a check for $25,000 payable to Moving America Forward, Bill Richardson's political action committee, by his boss Stewart Wolmark and told to deliver it to Bill Richardson at a fund raiser. When Goldberg handed the envelope to Richardson, he allegedly told Goldberg to "Tell the big guy [Stewart Wolmark] I'm going to hire you guys". Goldberg went on to testify that CDR was hired but that he later learned that another firm was hired by Richardson to perform the actual work required and that Stewart Wolmark had given Richardson a further $75,000 in contributions.[83]

In 2019 it was revealed that Richardson was among those named in court documents from a civil suit between Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The documents were unsealed on August 9, 2019, a day before Epstein's suicide.[84][85] Giuffre alleges that she was sexually trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to several high-profile individuals, including Richardson, while she was underage in the early 2000s.[86][84] A spokesperson for Richardson denied the claims, stating that he did not know Giuffre and had never seen Epstein in the presence of young or underage girls.[86] Richardson released a statement in August 2019, saying he had offered his assistance in the investigation of Epstein to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Richardson's attorney, Jeff Brown of Dechert LLP, later said that he was informed by the Assistant US Attorney that Richardson is neither a target, subject, nor witness in the case and that there is no allegation against Richardson that the government is actively investigating.[87]

Richardson has visited North Korea a number of times, and has been involved in negotiations with the leadership there since the early 1990s. In 1996, he accompanied U.S. State Department officials and successfully negotiated the release of Evan Hunziker, the first American civilian to be arrested by North Korea on espionage charges since the end of the Korean War.

In 2011, he was appointed as a special envoy for the Organization of American States.[88] Richardson formed a foundation, the Richardson Center, to help negotiate the release of political prisoners globally.[89]

In January 2013, he led a delegation to North Korea of business leaders, including Google chairman Eric Schmidt, shortly after the state launched an orbital rocket.[90] Richardson called the trip a "private, humanitarian" mission by U.S. citizens. He tried unsuccessfully to speak to North Korean officials about the detention of Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen accused of committing "hostile" acts against the state, and sought to visit him, but was only able to deliver to authorities a letter from Bae's son.[91][92] (Bae was released in November 2014.)

In March 2016, at the request of Ohio Governor John Kasich, Richardson attempted to negotiate for the release of Cincinnati college student Otto Warmbier, who had been detained on a visit to North Korea.[7][89] Warmbier was released in a vegetative state, and later died in Cincinnati in June 2017.

In November 2021 Richardson undertook a mission to Myanmar, where he negotiated with military junta head Min Aung Hlaing, and secured the release of U.S. journalist Danny Fenster from an 11-year prison sentence.[93][94][8]

In 2011, Richardson joined the boards of APCO Worldwide company Global Political Strategies as chairman,[95] the World Resources Institute,[96] the National Council for Science and the Environment,[97] and Abengoa (international advisory board).[98]

In 2012, Richardson joined the advisory board of Grow Energy and Refugees International. He is a member of Washington, D.C.-based Western Hemisphere think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.[99]

In December 2012, Richardson became chairman of the Board of Directors of Car Charging Group, the largest independent owner and operator of public electric vehicle charging stations in the United States. In 2013 Richardson joined the Board of Advisors for the Fuel Freedom Foundation.[100]

• Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life, an autobiography, published March 2005 by G.P. Putnam's Sons, written with Michael Ruby ISBN 0399153241
• Leading by Example: How We Can Inspire an Energy and Security Revolution, released October 2007
• How to Sweet-Talk a Shark: Strategies and Stories from a Master Negotiator, published October 15, 2013 by Rodale Books, written with Kevin Bleyer.
• Universal Transparency: A Goal for the U.S. at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, published January 2011, Arms Control Today; Bill Richardson with Gay Dillingham, Charles Streeper, and Arjun Makhijani
• Sweeping Up Dirty Bombs, published Fall 2011, Federation of American Scientists; Bill Richardson, Charles Streeper, and Margarita Sevcik

• Electoral history of Bill Richardson
• William Barloon
• List of Hispanic Americans in the United States Congress
• Unsuccessful nominations to the Cabinet of the United States

• Official website
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Financial information (federal office) at OpenSecrets
• Appearances on C-SPAN