By Andrea Mitchell and the NBC News Investigative Unit

Hillary and Bill Clintons' wealth has skyrocketed a staggering 5,700 percent since President Clinton left the White House, according to their newly released tax records.

In Clinton’s last full year in office, 2000, he and Mrs. Clinton earned $357,026. Last year, their estimated total income was $20.4 million. That is an increase of 5,700 percent.

Most of the Clintons’ newfound wealth comes from lucrative speeches and books. In the seven years since the Clintons left the White House, President Clinton has earned $51.8 million in speeches around the globe. The president’s book royalties total $29.5 million for that same period, and Senator Clinton’s book payments total $10.4 million, the Clinton campaign reported today.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a couple that faced $12 million in legal fees when they left the White House, in the wake of the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals. Since that time, the new records show, the Clintons have raked in more than $109 million in total gross income--and made charitable contributions of more than $10 million.

By Andrea Mitchell and Jim Popkin, NBC News

For more than 50 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has been a Washington institution. Every president has attended the breakfast since Eisenhower, elbow-to-elbow with Democrats and Republicans alike. “I am really proud to carry on that tradition,” President Bush said at this year’s breakfast. “The people in this room come from many different walks of faith. Yet we share one clear conviction: We believe that the Almighty hears our prayers -- and answers those who seek Him.”

Besides the presidents and first ladies--Bill and Hillary Clinton attended in 1997--the one constant presence at the National Prayer Breakfast has been Douglas Coe. Although he’s not an ordained minister, the 79-year-old Coe is the most important religious leader you've never seen or heard.

But Doug Coe is well known to scores of senators in both parties--and many faiths--including Sam Brownback, Mike Enzi, Mark Pryor and Bill Nelson. They go to small weekly Senate prayer groups that Coe attends. Participants tell NBC News that so have senators John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, which those campaigns confirm.

Senator Clinton’s participation is surprising to observers who have investigated Coe’s group, called The Fellowship Foundation, which critics have described as a secretive organization populated mostly by conservative Republicans.

By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer

The tax returns for Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, offer new insights into the power couple's rising fortunes. They chronicle the candidate's rise from state legislator to U.S. senator and beyond. 

The tax returns are dated between 2000 and 2006, showing a steep increase in family income.

For example, the first return indicates that the Obamas' combined income was $240,505. That included Obama's salary as a young state senator in Illinois, $16,500 in fees as a "foundation director/educational speaker," and his wife's salary as a hospital administrator.

But just six years later in 2006, the Obamas' combined income was $983,826, some $740,000 more. Obama had become a U.S. senator by then, making about $165,000 a year, and his wife's income from the University of Chicago Medical Center had sharply climbed to about $265,000 a year.

Obama's book-writing career had also become profitable, earning him $551,240 in author fees for 2006 alone.

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By Robert Windrem, NBC News Producer

When the United States learned that it had inadvertently sent four critical missile warhead components to Taiwan recently, it quickly told Beijing.

It was not just a courtesy. The United States, China and Taiwan have been involved in a dance for nearly 40 years trying to keep the island nation from getting nuclear weapons. If Chinese intelligence had learned of the shipment and believed the components were not shipped inadvertently, it would have no doubt created a crisis of confidence in U.S. assurances that Taiwan will not be permitted to go nuclear.

For 40 years, the U.S. has threatened, cajoled and spied on Taiwanese nuclear programs. The spy story alone says a lot about how high a priority the U.S. has placed on those efforts.

In ordinary circumstances, the 1988 defection of Chang Hsien-y, a colonel in the Taiwanese military, would not have been especially notable, particularly given the number of other defections that occurred during the Cold War. One day, Chang, his wife and their three children simply boarded an airplane at a former U.S. air base in a remote part of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and disappeared into thin air.

By Jim Popkin and Libby Leist, NBC News

Two of the government contractors who accessed Sen. Barack Obama's passport records worked for a Virginia-based firm called Stanley, Inc., the company said in a statement. A third contractor who looked at passport information for Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain worked for a company called The Analysis Corporation, the State Department said.

"Two Stanley subcontractor employees were involved in the unauthorized access of Senator Barack Obama's passport files," a Stanley, Inc., spokeswoman said. "In each of these instances the employee was terminated the day the unauthorized search occurred."

"While this is a rare occurrence, we regret the unauthorized access of any individual's private information," Stanley spokeswoman Joelle Pozza added.

By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer

Former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's calendar entries are full of unexplained private meetings on key dates when she and President Clinton were fending off a variety of scandals, the newly released White House records show.

Take Jan. 21, 1998. That's the day when most Americans first learned, courtesy of the Washington Post, that President Clinton had had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Mrs. Clinton's calendar entry shows that she left the White House at 7:25 pm that evening and returned 25 minutes later. The National Archives, which released the 17,484 calendar pages today, has excised the reason for the brief trip and the names of any of the people whom Mrs. Clinton may have met. The Archives, working in consultation with President Clinton's representatives, cite privacy concerns in blacking out all details of the trip.

By Jonathan Dienst, WNBC Investigative Correspondent
 
The FBI and Homeland Security officials revoked Governor Eliot Spitzer's security clearance early this week as the criminal investigation into Spitzer's alleged use of prostitutes broadened, according to officials familiar with the case.  As a result, Spitzer no longer has access to classified intelligence and security briefings, federal officials told WNBC on condition of anonymity.  A spokeswoman for Spitzer did not return calls for comment.
 
Spitzer's security clearance was pulled on Tuesday, just one day after his alleged connection to the alleged prostitution ring became public. One federal source said Lt. Governor David Paterson is now being cleared for security briefings. 
 
Spitzer still can be told of potential threats, such as the new but uncorroborated Al Qaeda threat against Wall Street and other financial institutions, in order to help deploy resources if necessary.  This latest non-specific threat information about New York suggests a possible attack sometime in March, officials have said. 

By Lisa Myers and Jim Popkin, NBC News

Sen. Hillary Clinton has declined to return $170,000 in campaign contributions from individuals at a company accused of widespread sexual harassment, and whose CEO is a disbarred lawyer with a criminal record, federal campaign records show.

The federal government has accused the Illinois management consulting firm, International Profit Associates, or IPA, of a brazen pattern of sexual harassment including "sexual assaults,” “degrading anti-female language" and "obscene suggestions."

In a 2001 lawsuit full of lurid details, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims that 103 women employees at IPA were victimized for years. The civil case is ongoing, and IPA vigorously denies the allegations.

"This is by far, hands down, the worst case I've ever experienced," said Diane Smason, one of the EEOC lawyers handling the lawsuit. "Every woman there experienced sex harassment, they were part of a hostile work environment of sex harassment. And this occurred from the top down."

Sen. Clinton’s spokesman, Howard Wolfson, told NBC News in a statement that the senator decided to keep the funds because the lawsuit is "ongoing" and because none of the sexual harassment allegations has been proven in court. "With regard to the pending harassment suit, as a general matter, the campaign assesses findings of fact in deciding whether to return contributions," Wolfson said.

By Jonathan Dienst, WNBC Investigative Correspondent

Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu pleaded not guilty today in federal court in New York to orchestrating a $60 million fraud and making illegal political donations. After the hearing, Hsu's lawyer told WNBC that the once high-flying entrepreneur is "flat broke."

In leg irons and handcuffs, Hsu was flown to New York last night by U.S. Marshals. In this exclusive video shot by WNBC in New York, Hsu appeared gaunt and dazed as he walked on the tarmac at a New York-area airport.

Hsu's multi-layered legal troubles caused embarrassment for presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton, and prompted her to return $850,000 in campaign contributions. Hsu was indicted in December for mail fraud, wire fraud and violating the Federal Election Campaign Act.

By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent

The U.S. Senate's ethics committee seems to have been more concerned with what Senator Larry Craig did after his arrest in an airport bathroom in June 2007 than with the conduct itself that led to the arrest.

In its "Public Letter of Admonition," addressed to Sen. Craig and released Wednesday night, the committee reviewed the airport incident but did not characterize how it reflected on his Senate colleagues. Instead, the bulk of the letter dealt with what he did in response to his arrest.