"I am not a crook"

Richard Nixon, as most people know, was forced from office by the Watergate scandal. Just as a quick refresher, it was called this because the Democratic National Committee had an office in the Watergate complex which was broken into by operatives of the Republican party. Nixon had nothing to do with the original crime. However, once he found out, instead of coming clean and firing those involved, he became involved in a cover-up, which is a crime also known as obstruction of justice. Presidents can be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors", and Nixon was on the way to having that happen, as the opposition party (the Democrats) hounded him and beat the drums on this story for almost two years. Rather than face that, he decided to resign, and did so in 1974.
Now, 36 years later, another president, Barack Obama, has put himself in danger by possibly engaging in criminal activity. In Pennsylvania, Representative Joe Sestak, who was running against Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, claimed he was offered a job by the White House if he would quit the race. He turned it down, and went on to defeat Mr. Specter. This is a violation of a federal law called the Hatch Act, which among other things specifically prohibits "use of official authority or influence to interfere with an election." However, President Obama isn't foolish, so after months of stonewalling by the President's spokesperson, the White House finally issued a statement saying that it was actually Bill Clinton who offered Sestak the job. Hmmm. Didn't anyone notice it odd that Obama and Clinton had lunch earlier on the same day of this announcement. Is this just coincidence or did they need to get their stories straight?
Now it comes out that Andrew Romanoff, a candidate for the Senate running against the party favorite Michael Bennett in Colorado, was also offered a job to quit the race. "The White House acknowledged Thursday that deputy chief of staff Jim Messina suggested that Romanoff drop his bid against incumbent Michael Bennet, and suggested that he seek one of three possible government jobs." (Russ Britt writing for Market Watch today). So now there are two people who have been offered jobs by the White House. (I wonder how many more there are we don't know about). The president's spokesperson has said the president knew nothing of these offers, although the first one also involved Rahm Emmanuel, the chief of staff, and the second the deputy chief of staff Jim Messina.
That the Hatch Act has been violated is unquestioned. But what was Barack Obama's part in all of this? If he had Bill Clinton cover for him, he is guilty of obstruction of justice. If he knew about either offer, he is guilty of conspiracy to violate a federal law. Both of these are crimes. One is a felony. We have been assured by the president's spokesperson that "nothing inappropriate happened", although he won't be clear on exactly what did happen. But once, long ago, we were also assured by our then president that, "...the American people need to know that their president is not a crook. And I am not a crook." It wasn't true then. Is it true now?