Bill
& Hillary Clinton and the Suicide of Vincent
Foster
In the midst of Detectives Tom Lange and Philip Vannatter's media war with Detective Mark Fuhrman, a convicted perjurer who had written his own book about the Simpson case, Fuhrman's publisher, Regnery Publishing approached Dan Moldea, and asked him to write a book about the death of Vincent Foster, the White House attorney who had been found shot to death at Fort Marcy Park in northern Virginia on July 20, 1993. Regnery had recently rejected previous book proposals on the Foster case by Foster's secretary, Linda Tripp, and Fuhrman, who believed that Foster had been murdered. (Both Tripp and Fuhrman were represented by literary agent Lucianne Goldberg.)
Jumping into the fray, Moldea accepted Regnery's offer and interviewed every officer and official from the U.S. Park Police, which had jurisdiction at the Foster crime scene and conducted the formal investigation. The USPP concluded that Foster had committed suicide.
Just prior to the official search of Foster's office two days after his death, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum refused to permit representatives from the USPP and the Department of Justice to participate in the search, as previously agreed. Then, four days later, another White House attorney discovered a torn-up note in Foster's briefcase, which had supposedly been examined during the official search. The White House didn't notify the USPP about the note until thirty hours after it was found.
In his story about the official investigations of Foster's death, Moldea--who concluded the Foster had, indeed, killed himself--chronicled how these White House missteps led to erroneous media stories that files had been illegally removed from Foster's office, which led to charges that these files were Whitewater related, which led to the appointment of independent counsel Robert Fiske, which led to an oversight hearing by the Senate Banking Committee, which led to the firing of Fiske and the hiring of Kenneth Starr as the second independent counsel, which led to the creation of the Senate Whitewater Committee, which led to the return to the Starr investigation, which led to allegations of President Bill Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
When Moldea submitted his manuscript about the right-wing conspiracy against the Clintons, his publisher--Regnery Publishing, well-known as a conservative publisher of anti-Clinton books--greeted it with little enthusiasm. For a brief period of time, Moldea, who clashed with the publishing house's editorial staff, believed that his book might not be released. However, the project was saved by Regnery's president, Alfred Regnery--who protected the work and insisted that it be published as written.
A Washington Tragedy was released in April 1998 in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal--which had been orchestrated by Linda Tripp and Lucianne Goldberg--and Starr's continued investigation of Whitewater.
Calling the book "a smart, chronological appraisal" of all the investigations of Foster's suicide, the Washington Post stated in its review: "Although Moldea, a crime reporter of considerable repute and experience, uses his own investigations to clear up some of the troublesome questions about Foster's death, for the most part he is simply a neutral narrator, a levelheaded guide." The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Clinton's hometown newspaper, wrote: "Mindful of Moldea's reputation for accuracy and incorruptibility--books on Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters, the influence of organized crime on pro football, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy have won wide acclaim--Regnery approached him to write about the Foster suicide. His book concludes that the Foster investigation was 'a no-brainer,' and that ugly rumors about his death were fueled by politically-motivated hack journalists in the pay of billionaire zealot Richard Mellon Scaife. Such conclusions, of course, didn't make Regnery very happy." The Legal Times commented that A Washington Tragedy was "superbly reported, a fascinating examination. . . . Readers who want to reward responsible rather than sensational reporting ought to buy Moldea's books."
In Joe Conason and Gene Lyons's best-selling book, The Hunting of the President (St. Martin's, 2000), the authors wrote: "Apart from the Fiske and Starr Reports, the most accurate, comprehensive account of the Foster suicide and its aftermath is A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm, by Dan E. Moldea."
Also, Moldea discusses the Foster case in the 2004 film version of The Hunting of the President, directed by Harry Thomason.
In its review of the documentary, the Seattle Times, stated: "The last third of the film is devoted to its most important accusation: How this campaign from the right came to dominate the post-Watergate, post-cable TV media. The most damning talking head may be Dan Moldea, author of several books debunking conspiracy theories of both the left and right, who calls the press coverage of the Vincent Foster case "the most corrupt act of journalism I have ever seen."
The OIC Leaks Controversy
Prior to the release of A Washington Tragedy, Moldea had never published anything about President Bill Clinton or his administration, even though he had voted him in 1992 and 1996.
The Foster case was an eye-opening, life-altering experience for Moldea. Through his research, he had collected clear evidence that a dishonest, money-grubbing cabal of Clinton-haters--who shared information, covered up each other's mistakes, fabricated evidence, and received their funding from the same sources--had tried to portray Foster's suicide as a murder in a cynical effort to undermine the authority of the Clinton White House.
Through this, Moldea realized what the President had been up against since his first inauguration in 1993: His political enemies were prepared to do anything--and use anything--to remove him from office. Consequently, when the Lewinsky scandal erupted in January 1998, Moldea decided to take sides and became an uninvited bit player in the war between the President and his enemies. Upon the release of his book about Foster's suicide in April, he publicly announced his support for the President, along with his criticism of the Office of the Independent Counsel (OIC), during radio and television appearances.
On May 19, 1998, during a speech at the Martin Luther King Library in downtown Washington, which was later broadcast by CNN, Moldea alleged that the OIC routinely leaked non-public information on an off-the-record basis to a selected group of journalists, many of whom had become shills and stalking horses for Kenneth Starr and the OIC. He based these charges on his on-the-record conversations with members of the OIC staff during his research for the Foster book.
Like Moldea, these journalists had taken sides in the dispute; but, unlike Moldea, they did not announce their biases, continuing instead to hide behind the First Amendment and to report for their news organizations under the false guise of objectivity.
On May 27, during a television appearance on MSNBC, Moldea said, “I insist that this is not a fair investigation [of the President], and I believe that many reporters are becoming complicit in this particular situation.” Moldea also charged that some journalists had become “cheerleaders” for Starr’s investigation and needed the President’s removal from office in order to justify their abuses and excesses.
On June 6, the National Journal reported: “Indeed, President Clinton believes that the independent counsel is breaking the law with leaks to reporters—and that the Washington Post and the New York Times are covering it up, [White House press secretary Mike] McCurry said in an interview. ‘[President Clinton] asked me the other day why do the Washington Post and the New York Times cover up Dan Moldea and not write about that?’”
Meantime, Moldea had promised that, if subpoenaed, he would cooperate with any investigation of the leaks, including the OIC’s own reported internal review. Not surprisingly, the OIC, which claimed to be in the midst of an investigation of the illegal leaks, never contacted him.
Then, after the release of an article in Brill's Content in mid-June, evidence evolved, showing that some of these journalists had taken information from their own sources and actually fed it to the OIC, which later identified these reporters in court records as confidential informants.
In late July, in response to what many now considered a cooperative effort between OIC prosecutors and this group of Washington reporters, Moldea reluctantly revealed that he had legally tape recorded his on-the-record conversations with Starr's two deputies, Hickman Ewing and Jackie Bennett, upon whom he had based his original allegations about the OIC leaks.
On August 24, 1998--a week after the President's appearance before the OIC's federal grand jury--Moldea attached the transcripts of these two conversations to an affidavit he filed with U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, who had already ordered that Starr and the OIC be investigated for allegedly leaking secret information, illegally, to its stable of reporters.
(The affidavit and attachments may be reviewed by clicking "Affidavit on OIC Leaks," as well as Judge Johnson's list of 24 allegedly illegal leaks. Also see, Brett Kavanaugh and the OIC Leaks, as well as "Affidavit on OIC Leaks #2.")
In his 1998 bestseller, And the Horse He Rode In On, Clinton defender James Carville wrote: “One journalist finally had the temerity to step forward and explain how all this sensitive information had been coming out into the light of day. Dan Moldea, a respected crime reporter with more than seven exhaustively investigated books under his belt, heard one of Starr’s emphatic denials and was so disgusted that he told his tale."
The Flynt Project
On November 23, 1998--as the OIC leaks investigation proceeded and the President's impeachment appeared inevitable over what many considered the criminalization of his personal life--a representative of Larry Flynt approached Moldea with an offer to investigate hypocrisy among the President's critics. Specific targets were those who had conflicting standards of private behavior for public officials: One for those they liked and another for those they didn't like. Earlier, on October 4, Flynt had placed a full-page ad in the Washington Post, offering "up to a million dollars" to those who could provide proof of such hypocrisy.
Even though Moldea had never targeted the private life of any public figure before, he accepted the assignment and was responsible for, among other investigations, the Flynt-backed probe of U.S. House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston (R-Louisiana), who announced his resignation from Congress on December 19, the same day as the impeachment of the President.
In the wake of the political bloodbath on December 19 and as the impeachment matter headed for trial in the U.S. Senate, Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote: “Ordinarily one would feel sorry for Mr. Livingston being outed. But the Republicans have brought on themselves this sexual doomsday machine of Larry Flynt . . . by focusing so single-mindedly on Mr. Clinton’s sex life.”
The Los Angeles Times added: “Would it be at all ironic, then, if it turns out the white knight in this current round of sexual McCarthyism is the pornographer Larry Flynt. . . . Yet, if you believe him, Flynt would rather not publish the dirt he bought with his million-dollar reward. In fact, he says, his intent is to stop the prying and probing into private sex lives altogether by applying his own brand of mutually assured destruction.”
After Moldea's role was revealed by Newsweek as the Senate trial of the President began, Flynt and Moldea were widely accused of political terrorism with their campaign. Among other members of Congress, Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) insisted: “Intimidation is something we have to resist. You don’t negotiate with terrorists. This is almost a terrorist-like tactic being used here.”
When asked what he thought about the Flynt project, Senator Robert Torricelli (D-New Jersey) replied, “I think that--in fairness, if people are going to be involved in impeaching the President of the United States and the root cause is an extramarital affair--the chairman or a leader of the Congress engaged in that effort has to assume that, if they are similarly vulnerable, it will be exposed. I think, it is relevant as a matter of hypocrisy.”
Senator Frank Lautenberg, also a New Jersey Democrat, added, “Larry Flynt says his mission is against hypocrisy, and I think that’s a pretty good mission.”
Bill Bennett, a self-appointed arbiter of American values and a member of the board of directors of one of Richard Scaife’s foundations, arrogantly lamented, “The American people—in their wisdom, thanks to White House spin and other things—regard Larry Flynt more favorably than they regard Ken Starr. So much for the wisdom of the American people.” (Public-opinion surveys taken in the midst of the impeachment trial also gave Flynt higher approval ratings than the Republican Congress.)
Still alleging a relationship between the White House and the Flynt team, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) insisted, “I don’t know anybody who’s hiring these tough, mean investigators like has been done for the President.” In fact, there was no relationship between the White House and the Flynt Project.
“I don’t think there’s anybody on our team who’s getting much joy out of this,” Moldea told the Washington Times. “When you start hurting families, that’s something that makes you pause and think about what’s going on. But at the same time, I just haven’t seen any mercy shown towards Clinton—I mean, none, zero.”
Prompted by the right-wing press—the Washington Times, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page and Fox-TV, along with televangelist Jerry Falwell and beneficiaries of Richard Scaife’s grant money, among others—the Republican National Committee and the Landmark Legal Foundation filed formal complaints with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, charging Flynt and Moldea with obstructing the impeachment trial, blackmail, and jury-tampering.
Of course, Flynt and Moldea denied the charges, which were not pressed.
Moldea voluntarily left the Flynt operation on January 22, 1999, in the midst of the Senate trial--after Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) announced earlier in the day that he planned to propose a resolution to dismiss all charges against the President. Moldea assumed then that the President would be acquitted, which he was on February 12.
Two days after the President's acquittal, the New York Times reported: "The shock waves of the Livingston resignation spread far beyond the West Wing of the White House, and had a sobering effect on members of Congress of both parties who might have been contemplating calling for Mr. Clinton to step down in the aftermath of the impeachment vote.
"Fearful of the entire government unraveling, very few members of Congress joined a clamor for Mr. Clinton's resignation."
Carol Lloyd of Salon, who published a story about the Flynt Project, quoted Moldea, saying: “Since the beginning of his project Larry demonstrated restraint and compassion. He demanded the highest standards of documentation and responsibility. I believe that he was effective. History will cite the resignation of Bob Livingston as well as Larry’s role in that decision as the critical moment that diffused the entire impeachment process, and I’m proud to have been associated with him.”
In his controversial
best-selling book, American Rhapsody (Knopf, 2000),
author Joe Eszterhas published a chapter, "Larry Flynt Saves
the Day," in which he wrote: "The pornographer saved the
president by threatening to reveal other acts of pornography
committed by--this time Republican--politicians. Larry
Flynt was a hero, a self-appointed, self-financed Kenneth W.
Starr. . . . He'd brought in a crack investigative reporter,
Dan Moldea, who'd exposed Ronald Reagan's questionably close
ties to Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman and Teamster money, to
run his million-dollar project."
Defending his actions
nine years later, Moldea told the Washington
Post in a "Style" section profile about him,
published on August 8, 2007, "There was a right-wing attempt
to overthrow the executive branch of government, and I thought
I could be sacrificed. . . . This was important enough for me
to risk being destroyed."
BLOGS ON VINCENT FOSTER, THE OIC LEAKS, AND THE FLYNT PROJECT
16th
anniversary of Bob Livington (12-20-2014)