After David Brock apologized to President Clinton in the pages of Esquire Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times obtained a startling interview with Peter W. Smith, a Chicago investment banker, a leading benefactor of GOPAC ($150,000 since 1987) and a major donor to the Republican National Committee and the Heritage Foundation. Smith told the Sun-Times that he had spent approximately $80,000 between September 1992 and March 1994 to get the anti-Clinton campaign underway. The bulk of this money went to Republican political consultant Eddie Mahe ($25,000), ultra-right-wing public relations specialist Hugh Newton ($7,500) and lawyers Daniel Swillinger ($6,500), E. Mark Braden (amount unknown) and James H. Burnley IV (amount unknown) for legal advice on campaign financing.

A Failed Smear Campaign in 1992

A Successful Smear Campaign - Summer of 1993 to the Present

Bossie and Brown. In Virginia, the radical-right-wing publicists David Bossie and Floyd Brown (of "Willie Horton" fame) had a very-well-funded (by who?) disinformation factory in operation. Many reporters from the Mainstream Media were obtaining data and information on Whitewater from this activity which they then placed into news articles and analyses in their magazines and newspapers. None of this was with attribution to Messrs Bossie and Brown.

Schmidt and Lewis. In Kansas, a Washington Post reporter who specialized in reporting on the Savings and Loan industry, but who had somehow missed the looting of the S&Ls during the Reagan and Bush years, was busy interviewing an radical-right-wing Republican investigator with the Resolution Trust Corporation.

Smith and Brock. In Washington that August, David Brock received a phone call from Smith saying that the state troopers in Arkansas might be ready to talk about Clinton's womanizing. Smith told Brock he had been told about the potential for this story by two sources in Arkansas -- Cliff Jackson, a known longtime Clinton-hater, and newspaper gossip. Jackson had actually been talking to the state troopers since the spring of 1993, when the possibility of a $2 million dollar "tell all" book deal was the main topic of fevered discussions among the troopers. The book deal had fallen through and the troopers were now looking for additional sources of income.

Late August-early September 1992 - Peter W. Smith launched an "independent, self-financed drive to dig up negative information about Clinton, motivated by a desire to deny Clinton the White House and help re-elect President George Bush."

Smith and David Brock met in Washington after Smith had been referred to Brock by a person or persons unknown. Smith wanted Brock to look into a number of topics on Clinton. "Among the topics on the agenda: allegations then swirling around Clinton concerning draft-dodging, womanizing, drugs, the rigging of Arkansas economic statistics and attempts to cover up indiscreet behavior. Brock recalled another item they discussed: whether Clinton had fathered an illegitimate child." Brock received $5,000 dollars from Smith a few weeks later to cover "research expenses." No stories, however, were published before the November 1992 election

August 1993 - Smith called Brock and told him there were State Troopers in Arkansas who were thinking about going public with stories on Clinton's womanizing.

December 1993 - David Brock broke TrooperGATE story in the Scaife-funded American Spectator magazine.

December 21, 1993 - The Los Angeles Times broke its version of the TrooperGATE story.

March 1994 -- Smith pay off to the troopers and their lawyers. This is the ONLY payoff to the state troopers THAT IS KNOWN. The Los Angeles Times did not say if the troopers or other persons involved in this story received benefits of some kind from that newspaper.