HOW THE SMEAR BEGAN

3

FOSTERGATE:

AN ANONYMOUS SOURCE,

ANONYMOUS INVESTIGATORS,

& ANONYMOUS LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS

On Sunday, December 19, 1993, the New York Times published a story on the possibility that Whitewater files had been removed from Vince Foster's office after he committed suicide on July 20, 1993. The story begins:

"The diary, first reported Saturday by The Washington Post , was never voluntarily disclosed by the White House. The Park Police, whose investigators examined it, never said it existed, although the diary was mentioned in a still undisclosed report by the agency on its investigation into Foster's death. The Park Police investigated Foster's death because the suicide took place on federal parkland in Virginia."

"A Park Police official said Saturday that the diary was provided to the agency's investigators but did not reveal information that they determined was relevant to Foster's state of mind at the time of his death or his motive for taking his own life."

UNLESS AND UNTIL THESE PEOPLE COME FORWARD OF THEIR OWN VOLITION, THEIR IDENTITIES WILL REMAIN HIDDEN.

INFORMATION FROM THESE INVESTIGATORS AND THESE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS WAS LEAKED TO THE NEW YORK TIMES AT A TIME WHEN RELEASE OF THIS INFORMATION COULD DO THE MAXIMUM DAMAGE TO THE WHITE HOUSE.

JUST ABOUT THE TIME OF THE LEAK TO THE NEW YORK TIMES, DAVID KENDALL WAS NEGOTIATING WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FOR A SUBPOENA FOR THE WHITEWATER FILES, BOTH THOSE IN THE CLINTON'S POSSESSION AND THOSE THAT HAD BEEN IN VINCE FOSTER'S OFFICE.

ACCORDING TO A WASHINGTON POST STORY OF JANUARY 8, 1994:

David Kendall, Clinton's lawyer, was rebuffed when he asked department officials to agree they would not share the material with the Office of Professional Responsiblity, the unit of the Justice Department that is investigating the handling of the suicide last July of White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster.

A senior administration official said yesterday [January 7] that Kendall "did say to the Justice Department that he did not want these documents to go to OPR. He wanted them protected from that kind of dissemination." The official said that Kendall's position to Justice was "they should not be turned over to OPR" unless OPR went to court to seek its own access to the records. There was no indication why Kendall sought to deny OPR access to the documents.

PERHAPS THE LEAK TO THE NEW YORK TIMES IN MID-DECEMBER 1993 THAT APPEARED TO BE TIMED TO DO MAXIMUM DAMAGE TO THE CLINTON WHITE HOUSE MAY HAVE CAUSED SOMEONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE TO WONDER IF THERE WAS AN ANTI-CLINTON CABAL IN SOME ELEMENTS OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.

IN DECEMBER 1993/JANUARY 1994, THE HEAD OF THE OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY WAS HEADED BY MICHAEL E. SHAHEEN, WHO IS PRESENTLY INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBLE PAYMENT OF MONEY BY RIGHT-WING ACTIVISTS TO DAVID HALE WHEN HE WAS TESTIFYING IN THE MCDOUGAL-TUCKER TRIAL OF EARLY 1996 (THE SO-CALLED WHITEWATER TRIAL).

ALL OF THIS IS HIGHLY CIRCUMSTANTIAL, YET THE RELUCTANCE OF THE WHITE HOUSE TO ALLOW THE OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE WHITEWATER DOCUMENTS WHILE SHOWING NO SUCH CONCERNS ABOUT THE FRAUD UNIT IN THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HAS NEVER BEEN EXPLAINED.

THE WHITE HOUSE ACTION COULD HAVE SERVED AS A WARNING TO THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT THAT THE WHITE HOUSE WAS WELL AWARE OF THE PROBABLE SOURCE OF LEAKS OF INFORMATION TIMED TO DO THE MOST DAMAGE TO THE WHITE HOUSE.

IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO DETERMINE IF ANY MEMBERS OF THE OPR WERE FIRED OR TRANSFERRED TO OTHER JOBS IN THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ABOUT THIS TIME.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IN THIS COUNTRY WAS NOT INTERESTED, AND IS NOT INTERESTED, IN THE POSSIBILITY THAT RADICAL RIGHT WING INDIVIDUALS IN THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OR THE FBI MAY ACTIVELY BE ENGAGED IN ANTI-CLINTON ACTIVITIES, THUS VIOLATING THEIR OATHS OF OFFICE.