By Josh Gerstein & John F. Harris
In the years since their bitter battle both former President Bill Clinton and independent counsel Ken Starr have predicted theyd be vindicated in the history books. Now the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal is about to arrive and neither man can be completely happy about his portrayal in its pages. The Death of American Virtue" due out in February asserts that Clinton had yet another extramarital affair with Susan McDougal of Whitewater fame. Also in the book Monica Lewinsky tells author Ken Gormley that she believes the president lied under oath when he described their encounters.
At the same time Gormley offers a harsh portrait of Starr as a man out of his depth and who lost all sense of proportion. His interviews offer new ammunition to critics who contend the Lewinsky investigation was marred at its outset by improper questioning of Lewinsky in January 1998 by Starrs lieutenants who continued to grill her even after she asked for a lawyer.
Two presidents later the saga feels like a far-off chapter in the nations history but the book makes clear that the principals including Clinton himself remain keenly interested in squaring the historical record to their liking.
In three interviews with the author Clinton makes clear to no surprise of longtime observers of the 42nd president how aggrieved he continues to feel over the whole episode unspooling a stream of choice invective about his other accusers. In Clintons telling the head of the House impeachment team Henry Hyde is a bitter right winger" and hypocrite" and the judge who cited Clinton for civil contempt was merely currying favor with the conservative wing of the GOP.
Through 769 pages Gormley a Duquesne University law professor offers a detailed even scholarly retelling of an epic saga of grand jury depositions fevered partisans and a single stained blue dress that once transfixed a nation but which many Americans are surely eager to leave in the past.
Even so the book represents an attempt by a law professor and prominent legal pundit to write what he is billing as the most complete and evenhanded account of the tumultuous criminal investigation that explored Clintons affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky nearly ended his presidency and ultimately boomeranged on Starr staining the professional reputation of one of Americas foremost constitutional scholars.
But with one of the principals still very much in the public eye the former president turned globe-trotting chief of his own foundation the revelations are sure to dredge up the unpleasant details of a president and prosecutor locked in legal combat.
Among the books most attention-grabbing claims:
Confirmation of a long-rumored romantic affair between Clinton and McDougal an Arkansas woman who spent 18 months in jail for refusing to answer questions from Starrs prosecutors before a grand jury and later received a presidential pardon from Clinton. Gormley writes he is now certain some intimate involvement did occur" though he will not say precisely how he knows it to be true.
I feel very very comfortable with that conclusion after having conducted extensive interviews and seen documents that were not generally accessible to the public" Gormley told POLITICO.
While Gormley says his evidence confirms the long-standing suspicions of Starrs prosecutors that McDougal had a secret extramarital affair with Clinton the author says he does not believe that entanglement which took place years earlier had anything to do with her refusal to testify about Bill and Hillary Clintons involvement with the Whitewater land deal or with the presidents decision to pardon her in 2001.
McDougal has previously denied any affair with Bill Clinton. Efforts to contact her for this article were unsuccessful.
Lewinsky now believes Bill Clinton lied about their relationship during his grand jury testimony. There was no leeway there on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he answered untruthfully" she wrote to Gormley earlier this year. Longtime Clinton attorney David Kendall declined to comment.
Starrs successor Robert Ray was prepared to indict Clinton soon after he left office if he did not agree to admit that he made false statements about Lewinsky under oath and accept disbarment. Ray was ready to pull the trigger if the conditions he imposed were not satisfied" Gormley writes and had to be cajoled" by a colleague into signing off on the final deal.
President Clinton would never fully grasp how close he came to being indicted" Gormley writes.
Prosecutors on the case clashed with a special counsel who sharply criticized them for questioning Lewinsky without her attorney present during a pivotal Jan. 16 1998 interview at a Pentagon City hotel.
I wouldnt have touched her with a 10-foot pole" said the lawyer hired to examine the episode Jo Ann Harris breaking her silence about her findings on the effort to lure in Lewinsky for questioning. The minute she says Can I call my lawyer? you stop…. And when she says it for the sixth or seventh time you really stop….There are limits."
Harris conceded that the departments formal policies on the issue were all over the place" but she maintained that Starrs deputies had been less than forthcoming with the Justice Departments inquiry into the matter and that at least one prosecutor showed poor judgment" in the confrontation of Lewinsky.
Gormley also reports that Harris accused Ray of mischaracterizing her findings. However in an interview with POLITICO Thursday Ray said I dont believe I misrepresented what she said…. Its not how I characterized it. Its that I didnt agree with it."
Ultimately one of Starrs prosecutors hired an attorney who successfully persuaded a court panel to keep Harriss assessment of the episode under seal.
Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti grew deeply suspicious and distrustful of the FBI as the investigation unfolded believing that the agency was trying to entice him to conspire with Clinton.
Merletti claims that at an August 1998 conference a senior FBI official shared negative lab results about a dress suspected of being stained with Clintons DNA. Theres nothing there…that things clean" Merletti said the official told him without prompting. The Secret Service chief felt the comment was a deliberate effort to see if he would pass the pivotal test results to the White House.
Theyre either trying to set me up or theyre trying to set the president up or theyre setting both of us up" Merletti told Gormley. The top Secret Service agent said he resolved at the time not to mention the episode to anyone.
Later Merletti was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury two days before Clinton left office and just as Ray was still trying to hash out a deal with the departing president. The Secret Service head recalls an unusually confrontational interview at the Justice Department where an FBI agent accused him of covering up Clintons trysts with Lewinsky in exchange for the directors job and help procuring women for himself.
Theres only one person left who can give us the president of the United States and thats you. And we know that you were involved in a conspiracy with him and we want to hear it today" Merletti recalled agent Jennifer Gant telling him.
Gormley reports that Gant denied making such accusations but Merletti said he left the encounter insulted" and offended.
Starr deputies prepared a draft indictment of Hillary Clinton and her former law partner Webb Hubbell but it was unanimously rejected by prosecutors more focused on the Lewinsky case.
The object of the conspiracy was to conceal by unlawful means the true facts relating to Hillary Rodham Clintons and Webster Lee Hubbells relationship with….Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan and Madison Financial Corporation…to avoid and evade political criminal and civil liability fraudulently secure additional income for the Rose Law Firm and safeguard the political campaigns of William Jefferson Clinton" said a theory-of-the-case" memo distributed in advance of prosecutor Hickman Ewing Jr.s three-hour presentation to Starr and other prosecutors on April 27 1998.
However Gormley reports that the session ended with a unanimous vote against an indictment.
The pattern was fairly damning in a lot of ways" said one member of the team Paul Rosenzweig. But she Mrs. Clinton wasnt a mafia figure; she was a sympathetic figure. We were going to have to do it in Washington or Arkansas where the juries didnt like us…So we were going to get our asses kicked."
No indictment was ever brought against Hillary Clinton.
While Bill Clinton was steaming mad about Judge Susan Webber Wrights decision to cite him for civil contempt in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and accused her of political bias Clinton and his defenders failed to acknowledge that Wright could have ended his presidency with the stroke of a pen" by initiating criminal contempt proceedings against him while the impeachment case was still pending. Gormley cites a source that said she weighed a criminal citation against Clinton but decided against it.
Wright declined to comment for this article.
The book is also replete with quotes from key political players venting their grievances regrets and convictions about the showdown.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said he remains baffled by the public response to impeachment despite clear evidence that Clinton demeaned the office."
That doesnt jibe with all the other stuff I hear about womens rights and feminism and you know misconduct in the office place and workplace and all that. Its one of the real anomalies I think of American political history."
Hyde (R-Ill.) who headed up the House impeachment team and died in 2007 expressed no regrets. Bill Clinton is making the most of his retirement. Im glad he has no more pardons to sell. The country is safe to that extent. Bill Clinton could have been one of our great presidents. I think he had the brains and the energy and the ambition but he lacked the vision. And the character. And thats the sad part. What might have been" Hyde told Gormley.
Clinton retorts: They were disgraced and he Hyde knows it. They ran a partisan hit job run by a bitter right winger Henry Hyde who turned out to be a hypocrite on the personal issues….Yeah I will always have a asterisk after my name but I hope Ill have two asterisks: one is They impeached him" and the other is He stood up to them and beat them and he beat them like a yard dog."
Starr has expressed some regrets about taking on the Lewinsky aspect of the case but he still seems rankled by Clintons lack of abject contrition.
Everybodys been saying Stop it. Stop it. Admit it. Get it behind you. And he will not do it" Starr said in the book. It is shocking that the president of the United States would conduct himself as a witness in such a way to essentially lie till he dies. We all know the truth. And yet here he is still mocking the system."
The author Gormley said the title and cover art are deliberately ambiguous allowing readers to decide whether Clinton or Starr did more to besmirch American values.
By and large Gormley avoids sweeping judgments about the central figures but he occasionally tips his hand as he tackles specific issues. The author calls the prosecutors approach to Lewinsky botched" and says Starr should have begged off of the Lewinsky inquiry. The professor also scores Clinton for blatant violations" of Wrights orders in Jones case and scoffs at claims that the president never lied to the grand jury.
Theres no question that he very skillfully cleaned up and kind of fixed some problems that originally existed with the Jones deposition in the grand jury that was artfully done but when it came to certain things there was no way to conclude they were not false" Gormley said in an interview.
However Gormley also suggests the August 1998 testimony should never have happened because Starr should have pursued his inclination to turn the entire matter over to Congress several weeks earlier. Instead he deferred to aides who wanted to keep control of the probe.
In one of the great tragedies filled with many catastrophic moments Ken Starr was overwhelmingly outvoted by his staff" the author writes. His penchant for deferring to his prosecutors and seeking consensus like a wise judge finally led to his own professional meltdown."
Gormley met four times with Bill Clinton and spoke with Starr eight times in preparation for the book. The most notable omission on Gormleys list of interviews: Hillary Clinton. Gormley said he asked repeatedly to speak with her for the book but was never offered a meeting.
