Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [103]
Starr’s first important move as independent counsel was to recruit a new legal team to oversee both the Arkansas and the Washington phases of the investigation. Aware of his own lack of prosecutorial experience, he wanted to compensate by assembling lawyers with a deep reservoir of talent. As his first step, he appointed Hickman Ewing, Jr. (whom Bob Fiske had recommended as a possible hire), to take over the Little Rock office.
Ewing, a former federal prosecutor from Memphis with an easy Southern drawl, had two decades’ worth of experience trying white-collar crime and corruption cases. Famous in Tennessee for his photographic memory and his ability to captivate juries with spellbinding orations, Ewing was everything Ken Starr wanted in branding OIC with his own signature.
At age fifty-three, Ewing had moved into private practice after spending the bulk of his career as a federal prosecutor. He had served for eight years during the Reagan presidency as U.S. attorney in Memphis, until he was tossed out in 1988 due to Republican infighting, an experience that had left professional scars on him. A Vietnam veteran who had served as an officer on a navy swift-boat, Ewing had been forever haunted by the fact that his alcoholic father, Hickman Ewing, Sr., had landed in prison for stealing public funds. Once a legendary high school football and basketball coach, the senior Ewing had been elected as Shelby County court clerk, later pleading guilty to embezzlement. He served eighteen months in prison and was stripped of his state citizenship, having been “rendered infamous” under Tennessee law. The family’s home was burned to the ground. It was a “devastating” time for Hickman, Jr.
It was also what made him predisposed to handling—and winning—the toughest and ugliest public corruption cases. As U.S. attorney in Memphis, Ewing had become “one of the South’s winningest lawmen.” He had brought down a governor, ten sheriffs, a few state legislators, a Memphis State basketball coach, and a handful of moonshiners. During this period, Ewing came to embrace, openly, a fundamentalist Christian life. In 1980 he published a law review article titled “Combating Official Corruption by All Available Means,” summarizing his own philosophy as a prosecutor by pointing to the Old Testament’s First Book of Samuel as a warning against public corruption: “And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.”
A state senator who spent two years in prison after being convicted by Ewing said, “If you were the president of the United States, or anyone else that Mr. Ewing was pursuing, I’d say you’re in great danger.” Before long, Ewing’s reputation took on a new dimension: He came to symbolize “Exhibit A” for those who viewed Starr’s office as a group of anti-Clinton prosecutorial zealots.
Ken Starr arranged to meet with Hick Ewing at the Sweet Pea Buffet (pronounced “boofay,” in proper Southern dialect) in the tiny Arkansas town of Brinkley. This spot was midway between Nashville and Little Rock, a propitious place to determine if they shared any common ground. As Ewing recalled the meeting: “We had lots of chicken and vegetables and barbecue and talked for about three hours and got acquainted.” Before they drove back to their respective home bases that night, Starr had offered Ewing a job “looking at everything” within the Whitewater orbit. For starters, Ewing would be “debriefing Webster Hubbell with an eye toward a plea deal.”
Ken