Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [189]
Years later, having been appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the federal bench in Washington, Bates would remain close-lipped about the details of this controversial OIC case. Yet he did make clear that Jackie Bennett was not acting like a partisan lunatic in weighing his options. “He was being very deliberate and cautious,” recalled Bates. “I shared the perspective that there was a need for caution.” At the same time, both men agreed if there was a link to their existing investigation, OIC “couldn’t simply close the door on it.”
Bates gave one final piece of advice to Bennett before they left a few dollars on the table to pay for their sodas. “Watch it,” he told his friend.
When Jackie Bennett finally received a return call from Ken Starr in Colorado, he closed his office door and spoke cautiously into the receiver. “Listen, something’s come up,” Bennett told his boss. “When are you coming back? What are your flight times?” Starr asked his deputy if there was a problem. “Information has come to us,” Bennett stated cryptically. The phone line was not secure; the Indiana prosecutor was not taking any chances. Starr could discern from the tone of Bennett’s voice that something was up. He told his deputy, “Fine. We’ll assess it.” Starr was planning to return home on Sunday afternoon. They would meet first thing Monday morning, to discuss the matter in a confidential setting.
Paul Rosenzweig spent much of the weekend putting the finishing touches on a fifty-page memorandum summarizing OIC’s potential criminal case against Bill and Hillary Clinton in the Whitewater/Madison Guaranty matter. After signing his initials “p.s.r.” to the memo and placing it on Starr’s desk, he spent a pleasant Sunday attending his regular Tai Chi class and relaxing with his wife. It would be the last day of rest he would have for a year, as a result of events that he himself had set into motion.
“I had absolutely no idea what was coming on Monday,” Rosenzweig said later. “It’s amazing from what a small acorn what a large tree grew.”
ON Monday morning, Ken Starr was briefed on Rosenzweig’s unusual tip from Philadelphia. All of the prosecutors seated around the conference table agreed that the information was directly relevant to their investigation. First, there was the smell of “hush money.” There was also the presence of Vernon Jordan, meaning that “the same people were involved.” The only stumbling block related to PR issues. The OIC prosecutors had been burned, big-time, by Bob Woodward’s story a year ago portraying them as rabid sex police. If they followed this lead, would it be viewed as another effort to “look into the president’s sex life”? There was a general feeling in the room, like, “Well, geez, if Vernon’s buying other people’s silence, that’s something that’s relevant.” In the end, the Starr prosecutors voted to tell the mystery witness to come forward. They should see where the evidence led them.
Jackie Bennett reiterated that Paul Rosenzweig would have to “bring it in the front door.” The unseen witness would have to contact OIC directly. She would have to lay out the facts herself so that the prosecutors could evaluate them. There would be no more shadowy friends in Philadelphia acting as go-betweens, no more “back-door stuff.”
Rosenzweig shuffled down the hall to his office, where he telephoned Jerome Marcus in Philadelphia and conveyed the message from the top brass: “It may be in our jurisdiction; I still don’t know. If the witness wants to, she’s got to come in the front door.” Marcus replied excitedly, “Who should she call?” Rosenzweig told his friend, “She should call Jackie Bennett directly.” He gave Marcus a direct-dial telephone number. With that, Rosenzweig hung up the phone and went back to work, happy to