Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [356]
BOB Bittman walked into Ken Starr’s office and closed the door. The president’s appearance before the grand jury was now confirmed for August 17. There were two options: OIC could take a blood sample from Clinton in order to conduct a DNA test, and risk tipping off the president before he perjured himself further. Or Starr’s prosecutors could hold back on the DNA test until after Clinton had committed himself to a story under oath, maximizing their chances to catch him in another lie. Starr asked Bittman, “What is normally done?” Bittman, a former sex crimes prosecutor, replied, “It is normal to do the test. You do DNA analysis if it will assist in the investigation of the crime. You don’t wait.” Starr scratched his head and said, “We’re not going to play games.” Even though it might give Clinton a warning signal and allow him to avoid compounding his criminal problems, Starr opted to follow the rule book. They would take the sample immediately. True to his professional creed, Starr wanted to err on the side of showing respect for the chief executive. He directed Bittman, rather than subpoenaing Clinton for the blood sample, to see if the president would surrender his blood voluntarily.
It was as a result of this sequence of events that Bittman sent a letter to David Kendall via hand delivery, unknown even to other lawyers in OIC. “Investigative demands,” Bittman wrote, now required OIC to draw a blood sample from the president. Out of respect for the presidency, the independent counsel was willing to do this quietly. Within hours, Kendall fired back a reply: “We want to know what reason you have for the test. I don’t believe you have any basis …” Bittman called his bluff, citing chapter and verse of legal precedent and stating that OIC had a “powerful predication” for its request. Bittman wrote to the president’s lawyer: “If you want to challenge it, let me know and we will issue a subpoena.”
On Monday, Kendall sent an envelope marked “to be opened by Mr. Bittman only,” following up with a phone call communicating the same message. “Okay, we’ll do it,” he said. “The president has agreed to do it. It must be done tonight, at the White House, by a White House physician at ten o’clock.”
As the early August sun was slipping behind the Capitol, Bittman drove his green Dodge Stealth over to the White House, accompanied by a female FBI agent. They pulled up to the Northeast Gate, where a Secret Service agent led the pair into a darkened waiting area, then ushered them into the Map Room. It was the same room where the president had given his testimony in the Whitewater case for Jim and Susan McDougal, during his first brush with Starr’s office. Bill Clinton now stepped forward—he was already in the Map Room, awaiting them.
The president was dressed in a black tux, having ducked out of a formal dinner party for youth-violence experts. On this night, he didn’t want his guests—among them, Attorney General Reno—to know where he was headed. Extending his hand to greet his adversaries, the president chatted with the FBI agent, who produced two vials. Clinton said, “Okay, let’s get this going.” He sat down in a stiff chair and rolled up his sleeve, holding out his right arm. The White House physician, Eleanor Maricino, tightened a rubber strap around the president’s arm and felt gingerly for a vein. David Kendall, ill at ease, tried to make a joke: “Usually, it’s the lawyer who bleeds for the client,” he said. Clinton shot a sizzling glance at his lawyer. He then focused on the needle being inserted into his vein. Four milliliters of deep red blood were extracted.
The White House physician filled two vials. Recalled Bittman: “I watched very closely, to make sure there was no switch. It was given immediately to the FBI agent. The only people who touched it were the White House physician and the FBI agent.” As they were escorted out of the Map Room through the darkened corridor to the exit, Bittman whispered, “I watched closely, but for one moment, ever so slightly, I couldn’t tell.” The FBI agent assured him: