Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [444]
As fall leaves blew across the lawn of the stately Army and Navy Club in Northern Virginia, OIC lawyers and FBI agents and staff threw a “bittersweet” going-away party, paying tribute to the man who had endured a public savaging for their cause. Over two hundred guests packed the ballroom to watch a film about their boss’s five-year journey, followed by toasts and Hick Ewing’s presenting Ken with a red “Hog Head” hat (a popular Arkansas Razorbacks accessory). Taking a deep breath and holding Alice’s hand to maintain his composure, the departing independent counsel bade farewell to those who had never lost faith in their noble mission, a cheerfully determined smile on his face, yet an unmistakable look of sadness in his eyes.
ROBERT W. Ray threw down the Washington Post, livid that the story had leaked. Since replacing Ken Starr and assuming the mantle of independent counsel, charged with wrapping up a six-year investigation that had already cost the public $52 million, Ray had worked scrupulously to avoid any recurrence of bad publicity. The dark-haired, no-nonsense forty-year-old from New Jersey was a career prosecutor noted for keeping a low profile. Before joining Starr’s team in 1999 as senior litigation counsel, he had worked on Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz’s investigation of former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Up until this point, Ray had managed to avoid being splattered by mud in either investigation. Indeed, when the three-judge panel had selected Ray to replace Starr in the fall of 1999, Senior Circuit Judge Richard Cudahy, the lone Democrat on the panel, had noted with optimism: “There can be no more vital consideration than closure with all deliberate speed. Our selection of Robert Ray carries much promise.”
Now, the new special prosecutor seemed to be thrown into a mad house filled with leaks. On the night of August 17, 2000, CNN and other news sources had broken the story that Ray had empaneled a new grand jury to decide whether to indict Bill Clinton. The potential charges against Clinton involved perjuring himself in the Paula Jones deposition and obstructing justice to cover his tracks. The morning Post reported—correctly, it turned out—that Ray was weighing whether to indict Clinton as soon as the president turned in the keys to the White House.
This leak was particularly damaging because it had occurred just hours before Vice President Al Gore stepped to the podium to accept his party’s nomination for president at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles. One Clinton White House official stated scornfully, “The timing of this absolutely reeks.” Gore’s Republican opponent, Texas Governor George W. Bush, was already capitalizing on the news about a possible indictment. While on a campaign swing along the West Coast, Governor Bush—who had pledged “to restore honor and dignity” to the White House, along with his vice presidential running mate, Dick Cheney—called upon Vice President Gore to “emphatically state his disapproval of President Clinton’s sexual conduct in office.” Bush declared: “If Al Gore has got differences with the president, he ought to say them loud and clear.”
With a tight presidential race barreling toward the finish line, the latest “leak” was unwelcome news for Robert Ray and OIC. As Ray later conceded, sitting in his New Jersey law office, “It did some damage.”
It turned out, to Ray’s relief, that his office was not the culprit. Senior Judge Richard Cudahy, the token Democrat on the three-judge panel, had inadvertently let slip about the new grand jury in discussing “background” with the media.
It turned out