Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [451]
Instead, as inauguration day approached, it was George W. Bush who was getting suited up for the gala balls in Washington rather than Vice President Gore. That, however, was none of Ray’s concern. As the special prosecutor counted down Clinton’s final days in office, waiting to make a move with respect to the outgoing president, his sole focus was on whether to indict Bill Clinton the moment he vacated the executive mansion.
In a final twist never known to the Justice Department or the White House, the FBI and OIC made a last-ditch effort to bring down Bill Clinton during the concluding days of his presidency. In early January, Special Agent Jennifer D. Gant contacted former Secret Service Director Lew Merletti, who had recently retired and moved to Cleveland. Agent Gant “invited” the former USSS director to meet with her and OIC representatives in Washington to discuss the topic of Monica Lewinsky.
Agent Gant formalized her invitation by delivering a subpoena, directing Merletti to appear before the grand jury on January 18, just two days before President Clinton was scheduled to vacate his office. Thoroughly baffled, Merletti returned to D.C., reporting to FBI headquarters where he walked into a conference room occupied by two associate independent counsels, an investigator, and the agent who convened this gathering.
Gant cut to the chase. She told Merletti: “There’s only one person left who can give us the president of the United States. And that’s you. And we know that you were involved in a conspiracy with him, and we want to hear it today.”
Merletti would later say that he was insulted and appalled by this effort to have him confess to a non existent conspiracy. “I’ve been in the Secret Service for close to twenty-five years,” he said later. “I was a polygraph examiner for five years.… I’d interviewed no less than a thousand criminal suspects.” As Merletti sat and listened to Special Agent Gant engage in “child’s play” in an effort to ensnare him, his blood slowly began to boil. “I mean, I listened to her questioning and she knew nothing of basic interview techniques. I mean she knew nothing.”
As Merletti recalled these events, Gant went as far as to insinuate that Merletti had been involved in a cover-up with President Clinton. Merletti stared back across the table; the FBI agent proceeded to spell out her theory, suggesting that Merletti “was protecting the president because I wanted to become the director,” and that “the president was getting me women and that that was part of the bargain.” As the retired Secret Service director tightened his jaw to contain his anger, Agent Gant next intimated “that I put [Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton] together” for trysts, and that “I knew the whole story and that I was going to stonewall Ken Starr on this entire issue.”
Jennifer Gant recalled making no such accusation. She had been a street agent with the FBI for ten years; her specialty was handling major white-collar crime investigations. As she saw it, her job was to “wrap up loose ends” before President Clinton left office. She later stated: “My overall feeling was, ‘I’m an FBI agent. I’m law enforcement. We both have badges. You know why I’m asking the questions. If you answer truthfully, we’re done.’”
Gant finally proposed a deal for the former director: If he would “admit that the president was involved in this conspiracy,” according to Merletti’s version of the conversation, Clinton alone would be charged criminally; Merletti would be permitted to walk away scot-free.
Years later, Merletti remembered the unpleasant session, a vein in his neck starting to bulge as he spoke: “She had a preconceived story, and she was trying to get my answers to fit her preconceived story.” It was apparent to Merletti that his “colleagues” in the FBI