Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [478]
Johnson went on to win: Jim Johnson, interview by author.
Hale was also a financier: Conason and Lyons, The Hunting of the President, 87–88; Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy, 64.
Hale scratched: Jim Johnson, interview by author.
Johnson had pounced: Clinton, My Life, 159–60.
“queer-mongering”: Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, 75.
asking the colonel to write: Clinton, My Life, 388; Jim Johnson, interview by author.
Johnson passed along: Jim Johnson, interview by author.
As usual, Johnson hit: Jim Johnson, follow up interview by author. Justice Johnson also contacted Floyd Brown and David Bossie, with whom he had worked on the “Slick Willie” publication, and they saturated the media with phone calls and press packets (Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, 78–80).
The Hale story was swiftly picked: Ibid., 75; Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy, 66.
Even if Hale: Jim Johnson, interview by author.
“I’ve got a back”: Jim Johnson, follow-up interview by author; Conason and Lyons, The Hunting of the President, 90.
“Oh, he was trying”: Bill Clinton, interview by author.
Their first line of attack: Paula Casey, interview by author.
It was through: Ibid. Initially, the case was assigned to Don MacKay, a career DOJ prosecutor in the Frauds Section. It was then passed off to Robert Fiske (ibid.).
Fiske’s book: Fiske Final Report/Madison, 4, 15, 49. Governor Tucker’s cable company had merged with a Texas shell corporation.
Prosecutor Bill Duffey: William S. Duffey, Jr., interview by author.
The Hubbell scandal had blown: Marie Brenner, “The Price of Loyalty,” Vanity Fair, June 2001, 182.
Now Hubbell had been caught: Fiske Final Report/Madison, 41–43. Hubbell had written out checks drawn on the law firm’s bank accounts and then used these funds for personal spending sprees. Hubbell’s law partners, it turned out, had confronted him about these billing irregularities even before he was confirmed as associate attorney general. They had given him the chance to “just write a check [for thirty thousand dollars or so] and resolve it.” Again, in the winter of 1994, a group of partners went to see Hubbell and threatened to report the misconduct to the state bar association for disciplinary action if he did not make restitution. Hubbell denied the charges, shaking his index finger at his accusers as if he was untouchable. (Brenner, “The Price of Loyalty,” 229).
“I can give you”: Brenner, “The Price of Loyalty,” 228; Webster Hubbell, interview by author.
“the distractions on me”: Jane Fullerton and Terry Lemons, “Distractions Drive Hubbell to Quit,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 15 Mar. 1994, A1.
As new evidence trickled: Newspaper re ports had indicated that the firm was investigating such irregularities in early March, and in April a confidential witness informed Fiske’s office about such overbilling in connection with OIC’s routine investigation of work that Hubbell had performed for Madison Guaranty. See Fiske Final Report/Madison, 41, 43.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported: Noel Oman, “Law Partners Plan Action on Hubbell,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 16 Mar. 1994, A1.
a “personal setback”: David Johnston, “Clinton Associate Quits Justice Post as Pressure Rises,” New York Times, 15 Mar. 1994, A1. Regarding the poor timing because of other attacks on the Clintons, see Letter of Resignation of Bernard W. Nussbaum to President Bill Clinton and Letter Accepting Resignation by President Bill Clinton, March 5, 1994, “The Whitewater Inquiry; Text of Resignation Letter and Reply,” New York Times, 6 Mar. 1994. Regarding the alleged improper contacts with the Treasury Department, see Woodward, Shadow, 243–47.
reports surfaced: Brenner, “The Price of Loyalty,” 229. According to Fiske’s Final Report/Madison, two Rose Law Firm couriers gave interviews stating that they had each shredded a portion of a box of documents that had belonged to Vince Foster, with the initials “VWF” on the boxes, in January 1994. However, neither of these individuals recalled seeing or destroying anything relating to Whitewater. After conducting thirty-nine