Vanity: Two Words: Henry Cisneros

Indicted on 18 felony counts similiar to Libby's. In a plea agreement, he plead guilty to lying to FBI (misdemeanor), fined $10,000.

CNN's 1997 Cast of Characters

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/gen/resources/infocus/whitewater/cast3.html
¤ A - C ¤ D - K ¤ L - Z ¤

Jim Leach Leach, an Iowa House Republican, accused the RTC of stonewalling on Whitewater documents in March 1994 during a floor speech. In July 1995, as the new chairman of the House Banking committee, Leach led a new set of House hearings into White House-Treasury contacts which featured Jean Lewis' dramatic allegations of administration interference.

Jean Lewis Formerly on the Resolution Trust Corporation team investigating Whitewater and Madison, Lewis resigned after telling House lawmakers there was "a concerted effort to obstruct, hamper, and manipulate the results of our investigation of Madison" by top RTC officials. Testifying under oath, Lewis said her superiors at RTC altered criminal referrals she prepared.

[] Bruce Lindsey A longtime Arkansas associate, Lindsey attended Georgetown University with Bill Clinton and came to the White House where he has functioned a top if somewhat inconspicuous political advisor. He became noticed more after Starr named him an unindicted co-conspirator in the second Whitewater trial, on allegations Lindsey arranged meetings between then-Gov. Clinton and Arkansas banker Robert Hill, one of the defendants.

[] James McDougal Bill and Hillary Clinton Whitewater partner, McDougal was convicted in the first Whitewater trial of essentially using his now-defunct savings and loan, Madison Guaranty, as a piggy bank for his various business schemes, among them the Whitewater land development. After being convicted on 18 felony counts, McDougal began to cooperate with Starr's investigation in August 1996 in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. Initially facing 84 years, he was sentenced to a three-year term. McDougal died March 8, 1998 of an apparent heart attack while incarerated at a Bureau of Prisons medical facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

[] Susan McDougal Convicted along with her former husband James and former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, Mrs. McDougal was sentenced to two years in prison for her Whitewater crimes but was slapped with another 18 months' worth of contempt of court sentence after refusing to testify before Starr's Little Rock federal grand jury. In numerous jailhouse interviews, Mrs. McDougal has said Starr is unscrupulously pursuing Clinton for partisan ends. Still to come for Susan: she'll stand trial on charges she embezzled from her former employer, conductor Zubin Mehta.

[] Mack McLarty Former White House chief of staff, McLarty denied Hillary Clinton was behind the firing of the White House travel office staff, though his notes cited "HRC pressure" regarding Travelgate. In a letter to Kenneth Starr, House Government Reform and Oversight chairman William Clinger (now retired) said McLarty may have committed perjury regarding Travelgate and the FBI files matter. McLarty was named by Clinton as special envoy to the Americas last December.

[] Bernard Nussbaum Hillary Clinton's former boss on the Senate Watergate Committee, Nussbaum joined the Clinton Administration as White House counsel. He reluctantly resigned over allegations of improper contact with officials investigating the Clinton's involvement with the failed Madison Guaranty. Nussbaum was subsequently ensnared in the FBI files flap, and Starr is following up on a Republican congressional report which said Nussbaum may have perjured himself to hide an "aggressive damage-control operation" that obscured the involvement of top adminstration officials.
[]

Charles Ruff -- Becoming President Clinton's fifth White House counsel in January, Ruff, a former Watergate prosecutor, took over the job from Jack Quinn who resigned in December 1996. Ruff is expected to argue before the Supreme Court that Hillary Clinton's Whitewater notes, taken by former White House deputy counsel Jane Sherburne, fall under the attorney-client privilege and should not be turned over to Kenneth Starr. Ruff has been threatened with a contempt of Congress citation unless he turns over certain fund-raising documents under subpoena.

[] Paul Sarbanes A Democratic senator from Maryland, Sarbanes was the ranking member of the Senate Whitewater Committee. He and his Democratic colleagues concluded the Clintons and their associates had not engaged in any wrongdoing.

[] Kenneth Starr Formerly the solicitor general for President George Bush, Starr replaced New York attorney Robert Fiske as independent counsel in August 1994. Though he has had a reputation for fairness, Starr, a Republican, has been buffeted by critics who say he is motivated by politics. Starr may not have helped his image by maintaining private clients with interests opposed to the Clinton Administration, and by addressing conservative groups during the last 18 months. Perhaps even more damaging was his flip-flop in mid-February when, after word leaked he had accepted the deanship of Pepperdine law school, he reversed himself four days later and promised to remain with the investigation.

[] Josh Steiner -- Formerly Treasury chief of staff at the tender age of 28, Steiner essentially told Senate investigars he had lied to his diary, which said Clinton "was furious" at Roger Altman's decision to recuse himself. "Persuaded George [Stephanopoulos] that firing him [the RTC investigator] would be incredibly stupid and improper," the notes read. "I wish that my diary was more accurate," Steiner told incredulous Republicans and sympathetic Democrats.

[] Susan Thomases A close friend and former Children's Defense Fund colleague of Hillary Clinton, Thomases, a New York corporate attorney, was brought on to help the Clintons respond to Whitewater inquiries in 1992. Senate Whitewater investigators grilled her on the handling of the contents of Vincent Foster's office immediately following his death, and, citing 184 instances where she claimed memory lapse, referred Thomases to Kenneth Starr for possible criminal prosecution.

[] Jim Guy Tucker Convicted of bank fraud in the first Whitewater trial, Tucker resigned as Arkansas governor shortly after the verdict came down May 28, 1996. He was sentenced to four years' probation and probably escaped jail time because of his failing liver. But he got a transplanted liver in December 1996, and once he has recuperated, Tucker faces another trial in September, on charges that he obscured profits from a lucrative cable TV deal.

[] Maggie Williams Formerly the first lady's chief of staff, Williams was grilled by Senate Whitewater investigators on whether she shepherded documents out of Vincent Foster's office the night he died. Williams volunteered for and passed two lie detector tests backing up her statements, and though Senate Whitewater investigators were suspicious, they did not refer Williams to Kenneth Starr for possible criminal investigation.

(Sources: published accounts in The Washington Weekly)
Copyright (c) 1996 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com)

LIST OF ALLEGED CRIMES IN THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION June 24, 1996

For several years, the Washington Weekly has published a compiled list of alleged crimes in the Clinton administration. Current events quickly make the list incomplete, necessitating updates. The list, now including 33 Clinton appointees, is by no means exhaustive, but does include activities before taking office.

BILL CLINTON

(1) Used State Police for personal purposes.

(2) Directed State Police to fabricate incriminating evidence

against a political opponent: Terry Reed.

(3) Conspired with David Hale and Jim McDougal to defraud the

Small Business Administration.

(4) Was complicit in the shipment of drugs through Arkansas.

(5) Allowed laudering of drug money through ADFA.

(6) Appointed and protected Arkansas Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak

who repeatedly obstructed justice by declaring murders as

"suicides" or "accidents."

(7) Has never accounted for his actions during 40 days behind the

Iron Curtain during the Vietnam War.

(8) Tipped off Governor Tucker about upcoming criminal referral.

(9) Violated Arkansas campaign finance laws.

(10) Violated his oath ofoffice to uphold the Constitution by

signing into law an ex post facto law, a retroactive tax

increase.

(11) Fired RTC chiefAlbert Casey to allow his friend Roger

Altman to monitor and block Whitewater investigations.

(12) Fired FBI director William Sessions to prevent an

autonomous FBI from investigating the Foster suicide and from

resisting cooperation in the Filegate operation.

(13) Fired all U.S. Attorneys to appoint Paula Casey to prevent

Judge David Hale from testifying against Clinton.

(14) Offered State Troopers federal jobs in return for their

silence about Clinton's crimes.

(15) Blocked Justice Department indictments after Inspector

General Sherman Funk found "criminal violations of the Privacy

Act provable beyond reasonable doubt" when former Bush employee

files were searched and leaked to the press.

(16) Appointed friend and now-convicted felon Webster Hubbell to

number 3 position in Justice Department in order to be able to

block Whitewater criminal referrals.

(17) Blocked the criminal trial of Representative Ford, a

Tennessee Democrat.

(18) Appointed a campaign activist to head the Commodity Futures

Trading Commission, without the mandated "advice and consent" of

the Senate, to derail a probe of his and Hillary's financial

dealings.

Bill Clinton is under investigation by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

HILLARY CLINTON

(1) Took a $100,000 bribe, camouflaged as futures trades,

from Tyson Foods Inc.

(2) Speculated in Health Care industry futures while overseeing

legislative reform of same.

(3) Failed to correct false testimony by co-defendant Ira

Magaziner in Health Care trial.

(4) Obstructed justice by ordering the shredding of Vince

Foster's documents in the Rose Law Firm.

(5) Ordered members of the Health Care Task Force to shred

documents that were the target of a court probe.

(6) Ordered the removal of documents from Vince Foster's office.

(7) Told aides to lie about their removal of documents from

Foster's office

(8) Obstructed justice by keeping her billing records, a document

sought under subpoena, in the White House residence.

(9) Lied to investigators about her knowledge about billing

records.

(10) Lied to investigators about her involvement in the Castle

Grande land flip con.

(11) Ordered the use of the FBI to discredit Travel Office

employees.

(12) Lied to investigators about her involvement in the firing of

Travel Office Employees.

IRA MAGAZINER, Hillary Clinton Senior Advisor

(1) Violated federal law when he held Health Care Task Force

Meetings in secret and refused to release documents

(2) Lied in court about the composition of the Health Care

Task Force.

U.S. Attorney Eric Holder found insufficient evidence for indictment of Ira Magaziner.

BERNARD NUSSBAUM, Former White House Counsel

(1) Obstructed justice in the Foster suicide investigation by

blocking access, removing documents, lying about his removal of

documents, and by retrieving Foster's pager from Park Police.

(2) Attempted to quash a Whitewater investigation at the RTC

through White House liaisons.

Nussbaum has resigned and is under investigation for lying to Congress.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, Senior Advisor

(1) Took a $600,000 loan below market interest and with

insufficient collateral from Nations Bank, a bank having business

before the Clinton Administration.

(2) Lied to Congress during Whitewater hearings.

(3) Attempted to have Whitewater investigator Jay Stephens at the

RTC fired.

MIKE ESPY, Former Agriculture Secretary

(1) Took bribes from Tyson Foods Inc., which was under regulatory

control of his Agriculture Department.

Espy has resigned and is under investigation by a Special Counsel

ROGER ALTMAN, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury

(1) Lied to Congress during Whitewater hearings. (2) Lied to Congress about having lied to Congress. (3) Instructed Ellen Kulka and Jack Ryan at the RTC to block the Whitewater investigation by L. Jean Lewis.

Roger Altman was forced to resign.

RON BROWN, Former Commerce Secretary

(1) Has taken bribes from almost everybody. Says it is part of

the way Washington works. The allegations are too numerous

and complicated to be detailed here.

Ron Brown was still under investigation by an Independent Counsel when he died in a plane crash in 1996. The investigation continues.

LES ASPIN, Former Secretary of Defense

(1) Through criminal negligence was responsible for the death

of Army Rangers in Somalia. Has never been held accountable

in public hearings.

Les Aspin has resigned and is deceased.

WILLIAM KENNEDY, DAVID WATKINS, PATSY THOMASSON:

(1) Fabricated charges against White House Travel Office

personnel to have the business taken over by Clinton friends.

(2) Coerced FBI and IRS agents into complicity with this

scheme.

Kennedy and Watkins have resigned.

CATHERINE CORNELIUS, Travel Office employee

(1) Removed documents from White House Travel Office.

Because those documents later became the subject ofa trial

against Office Director Billy Dale, that could amount to

obstruction ofjustice.

PATSY THOMASSON, Director of White House Administration

(1) Lied to Congress about the composition of the Health Care Task Force and the size of its budget. (2) Obstructed justice when she removed documents from the office of Vince Foster.
MARGARET WILLIAMS, Chief of Staff to the First Lady

(1) Obstructed justice when she removed documents from the office

of Vince Foster.

(2) Lied to Congress about removing those documents.

Maggy Williams is under investigation by Independent Counsel.
JOSHUA STEINER, Treasury Department Employee.

(1) Lied to Congress about conversations with White House

personnel about the RTC. (He also lied to his diary, but that is

not a crime.)

Joshua Steiner has resigned.

LLOYD CUTLER, Former White House Counsel

(1) Lied to Congress about the contents of redacted documents.

(2) Attempted to withhold vital information from Congress, a

felony.

(3) Obtained a confidential Treasury report and showed it to

witnesses before they testified before Congress in the Whitewater

in 1970. Has never been indicted for this crime which was similar to what the

Watergate Plumbers spent time in jail for.

BRUCE LINDSEY, Senior Advisor

(1) As treasurer for the Clinton gubernatorial campaign in

1990, he signed withdrawals from Peny County Bank, the president

of which has pled guilty to conspiring to conceal these

withdrawals from the IRS and FEC.

Bruce Lindsey is an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the owners of Perry County Bank.

MARIAN BENETT, USIA Inspector General

(1) Covered up credit-card fraud by USIA Inspector General staff.

FEDERICO PENA, Secretary of Transportation

(1) State and federal contracts were awarded to companies in

which he had a financial interest.

The Justice Department found insufficient evidence to appoint

a Special Counsel.

HENRY CISNEROS, Secretary of HUD

(1) Lied to the FBI about payments to former lover.

Under investigation by Special Counsel.

JANET RENO, Attorney General

(1) Fabricated charges of child molestation against the Branch

Davidians in Waco, Texas.

(2) Ordered the use of military equipment against citizens of

the United States

(3) Ordered the use of chemical agents against citizens of the

United States.

ROBERT REICH, Secretary of Labor

(1) Lied to Congress when he wrote that there were no memos

circulating in the Labor Department instructing staffto gather

political material against the Contract with America. Such memos

were later published. Under investigation by Congress.

DONNA SHALALA, Secretary of Health and Human Services

(1) As Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison

instituted speech codes which were found to be unconstitutional

in federal court. Instituted thought police star chamber proceed

-ings to drive politically incorrect people off campus.

CAROL BROWNER, EPA Administrator

(1) Used the EPA to campaign against Republicans running on

the Contract with America, an illegal use of the executive

branch for political campaigning.

Carol Browner is under investigation by Congress.

ROBERTA ACHTENBERG, Former Assitant Secretary of HUD

(1) Violated the First Amendment when she ordered HUD

lawyers to silence citizens who spoke out against planned

housing projects.

(2) Exceeded her authority when she had HUD staff threaten

Allentown County to withdraw an "Use of English language

encouraged" ordinance.

Roberta Achtenberg resigned to run for Mayor of San Francisco, a

race which she lost.

DEVAL PATRICK, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

(1) Used extortion to force banks to give preferential

treatment to minorities.

Congress is investigating the possibility of impeachment based on

abuse of power.

BRUCE BABBIT, Secretary of the Interior

(1) Paid a penalty for violating campaign finance laws during his

1988 presidential campaign.

HAZEL O'LEARY, Energy Secretary

(1) Abused taxpayer money for extravagant travels around the

world.

Hazel O'Leary is under investigation by Congress.

WILLIAM PERRY, Secretary of Defense

(1) Intervened in a Chinese trade deal on behalf of a business

partner.

CRAIG LIVINGSTONE, Chief of White House Security

(1) Was seen carrying a box from Foster's office the morning

after Vince Foster died.

(2) Ordered confidential FBI background files on Hillary

Clinton's political enemies, a violation of the privacy act.

Craig Livingstone is currently on paid leave and has been unable to

pass FBI criminal background checks, and the White House has

admitted that 11 unnamed White House staffers have had recent

drug use. Unsubstantiated allegations of murder, treason,

and conspiracy have been omitted from the above list.

In light of this record, it is appropriate to mention those Clinton Cabinet Secretaries who are not under investigation and have never had criminal allegations raised against them:

RICHARD RILEY, Secretary of Education
WARREN CHRISTOPHER, Secretary of State

When do we get to hear what resulted from ,the mega-expensive, Cisneros investigation? This being the one that Kerry and Kennedy want to keep under wraps

Very very soon! Heres your answer:

Finally, A Decision on the Barrett Report
After years of fighting, a court orders its release.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Late yesterday, Byron York reported that the court which oversees independent counsel David Barrett has ordered the release of Barrett's report on the Henry Cisneros investigation. The report has been finished since August 2004, but some Clinton-era officials, apparently worried that the report would cast them in a negative light, have filed a number of secret motions with the court to delay its release. Yesterday, after Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley asked the court for a copy, the judges issued a decision that would release part of the report to the public, and all of the report to Congress. For those who might be a little fuzzy on the details of Barrett's ten-year investigation, Byron looked into the matter in the June 2, 2003, issue of National Review:

Remember Henry Cisneros? Of course; he was the once-rising Democratic star who became Bill Clinton's first secretary of housing and urban development. Here's a tougher one: Remember Linda Medlar? In case you've forgotten, she was Cisneros's mistress — the woman at the center of the scandal that brought him down.

Now the bonus question. Remember David Barrett? Unless you follow such things very, very closely, you probably won't be able to recall that he was the independent counsel appointed to investigate the Cisneros case. Barrett was sworn in on May 24, 1995, to investigate allegations that Cisneros lied to the FBI about payments he had made to Medlar. The Barrett investigation reached its peak over four years later, on September 7, 1999, when Cisneros pled guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay a $10,000 fine.

What few people realize is that, nearly four years after achieving the main objective of his investigation, Barrett is still in business today. Now writing his final report, Barrett was still working on live, investigative matters until only a few months ago. His report will likely be finished by the end of the year, a testament either to the corruption of the Clinton administration or to the lunacy of the independent-counsel law. Or, perhaps, both.

The only notice the public has had that Barrett is still going has been a series of audits by the General Accounting Office. These audits are required by the independent-counsel statute (which has, of course, expired, though existing investigations like Barrett's were allowed to continue). The most recent audit, covering the six-month period that ended on September 30, 2002, showed that Barrett's office spent $1,019,438 during those months — $502,696 for salaries and benefits, $266,450 for rent and utilities, $146,695 for investigators and expert consultants, $82,970 for "administrative services" (a fee the independent counsel pays to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts), $18,643 for travel, and $1,984 for office supplies.

In papers filed at the time with the three-judge panel that oversees his office, Barrett estimated that he would spend another $1 million in the next six months, the period ending on March 31 of this year. That means his investigation is spending money at a rate of $2 million per year; the total cost for his eight years of work is estimated at $19 million.

All of which inevitably raises the question of whether Barrett's work is worth the expense. What is he investigating? And why has he done it for so many years?

The answers are cloaked in prosecutorial secrecy. But we know that Barrett, originally assigned to examine the Cisneros/Medlar payoffs, twice received permission from the panel to expand his investigation. By March 1997, Barrett was conducting — in the words of one of the judges overseeing independent counsels — "an apparently wide-ranging probe of government officials who might, in [Barrett's] view, have sought to shield Mr. Cisneros."

At issue, apparently, was the Internal Revenue Service and Cisneros's tax records. In October 2000, the Wall Street Journal reported that, as early as 1997, Barrett "had wanted to look into allegations that Mr. Cisneros failed to report income from speeches. Investigators suspected that Mr. Cisneros had signed over checks from speaking engagements to his mistress." But the Clinton Justice Department moved in to limit Barrett's access to Cisneros's tax records.

A legal fight ensued.

And that's about all that has been reported. Nevertheless, from discussions with people who have some knowledge of the situation, a bit more can be said. It is true that Barrett's expanded investigation involved a look at the IRS and the Justice Department. Apparently, the office of independent counsel felt it had a serious and credible whistleblower with information about alleged efforts to protect Cisneros and other political figures — and to stymie the Barrett probe. What followed was essentially hand-to-hand combat between Barrett's office and the Clinton Justice Department, as Barrett sought more information and the department fought to keep it from him. That situation continued beyond the 2000 election, with Republicans in control of the Justice Department, until Barrett finally gave up.

According to papers made public in March, Barrett told the court that his office had "ceased all investigative and prosecutorial activities and does not intend to initiate any others." (He evidently made that decision sometime between last September and March, but exactly when is not clear.) Barrett further told the court that his primary remaining responsibility was writing the final report of his investigation.

That report could be quite controversial. Some people familiar with the situation believe the Justice Department barred Barrett from investigating things that, in the words of one source, "cried out to be investigated." This would include actions by the Justice Department itself — and the report may say so. "The Department of Justice is incapable of investigating itself, and you can carve that in granite," says the source. (A current official at Justice insists, "Nobody here was attempting to protect the Clinton administration from an investigation.")

It could be that Barrett was overreaching. Certainly one of the three federal judges who oversee his office has expressed serious reservations. In court papers filed in June 2001, Judge Richard Cudahy wrote that "whether a cost-benefit analysis at this point would support Mr. Barrett's efforts is a question to which I have no answer." But Cudahy added that the judges could do almost nothing to stop Barrett. "The [independent counsel] law literally construed may be that Mr. Barrett can go on forever," Cudahy wrote, "so long as he claims or shows active grand jury activity, no matter how unpromising. Who is to contradict his evaluation that what he is doing is full of promise?"

It should be noted that Cudahy is a Carter appointee who sometimes made trouble for independent counsels investigating the Clinton administration. In 1999, he voted (unsuccessfully) to shut down the Kenneth Starr investigation, and in 2000 he leaked information that then-independent counsel Robert Ray had started a new grand-jury probe into whether Bill Clinton could be indicted after he left office. (Cudahy later apologized for "inadvertently" releasing the information.)

Still, Cudahy has raised legitimate questions. Barrett will have to present some very good reasons for conducting such a long investigation, especially one whose primary goal was achieved in September 1999, when Cisneros pled guilty. It could be that Barrett is right — even Cudahy conceded that the "continuation of Mr. Barrett's efforts may indeed justify these lavish expenditures if there is any prospect of unearthing skullduggery by officials to help Mr. Cisneros."

When Barrett hands in his final report, the three-judge panel will have to decide whether to release it publicly. If there was ever a case in which the public had a right to know how its money has been spent and how its prosecutors have exercised their power, this is it. Maybe the investigation was a wild goose chase. If so, the public should know about it. But if the Justice Department obstructed a legitimate inquiry, the public should know that, too. Reputations are at stake — maybe more than just David Barrett's.

— Byron York, NR's White House correspondent, is the author of the new book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President — and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time.

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Finally, A Decision on the Barrett ReportAfter years of fighting, a court orders its release.

Finally, A Decision on the Barrett Report
After years of fighting, a court orders its release.