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Whitewater Prosecutors Were Poised to Indict Hillary
NEWSMAX ^ | 3/21/02 | Limbacher

Posted on 03/22/2002 7:02:44 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection

The final Whitewater report released by the Office of Independent Counsel on Wednesday said prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to indict and convict either Bill or Hillary Clinton on charges stemming from the legendary failed land deal.

But that wasn't always the case.

In fact, just how close Mrs. Clinton came to prosecution was a well-guarded secret until May 2000, when a book by the Washington Post's Sue Schmidt and Time magazine's Michael Weisskopf blew the lid off a planned Hillary indictment.

Before the death of key Whitewater witness James McDougal, deputy independent counsel Hickman Ewing had actually prepared a draft indictment of the former first lady - and was considering submitting it to a Little Rock grand jury. Prosecutors believed the case would stick as long as McDougal was still around to testify in court.

In their book "Truth at any Cost," Schmidt and Weisskopf report that on April 27, 1998, Ewing assembled his team of prosecutors to decide whether to prosecute Hillary.

"[Ewing] paced the room for more than three hours, recalling facts from memory in his distinctive Memphis twang. He spoke passionately, laying out a case that the first lady had obstructed government investigators and made false statements about her legal work for McDougal's S&L, particularly the thrift's notorious multimillion-dollar Castle Grande real estate project."

However, as Schmidt and Weisskopf report, Ewing's case against the first lady had a giant hole in it.

"The biggest problem was the death a month earlier of Jim McDougal," the reporters said. "Without him, prosecutors would have a hard time describing the S&L dealings they suspected Hillary Clinton had lied about."

In the end, it wasn't so much "insufficient evidence" that spared Mrs. Clinton the ignominy of becoming the only first lady ever to stand trial for criminal conduct, as it was the propitious (for her) jailhouse death of McDougal, which came, ironically, six years to the day after the New York Times broke the original Whitewater story, on March 8, 1992.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: cleanolympics; clintonscandals; hillary; whitewater
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1 posted on 03/22/2002 7:02:44 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection
How convenient.
2 posted on 03/22/2002 7:11:59 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection
Shoulda!

Woulda!

Coulda!

Didn't!

Now I'm-a gunna run for Senate!

Robert Ray has become the Jar Jar Binks of the Whitewater tale.

3 posted on 03/22/2002 7:12:40 AM PST by Vladiator
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection
This is old news but to reiterate, isn't it funny how people with incriminating info on the Clintons so conveniently die. Jim McDougal died one day before he was to testify.
4 posted on 03/22/2002 7:12:50 AM PST by drypowder
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
McDougal = Arkancide. Read his book, it is excellent!!!!
5 posted on 03/22/2002 7:37:02 AM PST by buffyt
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To: buffyt
BUMP!!!!!!!
6 posted on 03/22/2002 7:58:56 AM PST by BeAlert
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection ;doug from upland
ping
7 posted on 03/22/2002 8:01:06 AM PST by murdoog
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection
This business about Ewing being ready to indict either of the Clintons is bogus. Maybe Ewing WANTED to indict them. But he didn't because he couldn't. And the idea that Ewing WOULD have indicted one or both of them had McDougal not died is equally bogus.

Starr had nothing on Clinton except the testimony of Jim McDougal and David Hale, two sleazy convicted felons and lifelong shysters, both of whom were facing long jail terms and whose only hope was cutting a deal with the OIC. Obviously, such testimony would be too tainted for a jury to believe.

That was where Susan McDougal came in. Starr needed her to verify McDougal's new, post-conviction story, figuring that if Hale and both McDougals all told the same story, it would be enough for a grand jury to indict and a regular jury to convict. Which it probably would have been.

That's why breaking Susan McDougal was so important to the OIC. Susan has repeatedly said that she was told she could walk free at any time, provided she would promise to testify falsely against the Clintons. But she went to jail rather than do so. And with her went Ewing's only chance to formally successfully accuse (albeit falsely) the Clintons of wrongdoing.

Hence the "draft" indcitment Ewing drew up was nothing but wishful thinking. There was never any evidence to base it on except the perjured testimony of two desperate, already convicted perjurers. He needed Susan McDougal to make it fly, and he never got her.

8 posted on 03/22/2002 8:06:08 AM PST by Truebador
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To: Truebador
I don't agree with you. I met Lucianne Goldberg, Barbara Olson, LD Brown, Gary Aldrich - and I believe THEM - the Clintons were as guilty as the day is long.
9 posted on 03/22/2002 8:11:36 AM PST by buffyt
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To: buffyt
Do you suspect that

HILLARY HAD
JIM McDOUGAL
MURDERED

????

Somehow I do.

10 posted on 03/22/2002 8:14:34 AM PST by SerpentDove
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To: Truebador
You point out a legal delimma and your argument has the same delimma. If 3 people commit a crime, two are convicted and the third is being investigated, how do you make a case without the two slimy ones you already convicted. Nature of the neast. How would you get the godfather, if the criminal underbosses don't roll over?
11 posted on 03/22/2002 8:16:36 AM PST by breakem
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To: Truebador
Oh, so you still believe the Clintons.

Hope it didn't hurt too much falling off that turnip truck.

12 posted on 03/22/2002 8:17:28 AM PST by SerpentDove
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To: buffyt

Maybe so, but proving it in a court of law is a very different thing, don'tcha think?

13 posted on 03/22/2002 8:19:00 AM PST by deport
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To: SerpentDove
POOR JIM.......I believe in the DEATH LIST.
14 posted on 03/22/2002 8:20:08 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection
I passed this info on at the time from Larry Nichols. She should have been indicted. McDougal's "death" needs to be investigated. It seems that people around the Clintons die at the most convenient time.
15 posted on 03/22/2002 12:17:17 PM PST by doug from upland
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To: doug from upland
TRUE!!!! I believe Jim was murdered in prison. I really enjoyed his book. A lot of it is about growing up and coming of age in Ark. Very entertaining book. The book reads just like he talked. He was a very likable character, prison or not!!!! Susand and Webb didn't talk and that is the only reason they are still among the living!
16 posted on 03/22/2002 12:22:15 PM PST by buffyt
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To: SerpentDove

YES, I TRULY BELIEVE THAT THE CLINTONS HAD JIM KILLED!!!


17 posted on 03/22/2002 12:23:24 PM PST by buffyt
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To: deport

I guess we will never know, the US Senate and R. Ray didn't have the balls to prosecute them, did they?????


18 posted on 03/22/2002 12:24:48 PM PST by buffyt
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection
"Whitewater Prosecutors Were Poised"....... to have monkeys fly out their butt.
19 posted on 03/22/2002 12:27:07 PM PST by Rustynailww
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To: Vladiator
"Robert Ray has become the Jar Jar Binks of the Whitewater tale."

Line of the day.

Let's hope Ray becomes equally scarce. Effing coward.

20 posted on 03/22/2002 12:34:45 PM PST by Mr. Bungle
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