November 16, 2014

The real Clinton story: 1999

Ignored or forgotten stories of the Clintons, their friends, and the state that made them

FBI agents arrest an unidentified suspect in connection with an attempt to kill key Chinagate witness Johnny Chung. Chung claims that a lone gunman showed up at his Los Angeles office after attempting to arrange a meeting over the phone.

Neal Travis of the New York Post reports that, according to a new book on the Mossad, Israel blackmailed President Clinton with 30 hours of tapes of his phone sex talks with Monica Lewinsky. The agency allegedly agreed not to release the material in return for Clinton calling off an FBI hunt for a top-level Israeli mole supposedly in the White House. The allegation appears in "Gideon's Spies - The Secret History of the Mossad," written by Gordon Thomas. 


Lewinsky testified under oath that after a session of heavy petting and oral sex in the White House, that Clinton told her a foreign embassy was tapping the two phone lines in her DC apartment. She claims Clinton told her that if questioned they should say they knew their calls were being bugged and were only joking to fool the tappers. Kenneth Starr does not pursue the matter. Thomas tells the NYP: "So far as anyone knows, the Israeli agent MEGA - a much more important spy than the imprisoned CIA traitor Jonathan Pollard, and probably his controller - is still in place at the White House."

About 1000 Canadian hemophiliacs file a $660 million class action suit in Toronto saying they got tainted blood from the Arkansas prison system during a period when Clinton was governor.

The New York Daily News quotes John Gotti as saying that Clinton got away with things a Mafia boss would never have gotten away with. In a conversation with his brother Peter, he is particularly struck with Clinton's taped conversation with Gennifer Flowers: "He's telling her, 'Why would you want to bring this out? If anybody investigates, you lie.' " Said Gotti, "If he had an Italian last name, they would've electrocuted him." Ironically, it was on the Gennifer Flowers tape that Clinton says that Mario Cuomo acted like a Mafioso.

The American Bar Association features felon Webster Hubbell at its national convention. Hubbell was sent to jail for overbilling his clients. The ABA also invites Clinton to speak. The invitation is announced the same week that a federal court judge imposes a $90,000 fine on Clinton for having given "false, misleading and evasive answers that were designed to obstruct the judicial process." The judge took the action, "not only to redress the misconduct of the President in this case, but to deter others who might themselves consider emulating the President of the United States by engaging in misconduct that undermines the integrity of the judicial system." Clinton is also under consideration for disbarment in Arkansas

A former White House official invokes his Fifth Amendment rights 28 times in refusing to testify at a rancorous House committee hearing on campaign finance abuses during the 1996 presidential election. Mark Middleton, an Arkansas lawyer and longtime confidant of President Clinton, steadfastly refuses to answer questions by House Government Reform Committee Republicans on whether he conspired with government officials in China or elsewhere to illegally funnel contributions to the Democratic National Committee or the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign. At one point, a frustrated Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican, asks Middleton if he was "a bag man" for Chinese government interests. The former White House official quietly replies, "I respectfully decline to answer the question."

In a startling interview with Terence Jeffrey of Human Events, former counsel to the House Judiciary Committee David Schippers - a Democrat from Chicago - charges that the Senate impeachment trial was rigged from the start. Here is an excerpt:
HUMAN EVENTS: What is the most significant thing that happened during the impeachment process that the country doesn't know about but should?

SCHIPPERS: I think the most important factor that the public should know that they don't know is that, before we ever appeared on the floor of the United States Senate, the House impeachment managers and I were told that there was no way we could win.

HUMAN EVENTS: Who told you that?

SCHIPPERS Six Republican senators. Members of the leadership.

HUMAN EVENTS: Members of the Republican leadership came over to you?

SCHIPPERS No, we were over there. We were discussing the kind of method by which we would try the case, and we, the managers and myself, were told, "Look we're just trying to keep you from embarrassing yourselves." I mean, this is after a vote of the House of Representatives impeaching the President.

In that same meeting one of the senators -- and because I do not know which one it was, I will not name any of the senators -- turned to Henry Hyde and he said, "Henry, I don't care. No way are you going to get 67 votes." This was before anything had occurred on the floor of the Senate.

And Henry Hyde said, "Well, you know Senator, we have other materials over there in that room that were furnished by Mr. Starr and I think that some of them may have to do with assaults or things like that. And the senator said, "Henry" -- this is a direct quote -- "I don't care if you have proof that he raped a woman, stood up and shot her dead, you're still not going to get 67 votes."

At that point I raised my hand and I said, "Senator, are you telling me I just watched a hundred senators raise their right hand to God and swear to do equal and impartial justice and that they will ignore that oath too?" And the senator said, "You're darn right they are."

From that moment on I knew that we were in a rigged ball game. In Chicago we'd refer to it as a First Ward election .... It was rigged to make it impossible for us to win. I don't know why they were so anxious to keep the American people from hearing the evidence. I just will never know.
Former Arkansas state trooper and Clinton bodyguard L.D. Brown charges in his new book 'Crossfire' that Alphonse D'Amato, after subjecting him to bear hugs, head locks, and other forms of gratuitous bonhomie at a large dinner party, asked, "L. D., that Mena thing, that was just a drug deal gone bad wasn't it?" Writes Brown, "I came away from that conversation thinking he was trying to convince me Mena was nothing but a drug operation. It reminded me of the strange Bush and Clinton connection all over again." Later, D'Amato said to Brown, "C'mon, L. D., let's go take a leak." Brown's lawyer and aide to the senator accompanied them on the trip to the men's room. Here's what happened next, according to Brown:
There were a couple of people in the rest room. While they finished their business, we also did what we ostensibly came there to do. But there was more business to do. The Senator's aide checked the stalls in the rest room to make sure they were vacant and then walked to the only door leading into the room. The Senator now grabbed me in the familiar headlock. ~~~ Justin [Brown's lawyer] looked around to see what was going on as the aide put his foot at the bottom of the door, thus placing an improvised locking mechanism on it. Then the Senator went for the kill.

While putting an extra squeeze on the headlock he said, "L. D., we got to have your help. We need you to cooperate with us." I could hear by now that people were banging on the door to get in the rest room.

"We're fucking in here!" the aide yelled. D'Amato continued on, oblivious to the commotion as the aide struggled to keep the door shut. "Now L. D., we'll take care of you, we'll get you a job." With the cigar in his mouth and his arm around my neck, the Senator looked more like a character from a Mario Puzo novel making me 'an offer I couldn't refuse' than a United States Senator conducting an investigation on the President of the United States. I was shocked and I could tell Justin didn't want to be there either.

People outside obviously were about to wet their pants while this seemed to drag on forever. The aide was now vigorously struggling to keep the door shut while I had 'the arm' put on me. The Senator finally released his grip and I mumbled something about being concerned for my family as we finally walked out of the bathroom. The aide, clearly exhausted from his bathroom chores went back to the table with Justin and me while being led by the Senator. The party was about to break up and I was wishing I had never come. Justin and I rolled our eyes at each other at what had just happened. We knew it was improper at best to offer jobs to potential witnesses. It also disappointed me to no end to find yet another person in this entire Whitewater fiasco who wanted to use me.
Michael Espy is appointed a senior adviser to the Department of Energy. Columnist Paul Greenberg notes, "He seems to have passed this administration's high ethical test: he's been acquitted."

Susan McDougal is the keynote speaker at the Tulsa County OK Democratic Party's first Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

Susan McDougal refuses to answer questions from a grand jury and is jailed for contempt. She will later be acquitted of obstruction of justice charges and freed of contempt charges by a hung jury.

A Democratic National Committee staffer writes DNC chair Don Fowler, "Johnny [Chung] committed to contribute $75,000 to the DNC reception in Los Angeles on September 21. Tell him if he does not complete his commitment ASAP bad things will happen."

The Senate votes not to convict President Clinton of the impeachment charges. Clinton will tell Dan Rather on CBS that he does not regard impeachment as "some great badge of shame" but is "honored" to have had "the opportunity to defend the Constitution."

The Wall Street Journal reports a claim by Juanita Broaddrick that she was raped by Bill Clinton in 1978. Clinton's lawyers deny the charge.

Deputy special prosecutor Hickman Ewing reveals that a criminal indictment against Hillary Clinton concerning Whitewater had been prepared but never presented to a grand jury.

Hillary Clinton announces her intention to run for US Senator from New York

Federal judge Susan Wright holds Bill Clinton in contempt for "intentionally false" statements under oath and "willful failure" to testify truthfully in the Paula Jones sexual harrasment case. This is the only time a president has been found in contempt of court.

On November 1, Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, is sentenced, after pleading guilty to a two-count information filed in Little Rock, Arkansas, to three years probation, four months home detention, 200 hours of community service, and a $5,000 fine for violating federal campaign finance laws by making political contributions in someone else's name and by causing a false statement to be made the FEC.

On August 12, former Lippo executive John Huang pleads guilty to a felony charge, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, that he conspired with other employees of the Indonesia-based Lippo Group to make campaign contributions and reimburse employees with corporate funds or with funds from Indonesia.

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