The last few years of Bill Clinton’s presidency was riddled with numerous scandals: from Travel-gate to Monica-gate. Now, a new book set to be released in February is charging that prosecutors investigating Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton were prepared to seek indictments of them for their roles in both the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky affairs. Read more below and watch a video.
The Clintons
I know. Must we talk about the Clinton’s again with all the sordid, murky details of their lives? Apparently so. A new book called “The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr,” written by Ken Gormley, a Duquesne University law professor and legal pundit, is due out in February but is already causing quite a bit of buzz. For this book, Gormley had multiple interviews with many of the players involved in the Clinton scandals including Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Ken Starr, Susan McDougal, Paula Jones, and Robert Ray, Ken Starr’s successor. Robert Ray was prepared to indict the Clintons after Bill left office if he did not agree to admit that he made false statements about Lewinsky under oath and accept disbarment.
According to excerpts from Ken Gormley’s book, Prosecutor Robert Ray “was ready to ‘pull the trigger’ if the conditions he imposed on Bill Clinton were not satisfied,” and had to be “cajoled” by a colleague into signing off on the final deal with Clinton.
“President Clinton would never fully grasp how close he came to being indicted,” Gormley writes in his book.
Unless you’ve totally blocked the Clinton presidency out of your mind – which I have tried repeatedly to do – you’ll remember that in the deal with Prosecutor Ray, Bill Clinton admitted, on his last day in office, that he gave false testimony in the Lewinsky scandal. This in effect, saved him from being indicted. As part of his deal, Clinton said he gave “false” answers in that now famous “it depends on what the definition of is, is” January 1998 deposition. And because we know you care, we’ve provided that video below for your ‘enjoyment’. By the way, Clinton of course insisted he didn’t give these “false” answers knowingly though which was an important element of the crime of perjury. Cagey.
Other details in the book that I’m sure you’ll want to know include an assertion that Clinton and Susan McDougal also had an extra marital affair (blech!), that Ken Starr’s deputies prepared a draft indictment of Hillary Clinton and her former law partner, Webb Hubbell, but it was unanimously rejected by prosecutors more focused on the Lewinsky case (darn!); and that Monica Lewinsky says Bill Clinton lied in his grand jury testimony about the sexual affair they had:
“There was no leeway on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he answered untruthfully,” Lewinsky said according to the book.
Is that really ‘new’ news? I say burn the horrid dress and move on Monica!
Apparently the book, besides dealing extensively with the issues of how the prosecutors were prepared to indict the Clintons, offers a detailed – even scholarly – retelling of the whole epic saga of the murky, intertwined scandals. Ken Gormley met four times with Bill Clinton and Ken Starr eight times in preparation for the book. But guess who wasn’t interviewed for this 769-page book? Hillary Clinton. Gormley says he asked repeatedly to speak with her for the book but to no avail. Ha! No surprise there.
(Video)
Photo: www.wenn.com, Carrie Devorah / WENN.com
December 21st, 2009 at 9:55 am
I’m the only commentor so far?
I still think that Lewinsky was a plant. The biggest evidence is, her name rhymes with “lewd,” and only the Republicans would do that. Too big a coincidence.
The Right wants an Obama scandal, and the Right wants it bad. Here is what could destroy Obama:
1) Jobs don’t come back in 2010.
2) A major terrorist attack in the US.
3) Scandal.
One and two are kind of hard to champion, but three? That’s the ticket.