One of the first and biggest scandals of Bill Clinton’s presidency actually did not involve him but his wife, First Lady Hillary Clinton.
On July 20, 1993, about five months to the day after Bill Clinton was inaugurated for his first term, Vincent W. Foster, who was serving as deputy White House counsel, was found dead from apparent suicide — a gunshot to the head — at Fort Marcy Park in nearby McLean, Va.
A subsequent investigation by special counsel Robert Fiske Jr. involving “four lawyers, five physicians, seven FBI agents, [and] approximately 125 witnesses” along with “DNA tests” all pointed the claim that Foster was responsible for taking his own life, according to a report by the Washington Post a year later.
There was much controversy at the time and many theories that Foster had run afoul of the first lady, with whom he had worked at the Arkansas-based Rose Law Firm. Conspiracies claimed that he was killed — part of the legendary “Clinton body count” — though reports at the time of his death said he was increasingly distraught over another early Clinton White House scandal, “Travelgate.”
Now, the author of a book on the Clintons shares new details regarding what pushed Foster beyond his ability to cope with his chaotic Clinton administration gig: Hillary and her reputed temper.
As noted by TownHall's Matt Vespa, independent counsel Ken Starr, who was assigned to look into a series of Clinton scandals including a prior real estate venture known as “Whitewater,” intentionally left out a finding in his final FBI report that Hillary was responsible for triggering Foster.
Ronald Kessler, author of “The First Family Detail,” writes in the Daily Mail that he spoke to Starr recently at a book fair and asked him why he failed to include that finding. Kessler said that Starr told him he “did not want to inflict further pain” on Hillary.
“In my interviews for my book ‘The First Family Detail,’ the FBI agents who worked the case for Starr revealed the truth about Foster’s death when he shot himself” at the park, which was situated along the Potomac River. (Related: FBI won’t run honest investigation of Hillary Clinton crimes, but is tripping over itself to investigate the theft of files that might expose the truth about 9/11.)
Hillary ‘pushed him over the edge’
Further, he noted:
FBI agents found that a week before Foster’s death, Hillary as First Lady held a meeting at the White House with Foster and other top aides to discuss her proposed health care legislation. Hillary violently disagreed with a legal objection Foster raised at the meeting and ridiculed him in front of his peers, former FBI agent Coy Copeland and former FBI supervisory agent Jim Clemente told me.
Kessler said he was told that Hillary put Foster down very hard and that she did so in front of more than just a few people. She also allegedly told him he was just a “little hick town lawyer” from Arkansas who wasn’t at all “ready for the big time.”
Clinton also berated Foster for her and her husband’s legal troubles, telling Foster that he had been a failure.
“Foster was profoundly depressed, but Hillary lambasting him was the final straw because she publicly embarrassed him in front of others … Hillary blamed him for failed nominations, claimed he had not vetted them properly, and said in front of his White House colleagues, ‘You’re not protecting us’ and ‘You have failed us.’ That was the final blow,” Clemente said.
Copeland added that by putting Foster down in the big meeting “just pushed him over the edge.”
The Washington Post noted in its 1994 report that Foster’s family and friends had noticed he had become increasingly edgy, nervous, and paranoid in the weeks following the Travelgate debacle, for which he sought to take the blame.
This reporter remembers the Clinton administration well — and covered much of it. This detail is new and fits well with Hillary Clinton’s oft-reported demeaning behavior toward staffers and others she saw as ‘beneath her.’
Read more about Hillary Clinton and these kinds of scandals at Clinton.news.
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