ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609300104
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: William Safire
SOURCE: WILLIAM SAFIRE
HILLARY Rodham Clinton, while engaged in an egregious conflict of interest at the Rose Law Firm, prepared the legal document used by her corrupt banking clients and her crooked law firm partner ``to deceive federal bank examiners,'' concludes the inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The deceit's purpose was to hide from bank examiners $300,000 in sham payments, part of $3.8 million that later had to be made good by taxpayers. ``Clinton and Webster L. Hubbell performed work,'' wrote the FDIC's Patricia M. Black, ``that appears to have facilitated the payment of substantial commissions to [Seth] Ward Hubbell's father-in-law.''
By using Ward as a front, Mrs. Clinton and her law partner helped the infamous Madison S&L as it ``evaded regulations designed to protect the safety and soundness of the institution and violated the integrity of its books and records.''
What says Hillary? She claims to have ``no recollection'' of preparing the deceitful document, although she billed her client for preparing it. She claims her mind to be a blank about conversations with Ward, though records show 14 calls between them over seven months. She destroyed her ``Ward option'' file only two years after the deceitful maneuver, in what she described as ``housecleaning.''
Only one year ago, a law firm hired by federal regulators was unable to find sufficient evidence to warrant suing the Rose Law Firm. The Clinton White House immediately twisted this into ``the FDIC supports what the first lady has said all along'' and trumpeted ``it ought to drive a stake through the heart of those partisan senators.''
But lo! Hillary Clinton's missing billing records miraculously appeared in the White House residence after two years of ducking a subpoena. Bank regulators were forced to take a second look, resulting in last week's ``deceit'' charge and the transmission of its damning report to the independent counsel. If the FDIC now fails to sue Rose lawyers to recover taxpayers' losses, regulators would be malfeasant.
Here's how to succeed in obstructing justice: (1) Publicly disparage all investigators as partisan miscreants, as Clinton now does, (2) encourage co-conspirators to resist prosecutorial pressure by arranging for hush money and (3) hint at post-election pardons.
Follow the money. Knight-Ridder has noted that one of the Democratic Party's largest contributors ($425,000) is a green-carded alien from Indonesia named Arief Wiriandinata. His father-in-law is a co-investor in Lippo Group, a vast Asian conglomerate with a history of banking investments in Little Rock, Ark.
After Web Hubbell got in trouble and just before he went to jail, Lippo paid him a six-figure fee, investigators tell me. Sen. Paul Sarbanes blocked questions about the fee's purpose, and Hubbell refused to testify about his timely post-ruination income. Hubbell, who we now learn worked closely with Hillary Clinton on the deceitful Ward option, probably knows much more than he has said.
Follow the contributors: In White House Counsel Jane Sherburne's 12-page master plan of cover-up, high-priced lawyer Randy Turk was linked to Craig Livingstone almost two years before that former bar bouncer was found to be collecting 900 dossiers from Howard Shapiro's eager-to-please FBI. Who has been paying Turk, a former partner of the deputy attorney general, to protect Livingstone? A subpoena is ignored; why must contributors be kept secret?
Finally, after hearing President Clinton promise vulnerable staffers fund-raisers for hanging tough before indictment, we now hear him hint at pardons for convicted Whitewater criminals in an interview with Jim Lehrer on PBS: ``There's a regular process for that.''
That pardon ``process'' is likely to spring felon Susan McDougal for her services protecting the Clintons from the truth, as well as convicted but unjailed Jim Guy Tucker, who might talk otherwise. Nor will faithful Web Hubbell be left to languish.
Does anyone doubt that if indictments appear likely, the president would repeat his phony claim that ``it's obvious'' that partisan plotters are out to get him - and would protect himself by a parade of pardons?
Think about it. Down that road, if the prime suspect's spouse is re-elected, lies another national nightmare.
- New York Times News Service
LENGTH: Medium: 81 linesby CNB