The pursuit of Billy Dale:
…the lives of seven innocent long-time career Government employees were shattered, their reputations smeared, to make way for the ambitions and arrogance of the President's friends and family. We learned that the FBI and IRS became involved in this matter because of Harry Thomason's false allegations that Travel Office Director Billy Dale received illegal "kickbacks" from a charter airline company. The White House knew very quickly that the alleged source of the kickback charges denied ever making them. But upon learning this fact, the White House did nothing to correct the public record it had created through misinformation.
In fact, long after President Clinton's White House staff knew the allegations were false, they continued in their efforts to make a case against the beleaguered and increasingly impoverished Billy Dale. The Department of Justice (``DOJ'') case, U.S. v. Billy Ray Dale, was sorely lacking in evidence. It was compromised by missing records that had not been secured by the Clinton White House or the Justice Department.
It was obvious, even to Justice Department prosecutors, that they had no witnesses who could provide any derogatory information about Billy Dale. Finally, they were left only with the dubious claim that the notoriously frugal Mr. Dale lived a ``lavish lifestyle.'' The prosecution revealed to the jury the ``scandalous'' evidence that Mrs. Dale went to a hairdresser and purchased large quantities of groceries for the Lake Anne vacation home the two-career Dales saved many years to build and enjoy. Predictably, Dale was acquitted in less than 2 hours by a jury of his peers.
Unfortunately, Mr. Dale's speedy acquittal did not put an end to his 3-year ordeal. The IRS pursued Dale, threatening income tax audits. The IRS also was busy in Smyrna, TN auditing the company that did business with Mr. Dale at the Travel Office, UltrAir.
Only recently was Mr. Dale given a clean bill of health by the Internal Revenue Service after 3 years of intense scrutiny. UltrAir had no tax liability and an owner of UltrAir received a $5,000 refund before the IRS gave up its search for any shred of evidence to justify its harassment of this small struggling business. |
