Accusations of White House Drug Use During Testimony, Reporter Says
USA JOURNAL ONLINE
JULY 23, 1998 Jon E. Dougherty
July 23, 1998
Accusations of White House Drug Use During Testimony, Reporter Says
By Jon E. Dougherty
WASHINGTON -- Information passed to a talk radio program by a reporter for the USA Radio Network late Wednesday night indicated that Secret Service agents testifying in a Grand Jury hearing separate from the Lewinsky hearings have alleged drug use within the White House.
According to USA Radio correspondent Jack Christy, the "bombshell" report was based on other information Christy and others had been gathering on the issue to the agents' testimony yesterday.
"We are hearing allegations that what the Secret Service is testifying about is drug use within the White House," Christy said during a phone call to the George Putnam Show on KIEV-AM in Seattle.
Christy indicated that Larry Cockell, the lead Secret Service agent in charge of protecting President Clinton until the White House reassigned him last week, was involved in the testimony.
During the on-air conversation, Putnam added that he had been told by Larry Nichols -- a former Arkansas State Trooper and guardian of Clinton while he was governor of Arkansas -- that the trafficking of cocaine into the White House was being carried out by "a select few" personnel who had special passes.
Both Putnam and Christy said that Monica Lewinsky, currently embroiled in a 'sexgate' controversy which may have involved Clinton, has one of the special passes.
Those passes, Christy revealed, "do not require the holder of that card to be inspected upon entering the White House."
"Monica Lewinsky had one of those passes," he said, "and she still has one today, by the way."
Putnam challenged Christy to verify the information during the interview "without giving up" sources. Christy said, "I can tell you, George, that this is the scuttlebutt here on the street in Washington, DC."
Christy added that he believes former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta also knew of the drug use, which is "why he left the White House" and later chose not to run for a governorship.
"He did that for a reason," he said.
Christy also said that "Ken Starr knows" about the drug use, which is why "those Clinton supporters" who have been "asking Starr to let us go" are being so vehement in their criticism of the Independent Prosecutor.
They "want this stuff to come out so they can get on with their lives," he added.
At that point, Putnam said that "we also know" about the alleged drug use by Clinton and those close to him in Arkansas because of an expose about the Clinton administration written by former FBI agent Gary Aldridge. Aldridge's book charged, among other things, that the immorality in the Clinton White House was rampant. Those charges included lax security measures for who he described as dubious people.
Both Christy and Putnam cited a story which appeared in Investor's Business Daily on October 6, 1996, entitled 'What did he snort and when did he snort it.' That story also depicted alleged drug use in the White House.
During the conversation, Christy reminded listeners that the brief Starr filed with the Supreme Court, which sought to compel Secret Service testimony over the objections of the administration, "contained sensitive information." Christy appeared to be tying that description into the story regarding the drug use.
At one point, Putnam asked, "How high does it [the drug use] reach?"
"All the way to the top," Christy said. "I mean, we're talking about the President of the United States here."
Christy also said that the Secret Service agents which have been compelled to testify before Ken Starr's grand jury "are decent, honorable people, but they witnessed the president in a compromised position." That, he said, put them in a very delicate situation.
Christy suggested that Starr's final report to Congress regarding his four-year investigation will be "all inclusive," and that there may be nothing left for legislators to do "except impeach the guy, unless he resigns for medical reasons beforehand." ***
c1998 USA Journal Online.
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