CLINTON'S STATE-LEVEL ATTACK
DOGS
By DICK MORRIS
HAS the White House employed close allies to
persuade politically-connected local
prosecutors to strategically intimidate, harass,
and, most important, discredit Kenneth Starr's
most formidable witnesses?
Last week, as Linda Tripp testified day after
day before the Starr grand jury, Maryland
prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli announced
that his local grand jury would investigate
whether Tripp had committed a crime in taping
the infamous phone calls with Monica Lewinsky.
As Yogi Berra once said, "this is deja vu all
over again." Two years ago, Little Rock
prosecutor Mark Stodata made an eerily similar
announcement. On the very eve of the trial of
Arkansas' then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, Stodata
announced that Starr's key witness, David Hale,
who had already pled guilty to federal criminal
charges in the Whitewater case, would be
indicted on new state criminal charges of
insurance fraud.
Hale was expected to - and did - deliver the
most damaging evidence against Tucker and
Jim and Susan McDougal and to directly
contradict the sworn testimony of President
Clinton that he knew nothing about Hale's illegal
loans to them.
The pattern is all too obvious. Clinton's allies
are using the identical M.O. whenever they
need to discredit a threatening accuser.
Firefighters facing a burning forest will light a
blaze of their own to consume the fuel before it
feeds the main fire; in the same way, Clinton's
allies in these Democratic states are going
after Starr's star witnesses. In effect, they are
enlisting the power of state-level criminal-justice
systems to obstruct the federal investigations.
The apparent goal? To boldly and publicly
compromise the credibility of any threatening
witness at the very time that the substance of
the witness' accusations are at issue. No
waiting for trial, no waiting for
cross-examinations - just in-your-face guerrilla
warfare, dressed up as a quest for justice.
Little Rock prosecutor Mark Stodola, who
indicted Hale, is a long-time Clinton sycophant.
In 1974, Stodola was the volunteer scheduling
director in Clinton's race for Congress. In 1992,
he traveled the country working for his mentor,
then kept in touch after the election.
Like the Clintons and Jim Guy Tucker, Stodola
also had a dubious connection to Madison
Guaranty Savings and Loan Association, Jim
McDougal's piggy bank. Stodola defaulted on a
$169,000 loan from Madison, eventually
sticking the taxpayers with the loss. Cynically,
Stodola denied having a political agenda in
indicting Hale; he cited, with a straight face, the
need to bring wrongdoers to justice.
Hale's alleged "crime"? Making an untruthful
statement several years earlier on a regulatory
filing with the state Insurance Department. He
was indicted on this flimsy charge even though
no consumers or investors lost a dime and
published sources indicate that no other
insurance executive had ever been charged
with such an offense. But the indictment
achieved its goal; the jury pool in the
Tucker-McDougal case heard loudly and clearly
the intended message: Hale is a liar who
cannot be believed.
Within weeks of the announcement,
contributions from Clinton allies began pouring
into Stodola's Congressional campaign. John
Huang, Charlie Trie, Don Tyson, Tyson Foods'
political action committee, Jim Blair (Hillary's
commodities investment advisor) and
Stephens, Inc. (the Arkansas investment firm
that bankrolled the '92 Clinton presidential
campaign), all gave. Rush Deacon, an
associate of James Riady of the notorious
Lippo group, chipped in. So did Ernest Green,
who had arranged for a Chinese arms dealer to
visit the Oval Office. After giving $50,000 to the
Democratic National Committee a day after the
visit, he sent in $500 for Stodola.
According to lifelong Democrat and former
Carter administration Attorney General Griffin
Bell, the Hale indictment, "looks like people in
high places in Arkansas set out to thwart the
special prosecutor. ... Were he ^Stodola_ not a
state prosecutor, he could be charged with
tampering with a witness or obstruction of
justice. He's interfering with a federal criminal
trial."
Now Clinton supporters appear to be using the
same tactics on Tripp. Stephen Montanarelli's
announcement of an investigation of Tripp at
the same moment as she was testifying before
Starr's grand jury is a page right out of
Stodola's Little Rock playbook: Discredit,
discredit, discredit the witness and do it early.
Curiously, one month ago, Montanarelli
knocked press reports that he was going to
investigate Tripp. On June 18, Montanerelli
pointed out the difficulty of convicting a person
of making non-consensual recordings:
Maryland law requires that the person actually
know that she is breaking the law in taping the
call.
So what changed Montanarelli's mind? Here's a
hint: 49 Democrats in the Maryland House of
Delegates signed a letter urging the
investigation. How did those 49 Democrats
happen to come up with the same idea to send
such a letter? Your guess is as good as mine.
Starr needs to ask some tough questions:
1) Did the White House encourage Stodola to
act?
2) Did it urge Trie, Huang, Tyson, Blair,
Stephens, Deacon or Green to contribute to
Stodola's campaign?
3) Did it encourage the 49 Democratic House
of Delegates members to sign on to calling for
the Tripp investigation?
Mr. President: you will survive the Lewinsky
matter, however Tripp or Monica testify. The
danger to your future is not the scandal itself,
but from the over-reaction of the White House.
Call off the dogs!
nypostonline.com
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