Catalog to my six-part series about the suicide of Vincent Foster

Politics as organized crime

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Vincent Foster (White House photo)

To understand the full context of my vignettes about Vince Foster’s death, please view my series about the 1997 book I wrote with the two lead LAPD detectives in the O.J. Simpson case. The two stories are connected.

     In the midst of LAPD Detectives Tom Lange and Phil Vannatter's media war with the racist, perjuring, Fifth Amendment-taking, rogue cop, Detective Mark Fuhrman—who had written his own book about the O.J. Simpson case—Fuhrman's publisher, Regnery Publishing, defiantly asked me, as Lange and Vannatter’s co-author, to write a book about the death of Vincent Foster, the Clinton White House attorney who had been found shot to death at Fort Marcy Park in northern Virginia on July 20, 1993.

     Regnery had recently rejected previous book proposals about the Foster case by Fuhrman, who believed that Foster had been murdered, and Foster's personal secretary, Linda Tripp.  Both Fuhrman and Tripp were represented by the same literary agent, Lucianne Goldberg.

     Prior to the release of A Washington Tragedy, my 1998 book about the death of Vincent Foster, I had never published anything about President Bill Clinton or his administration, even though I had enthusiastically supported him in 1992 and 1996.

     But, jumping into the fray, I accepted Regnery's advance of $100,000 and then proceeded to interview every officer and official from the U.S. Park Police which had jurisdiction at the Foster crime scene.  In the end, the USPP concluded that Foster had committed suicide, and those officials showed me why.

     Just prior to the official search of Foster's office two days after his death, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum refused to permit representatives from the USPP and the Department of Justice to participate, as previously agreed, in the search.  Then, four days later, another White House attorney discovered a torn-up note in Foster's briefcase, which had supposedly been examined during the earlier search.  The White House did not notify the USPP about the note until thirty hours after it was found.

     After my own investigation of Foster's death, I also concluded that Foster had, indeed, killed himself.  But, in doing so, I chronicled how these White House missteps led to numerous erroneous media stories that laid the groundwork for an array of conspiracy theories.

     These mistakes provoked charges that Foster’s personal files were related to the failed Whitewater land deal in which the Clintons had been involved, which led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Fiske, which led to an oversight hearing by the partisan Senate Banking Committee, which led to the firing of Fiske and the hiring of Kenneth Starr as independent counsel, which led to the creation of the equally partisan Senate Whitewater Committee, which led to the return to the Starr investigation, which led to allegations of President Bill Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to the President’s impeachment and acquittal.

     The Foster case was an eye-opening, life-altering experience for me.  Through my research, I collected clear evidence that a dishonest, money-grubbing cabal of Clinton haters—who shared information, covered up each other's mistakes, fabricated evidence, and received their funding from the same sources—had tried to portray Foster's suicide as a murder in a cynical effort to undermine the authority of the Clinton White House.

     When I submitted my manuscript about the provable right-wing conspiracy against the Clintons, my publisher—Regnery Publishing, well-known as a conservative publisher of anti-Clinton books—greeted it with little enthusiasm. 

     In fact, I clashed with the publishing house's editorial staff.  However, the project was saved by Regnery's president, Alfred Regnery—who protected my work and insisted that it be published as written.

     A Washington Tragedy was released in April 1998 during the early days of the Monica Lewinsky scandal—which had been orchestrated by Linda Tripp and Lucianne Goldberg in coordination with Starr and the OIC.

     Calling the book "a smart, chronological appraisal" of all the investigations of Foster's suicide, the Washington Post stated in its review:  "Although Moldea, a crime reporter of considerable repute and experience, uses his own investigations to clear up some of the troublesome questions about Foster's death, for the most part he is simply a neutral narrator, a levelheaded guide." 

     The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Clinton's hometown newspaper, wrote:  "Mindful of Moldea's reputation for accuracy and incorruptibility--books on Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters, the influence of organized crime on pro football, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy have won wide acclaim—Regnery approached him to write about the Foster suicide.  His book concludes that the Foster investigation was 'a no-brainer,' and that ugly rumors about his death were fueled by politically-motivated hack journalists in the pay of billionaire zealot Richard Mellon Scaife.  Such conclusions, of course, didn't make Regnery very happy." 

     Writing for The Legal Times, legendary investigative journalist Steve Weinberg commented that A Washington Tragedy was "superbly reported, a fascinating examination. . . . Readers who want to reward responsible rather than sensational reporting ought to buy Moldea's books."

     In Joe Conason and Gene Lyons's best-selling book, The Hunting of the President (St. Martin's, 2000), the authors wrote:  "Apart from the Fiske and Starr Reports, the most accurate, comprehensive account of the Foster suicide and its aftermath is A Washington Tragedy:  How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm, by Dan E. Moldea."

     Also, I discussed the Foster case in the 2004 film version of The Hunting of the President, directed by Harry Thomason.

     In its review of the documentary, the Seattle Times, stated:  "The last third of the film is devoted to its most important accusation:  How this campaign from the right came to dominate the post-Watergate, post-cable TV media.  The most damning talking head may be Dan Moldea, author of several books debunking conspiracy theories of both the left and right, who calls the press coverage of the Vincent Foster case ‘the most corrupt act of journalism I have ever seen.’"

     Here is a catalog of the six-part series about my investigation of the death of Vincent Foster, excerpted from the third edition of my memoir, Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer.

Catalog

1/6:  From Fuhrman to Foster

2/6:  The odd couple

3/6:  Help from an unexpected source

4/6:  The Foster crime scene

5/6:  Creating a political firestorm

6/6:  Regnery's pro-Clinton book

* NEXT: Ken Starr and the OIC Leaks