Clinton Legal-Defense Letters Were a Racket That Defrauded Donors, Lawyers Allege

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 14, 1998 | by Paul M. Rodriguez, | Jamie Dettmer, | Eli Lehrer

Could Bill Clinton and his subordinates be open technically to a prosecution on racketeering-related mail and wire-fraud charges involving the president's legal-defense funds -- the kind that brought down mobster Al Capone? Some federal investigators and private lawyers think so.

At issue are statements, letters and fund-raising appeals made directly by the president and his subordinates to generate public donations for one of at least two legal-defense funds Clinton created to help pay his million-dollar-plus attorney bills.

In the solicitations, the president made specific claims that the Monica Lewinsky allegations were completely false. Clinton and his aides denied in the fund-raising appeals all the Lewinsky-affair charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Now the president has under oath admitted an "improper relationship" with Lewinsky; he has, in effect, acknowledged that some portion of the allegations first raised in January 1998 were true.

Legally speaking, therefore, the sources said, the president has admitted he knew at the time the fund-raising letters went out for his legal-defense fund that he made false representations. As a result, say federal investigators, Clinton engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud those who sent in money. Just as lying under oath becomes perjury, lying to obtain funds through the mail is fraud. You'd think a Yale-trained lawyer and former professor of law would know a thing like that.

"It's classic wire fraud," confirmed a Justice Department official who asked not to be named. "The fund-raising appeals were in furtherance of a conspiracy and could easily rise to racketeering. You've raised substantial questions involving not just a fraudulent scheme but also the use of the mails to perpetuate the fraud."

A private lawyer concurred: "Yes, you're talking about a conspiracy to defraud the public," he said, adding that violation of various tax laws may be involved as well.