Sunday, February 10, 2008

Hillary dumps campaign manager, hires former "fixer"... Secret Service agent testified in 1995 he saw Williams remove files from Foster's office

The Hillary campaign has dumped campaign manger Patti Solis Doyle and hired Hillary's former top White House aide Maggie Williams. Maggie Williams was in the middle of Hillary's controversial dealings in the 90s, including the missing records from the Rose Law Firm and the investigation over removal of files from Vince Foster's office after his suicide.

The Senate Whitewater investigation identified Williams as having participated with Hillary in a conspiracy. Here is a 1996 transcript from the PBS News Hour show, with Kwame Holman summarizing the findings of the investigation:

KWAME HOLMAN: Among the major findings of the committee's Republican majority: evidence of a conspiracy to remove potentially damaging files from the office of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster on the night of his suicide in July, 1993, a conspiracy orchestrated by telephone by First Lady Hillary Clinton and carried out by chief of staff Margaret Williams and Mrs. Clinton's friend and adviser, Susan Thomases.

Here is a 1996 transcript of Alphonse D'Amato describing Maggie Williams participation:

Margaret Williams, Chief of Staff to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, told a White House employee Tom Castleton that she was moving a box of papers from Vincent Foster's office to the Residence so that the President and First Lady could review them. Confronted by Mr. Castleton's testimony, Ms. Williams dismissed him as a mere intern.

More from the New York Times:

Testifying under oath before the special Senate committee investigating Whitewater, the officer, Henry P. O'Neill, said that on July 20, 1993, several hours after Mr. Foster's body was found in a Virginia park, he saw Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, Margaret A. Williams, carrying two handfuls of folders from Mr. Foster's office.

I Googled this, and the results tell me we're going to start hearing about about Vince Foster again.

It's like a horrible flashback: Whitewater, missing records from the Rose Law firm, taking files out of Vince Foster's office the night of his suicide, lying under oath. Hillary might have her reasons for wanting to return to the 90s, but I don't think the country wants to go back.