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Did Bubba's Tapes Break the Law?
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Bill Clinton never told Ken Starr about his secret Taylor Branch tapes, a source tells Michael Smerconish. Was that legal? Ex-prosecutors will dig through old records to figure that out.
The lawyer in me had two recurring questions while reading all 668 pages of Taylor Branch’s new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President.
How were the many interviews that gave rise to this tome able to be kept secret from all but a few Clinton confidants, and were the tapes of those interviews made known to the many investigators who looked into the Clinton presidency? The first of those questions is a matter of personal fascination over the ability to keep secrets in a fishbowl environment. The second raises a more serious legal question.
Having promulgated more than my fair share of subpoenas while in private practice, I find it hard to believe that no inquiry from an outside lawyer to President Clinton triggered a requirement to reveal the tapes.
Recall that President Clinton didn’t have an exemplary record for veracity when responding to legal discovery. His impeachment, suspension from the Arkansas bar and resignation from bar of the U.S. Supreme Court each arose from false testimony he offered in the Paula Jones case. And now comes the question of whether he again failed to fulfill an obligation to produce information.
The Clinton Tapes is fascinating for its context. Branch knew Bill Clinton when they worked together on George McGovern’s 1972 campaign before going their separate ways. Clinton pursued elective office; Branch earned a Pulitzer Prize. They reunited in the days before the president’s inauguration, when Clinton sought Branch’s advice on how best to preserve a record of his impending presidency.
A new chapter in their relationship thus ensued wherein Branch would travel, mostly on short notice, from his home in Baltimore to the White House. There he would set up two tape recorders in the residential quarter and interview President Clinton on all aspects of his presidency. Branch would then surrender the tapes to the president, who would store them in his sock drawer. The author, meanwhile, would record his own observations while en route home to Baltimore. This went on for 79 occasions covering the duration of both Clinton terms. Branch’s tapes are the source of his new book—Clinton maintained possession of the tapes they produced together and Branch did not hear them.
The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. By Taylor Branch. 720 pages. Simon and Schuster. $35.
In The Clinton Tapes, we find Bill Clinton—sometimes eating dinner, doing a crossword puzzle, watching a ballgame, helping Chelsea with homework, responding to Hillary, and fielding calls from Congress—all while answering Branch’s questions about every issue of importance.
Those issues included the controversy over the White House travel office, Vince Foster’s death, Whitewater, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky. Each of those matters was investigated. Subpoenas were a staple of the Clinton years.
Sporadically in The Clinton Tapes, Branch addresses the conundrum posed by recording the sitting president and the need to avoid certain subjects because of investigations. Still, their conversation continued, and one suspects that the likes of Ken Starr would have salivated upon knowledge of their occurrence.
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Clinton was impeached for his perjury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment trial. If Clinton refused to comply with a subpoena it would just be more of the same kind of illegal behavior.
Let get this straight from the start...
Clinton, and I mean both bubba and his wife,
were full out lyers and crooks...
so not producing tapes would be consistent.
Look, they destroyed records of their real estate dealings, had that stupid woman go to jail for them, Vince Foster killed himself because of them, how much more do you need?
They are prime examples of the slime that are the poliitical leader in the US... one of the most corrupt governments in the world...
worse than Russia, worse than Mexico.... you pick it.
Lyers!
For heaven's sake, learn to spell it.
LYERS!!!!! HAHAHHAA!!!!!!
That's all the Republicans need, a reprise of their endless sex investigations.
What great PR. Let them choke on it.
Dolmance -
I think that's very true. But please, don't let them choke. Let them hang it all out.
The party faithfuls will cheer, and the American voters will think even less of Republicans.
I just wish this hadn't come up til, say, just before November of next year.
"American voters will think even less of Republicans"
With their own sex scandals ("wide stance, C St., etc.), the depths of their hypocrisy are limitless . . .
i couldn't care less about anything bubba. let sleeping dogs lie....uh, rest, sleep, whatever!!!
Yes, by all means let's reactivate the career of America's Eunuch-in-chief, Kenneth Starr.
LOL.
Never the crime, just the coverup. That said, These events happened years ago, Bubba's out looking for another "girlfriend" for a couple of nights and Hillary's out there doing the same. Let it go, They'll never go to prison for anything they've done, past or present.
"They'll never go to prison for anything they've done, past or present."
-Since when does adultery warrant prison?
Smerclownish. What an IDIOT. Shouldn't you be out there VOTING FOR OBAMA, again? Make that, TWO IDIOTS.
For crying out loud folks give it a break. That horrible chapter in our history is done and over with. Close the book and stop trying to bring up more crap! If the law hasn't said anything why are you???????? Typical media hounds with nothing better to do or write.
"and we are not saved..."
So why do you keep bringing up Richard Nixon.......
This again!? When do we get our equivalent inquisition into the skulduggery of Bush and Cheney? And for his personal life!? Get the state out of people's bedrooms - and off of our personal phone calls too!
Maybe that was the problem - no one would fool around with either Bush or Cheney.
robjh1 said:
"If the law hasn't said anything why are you????????"
Brilliant logic behind that statement, Rob. Real sense of "civic responsibility".
Personally, I would be more than happy to leave the Clintons out of my thoughts. However, they are not happy to STAY out of our thoughts. Fresh off a humiliating defeat within the party that she supposedly owned, Hillary has been plotting for a run in 2012 for months now (and the way 0bama is going, the Dems would probably unseat a current President and make her the candidate in a heartbeat). Bill is still running his yap about a "vast right-wing conspiracy", while 80% of the country knows there is a "vast left-wing conspiracy" between the MSM and the Democratic party (the other 20% works for MSNBC).
And for Cymatic's call to "get the state out of people's bedrooms", fine - or don't you want gay marriage to become the law of the land?
Marriage doesn't happen in the bedroom.
Michael Smerconish - are you looney? Can't you come up with any new material?
Left doesn't get it. Just humg up on the sex. Clinton was impeach for purjury. Jones sued American Spectator for implying that she slept with Clinton. Clinton, by his false testimony, denied Jones her day in court. I thought that the left was all about equal justice / truth to power and so forth. But when one of their own gets caught the obfuscate and say it "was just about sex". No - it was about perjury, and Clinton is a convicted felon, disbarred, and a disgrace to his office. Deal with it.
For those who have forgotten those wonderful Clinton years, let me take you down a poetic memory lane:
The Clinton Question
A Farewell Ode to the Oder
Bimbos threatened with bodily harm
of this there is no doubt.
People dying everywhere,
bodies strewn about
No need to raise the question of Bill Clinton and his clout
Long term government employees
forced out in a seatless van
victims of the Arkansas mafia
and their Hollywood klan
No need to raise the question of Bill Clinton and his clout
Watergate was bad indeed.
the media was thrilled
there may have been abuse of power,
but - nobody got killed!
Why would Vincent Foster
with everything to gain
throw his career, his wife, his kids
down that eternal drain?
No need to raise the question of Bill Clinton and his clout
Something must be very wrong,
very bad indeed,
which may give whole new meaning to
the term "decade of greed."
Was Leona Helmsly the only one
allergic to payment of taxes,
or was the Governor of Arkansas
guilty of similar "laxness?"
No need to raise the question of Bill Clinton and his clout
The media was outraged
when Anita Hill accused
but when the cad is of their own
the behavior is excused
There was Sally, and Dolly and Paula
but Juanita takes the cake
the only American president
to have gotten away with rape!
No need to raise the question of Bill Clinton and his clout
God gave us a vision of pilgrims,
seeking salvation at Waco;
Bill Clinton's arrogant reply was
the damnation of satan's inferno.
And never forget Somalia
where unarmed boys were stuck
no truer words were ever spoke when
she said "Clinton, you suck!"
No need to raise the question of Bill Clinton and his clout
If you don't think
That Wag the dog
was the strategy de jour
Then what the Hell was Bosnia for
No need to raise the question of Bill Clinton and his clout
Billy and the young Lowinski
with Macanudo and blue dress
taught our children a few things
we'd sooner they forget
So great their lust for power
no secret would be free
on sale for cash donations
from agents of the Red Chinese
two for one the deal they made
with Hillary Clinton Rodham
Now a President she seeks to be
will America hit rock bottom?
No need to raise the question of Hill Rodham and her clout......
Ego drove his every move
that his legacy be reached
But the bottom line on Clinton Blythe
will forever read IMPEACHED!
http://www.wizardsofaz.com/waco/waco2.html
http://www.therealcuba.com/elian_gonzalez.htm
No need to raise the question......?
DeVan - The American Refusnik
Knoxville, TN.
I don't think President Clinton was dishonest or lied.
Except for the whole perjury thing. And everything that led to him getting disbarred.
Besides that, he was a good president.
Ken Starr was a Right-wing political hack whose job was to get Clinton any way he could. It had nothing to do with "law:, so Clinton was within his rights to withhold any information from him that he could get away with.
Once again, the Starr investigation had nothing to do with law, but was political.
And I have never been a big Clinton supporter. Not because of his sex life but because of his policies like NAFTA, the WTO, and so on. I don't care what he did personally as long as he wasn't a self-righteous phony and hypocrite like the C Street Boys.
Nevertheless, I never liked Clinton much at all. I don't even like his generation, and one of the reasons I went all out to support Obama over Hillary was that I just couldn't stand HIM. On the other hand, I never thought anything else except that the Starr investigation and the impeachment were all a bunch of Republican BS.
If they ever try anything like that with this generation, there will be blood. Generation X has very little sense of humor or whimsy, in case you haven't noticed yet.
Absolutely.
Starr was a neocon aperatchik hired to bring down, or halt the Clinton administration. When nothing was found regarding Whitewater he continued with several other witch hunts. The goal was never a real investigation of any crime, but rather a paralysis of the administration.
One result of this neocon induced government paralysis was a slow down in the persecution of Al Qaeida. The results were 9/11.
This man - Starr - and his ilk are responsible for a lot of bloodshed - American and otherwise.
We need to demand a high level of ethical behavior from all elected as well as appointed government officials. When you find that someone you supported lies for personal gain, I think you should be even more outraged at that person, rather than at someone else. My opinion only, of course...
Clinton should have been impeached for the Waco massacre alone! He would have been long gone before any of the rest of the corruption occured. Democrats did this "for the children:" http://www.wizardsofaz.com/waco/waco2.html
timmyboy! Go back to school, fool! Find your English grammar teacher and your spelling teacher and punch them both in the mouth for failing you. "lyers?" At least "Bubba" can spell. And, for all his personal shortcomings, left this country with around $375 billion surplus which was converted to what we have today by "Bubba Dubya" who has the approximate spelling and grammar level as you. Sit down and shut up! Please?
Everyone knows Clinton's a liar. No news there. If we assume everything he said is a lie, I think we'd be right more often than not.
Thank you.
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