UNDERNEWS: Scandal Stats

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Sep 24 12:29:38 PDT 1998


[for connoisseurs of scandal...]

Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 09:07:27 -0700 (PDT) X-Sender: ssmith at pop.igc.org Mime-Version: 1.0 To: ssmith at igc.org From: The Progressive Review <ssmith at igc.org> Subject: UNDERNEWS: Scandal Stats

THE UNDERNEWS SCANDAL STATS EDITION By Sam Smith

Sep 24, 1998

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CLINTON SCANDAL STATS

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT --Number of independent counsel inquiries since the 1978 law was passed: 19 --Number that have produced indictments: 7 --Number still underway: 4 --Number of these that have lasted longer than the Starr probe: 2 (including the Iran-Contra investigation) --Number that have cost more than the Starr investigation: 2 --Number that have produced more convictions: 1 --Median length of investigations that have led to convictions: 44 months --Length of Starr investigation (9/98): 45 months. --Median number of convictions: 6 --Number of Starr investigation convictions to date including one governor, one associate attorney general and two Clinton business partners: 15 -- Median cost per conviction: $1.8 million (not corrected for inflation) --Median cost per Starr investigation conviction: $2.4 million --Number of Clinton cabinet members who have come under criminal investigation: 8 --Number of Reagan cabinet members who came under criminal investigation: 4 --Number of top officials jailed in the Teapot Dome Scandal: 3

CRIME STATS --Special prosecutors appointed to investigate Clinton and his aides: 7 --Guilty pleas and convictions obtained by Donald Smaltz in cases involving bribery and fraud against former agriculture secretary Espy and associated matters. (Includes 6 individuals, five corporations and a law firm): 14 --Amount assessed in fines and costs as a result of Donald Smaltz' investigation: $10.3 mil --Amount Tyson Food paid in fines and court costs in the Smaltz investigation: $6 million --Amount Tyson Food still has in annual government contracts: $200 million --Number of friends, firms, aides, appointees, relatives and others close to Clinton who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes: 44 --Crimes for which convictions have been obtained include: Drug trafficking (3), racketeering, extortion, bribery(4), tax evasion, kickbacks, embezzlement (2), fraud (12), conspiracy (5), fraudulent loans, illegal gifts(1), illegal campaign contributions(5), money laundering (6), perjury, obstruction of justice --Possible crimes and issues investigated or raised by special prosecutors, members of Congress and/or investigative reporters: bank and mail fraud, violations of campaign finance laws, illegal foreign campaign funding, improper exports of sensitive technology, physical violence and threats of violence, solicitation of perjury, intimidation of witnesses, bribery of witnesses, attempted intimidation of prosecutors, perjury before congressional committees, lying in statements to federal investigators and regulatory officials, flight of witnesses, obstruction of justice, bribery of cabinet members, real estate fraud, tax fraud, drug trafficking, failure to investigate drug trafficking, bribery of state officials, use of state police for personal purposes, exchange of promotions or benefits for sexual favors, using state police to provide false court testimony, laundering of drug money through a state agency, false reports by medical examiners and others investigating suspicious deaths, the firing of the RTC and FBI director when these agencies were investigating Clinton and his associates, failure to conduct autopsies in suspicious deaths, providing jobs in return for silence by witnesses, drug abuse, illegal acquisition and use of 900 FBI files, illegal futures trading, murder, sexual abuse of employees, false testimony before a federal judge, shredding of documents, withholding and concealment of subpoenaed documents, fabricated charges against (and improper firing of) White House employees, as well as providing access to the White House to drug traffickers, foreign agents and participants in organized crime.

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA --FBI files misappropriated by the White House: c. 1,000 --Estimated number of witnesses quoted in FBI files misappropriated by the White House: 18,000 -- Number of witnesses who have developed medical problems at critical points in the Clinton scandal investigation (Tucker, Hale, both McDougals, Lindsey): 5 --Problem areas listed in a memo by Clinton's own lawyer in preparation for the president's defense: 40 --Number of names placed in a White House secret database without the knowledge of the named: c. 200,000 --Cost to obtain a line of information concerning someone's checking account from a Washington private investigator: c. $300 --Number of persons involved with Clinton who have been beaten up: 2 --Whitewater witnesses sought by congressional committees have pleaded the 5th, fled the country or are foreigners who have refused to be interviewed: 90

ARKANSAS SUDDEN DEATH SYNDROME --Number of persons in the Clinton orbit who are alleged to have committed suicide: 7 --Number of persons in the Clinton orbit known to have been murdered: 2 --Number of persons in the Clinton orbit who have died in plane crashes: 11 --Number of persons in the Clinton orbit who have died in automobile accidents: 3 --Number killed during Waco massacre: 4 --Number of key witnesses who have died of heart attacks while in federal custody under questionable circumstances: 1 --Number of medications being taken by Jim McDougal at the time he was placed in solitary confinement shortly before his death: 12 --Number of unexplained deaths: 3 --Total of above: 31 --Number of northern Mafia killings during peak period 1968-78: 30 --Number of Dixie Mafia killings during same period: 156

ARKANSAS ALZHEIMER'S --Number of times Hillary Clinton said "I don't recall" or its equivalent in a statement to a House investigating committee: 50 --Number of paragraphs in this statement: 42 --Number of times Bill Clinton said "I don't recall" or its equivalent in the released portions of the his testimony on Paula Jones [Washington Times]: 271 --Number of times Bill Clinton said "I don't recall" or its equivalent in his grand jury testimony [Michael Kelly]: 140

ARKANSAS MONEY MANAGEMENT --Amount of an alleged electronic transfer from the Arkansas Development Financial Authority to a bank in the Cayman Islands during 1980s: $50 mil --Grand Cayman's population: 18,000 --Number of commercial banks: 570 --Number of bank regulators: 1 --Amount Arkansas state pension fund invested in high-risk repos in the mid-80s in one purchase in April 1985: $52 million through the Worthen Bank. --Number of days thereafter that the state's brokerage firm went belly up: 3 --Amount Arkansas pension fund dropped overnight as a result : 15% --Amount of Worthen bank that Mochtar Riady bought over the next four months to bail out the bank and the then governor, Bill Clinton: 40%. --Amount of cash seized by Arkansas state troopers from an 18-wheeler in early 1998, the 4th largest such seizure in American history: $3.1 mil --Percent of purchasers of resort lots from the Clintons and McDougals who lost them because of the financing provisions: 50%+

THE MEDIA --Number of journalists covering Whitewater who have been fired, transferred off the beat or otherwise gotten into trouble because of their work on the scandals (preliminary estimate): 8 --Number of correspondents, commentators and media officials with close ties to the Clinton administration (partial): Cokie Roberts, David Gergen, Richard Kaplan, George Stephanopoulos, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Mort Zuckerman, Steve Brill, Michael Kramer: 6

FRIENDS OF BILL --Visits made to the White House by investigation subjects Johnny Chung, James Riady, John Huang, and Charlie Trie. 160 --Number of campaign contributors who got overnights at the White House in the two years before the 1996 election: 577 --Number of members of Thomas Boggs's law firm who have held top positions in the Clinton administration. 18

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