Herby Branscum Jr. and Robert Hill, owners of the Perry County Bank, are charged with illegally funneling bank funds to Arkansas political campaigns include the 1990 re-election bid of Gov. Bill Clinton. They are also accused of trying to trick bank regulators about contributions and large cash withdrawals. The money involved seems to be peanuts - "at least" $7,000. But like all of the prosecutions being handled by Starr the importance of this case far outweighs the numbers.
"It's real important," says a source in Arkansas who is familiar with the Starr strategy on this one. "If there is a conviction it's tied directly to Clinton. You are up to the next highest level." As I've been saying, every case and every investigation in Arkansas is ultimately aimed at the White House. And Starr's people have been finding a huge pattern of financial corruption in Arkansas. But sometimes you have to start at the foot of the mountain - like with Branscum and Hill - to get to the top.
Neal Ainley, the former president of Perry County Bank, has already snitched on his bosses. Starr would prefer that Branscum and Hill rat on Clinton campaign managers, like White House aide Bruce Lindsey, and the President himself. If that doesn't happen by Monday, expect a long, detail-rich trial that whose significance will be missed by most of the press.
For the record, Starr already has - among other things - witnesses who say that Bill Clinton was given envelopes full of campaign money even in years when he wasn't running for anything. Also, you can expect accusations to come out in the trial that the governor's office was regularly selling state positions to the highest bidder. Branscum is the former head of the Arkansas Highway Department. Hill was on the state Banking Board.
And if this sort of stuff doesn't come out in this trial, you can expect to see plenty of it when Mike Huckabee takes over as governor in mid-July. I hear the Republican is getting ready do an all out investigation of everything from the buying of public office, to drug dealing in the state, to suspicious murders.
(John Crudele is a financial columnist with the New York Post. His mailing address is P.O. Box 610, Lincroft, N.J. 07738. Click here to send him e-mail).