The Death of Vince Foster Death of Vince Foster: Evidence of a Cover Up American Spectator home page Whitewater Information Interchange

THE inner circle is beginning to crack. David Watkins, the former Director of Administration in the Clinton White House, has decided to spill some beans in the next edition of the American Spectator.

It is the first time that a member of the so-called "Arkansas Group" has broken ranks and agreed to talk on the record. What he has to say is no doubt self-serving, devious, and limited to a fraction of what he knows. He is under investigation for his involvement in firing the White House travel office staff.

But he offers a fascinating glimpse into the bohemian underworld of the Clinton coterie. He confirms that Hillary Clinton was having an affair with White House aide Vincent Foster, who was found dead in a Virginia park in July 1993. (The case is still under investigation) He describes how Mrs Clinton was kept away from the Foster's family at the funeral.

He also reveals that President Clinton was having an affair with Marsha Scott, the White House Director of Presidential Correspondence. Ms Scott is an eccentric flower child from a well-connected family in Arkansas who attended school with Bill Clinton. She was an environmental radical in Santa Cruz, California, for a number of years before her sudden elevation to epistolary duties at the White House. According to Watkins, she had free rein in the White House and openly boasted about her talent for pleasing the President.

She allegedly slept with Clinton to comfort him on the night of Foster's death. According to the FBI statement of one of the secretaries in the White House counsel's office, where Foster worked, Scott had a meeting with Foster on the day before his death. "She came to see Foster for a closed-door session which lasted over an hour, possibly as long as two hours. This was highly unusual," said the secretary.

Scott was not forthcoming about this meeting when she spoke to the FBI. But she did reveal that "Foster had painted himself into a box with no windows. He had come to some sort of a decision and was somehow relaxed as a result."

Watkin's wife, Ileene, told the American Spectator that Scott was more deeply involved than she has let on. "I think she just knew things," she said. "They act like they don't know, but they knew there were big problems."

Mr and Mrs Watkins know perfectly well that the White House story of events on the night of Foster's death was a tissue of lies. They were watching the film In the Line of Fire at a cinema in Georgetown when Watkins was bleeped by the White House to notify him about the discovery of Foster's body.

That was at 7.10 or 7.15pm, he says, which is consistent with the testimony of the Fairfax County paramedics who checked the body, and the first doctor at the scene. So how come the White House claims that it was not notified until 8.30pm? "Something wrong here," to use the immortal words of pathologist, Henry Lee.

In the end, Watkins came to grief over golf. On behalf of the President, he was scouting for golf courses around the presidential retreat at Camp David when he was photographed by a newspaper boarding a Marine helicopter with a set of golf clubs. The image did not sit well with the American public.

Before Watkins had time to explain why he was using White House helicopters for golf trips, the President appeared on live television to sack him.

"Mr Watkins has resigned, and the taxpayers will be reimbursed. The Treasury will not be out one red cent for what happened there," announced Mr Clinton.

The American Spectator reports that the political life of David and Ileene Watkins is now over: "Their only involvement in the 1996 elections came when Ileene affixed a bumper sticker to their Jeep. It was in support of Bob Dole."

28 November 1996: Clinton aides 'face charges next year'

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