Letter Transmitting This Report To Chairman D'Amato

Hugh H. Sprunt

Thursday, July 20, 1995
Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, Chairman
The Whitewater Committee
Room SD-534, Dirksen Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Re: The 1995 Senate Whitewater Hearings

Dear Senator D'Amato:

It is appropriate for me to explain why I had sufficient interest in the
death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr., to generate the enclosed analysis. I am
neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I spent significant time in east
Arkansas when I was younger and was generally familiar with Mr. Clinton and
Arkansas politics when he sought his party's 1992 Presidential nomination as
a "New Democrat." Two acquaintances ran the Clinton Campaign in North Texas,
where I now reside. One of these individuals, whom I particularly respect,
was a Special Assistant to the President during the first seven months of
the Clinton Administration.

My father and other close family members were graduated from Davidson
College, Mr. Foster's Alma Mater (an uncle was a psychology major like Mr.
Foster). Mr. Foster was President of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at
Davidson, as was I at MIT. We are each law school graduates, both of us at
mid-year. Furthermore, I strongly identify with the address Mr. Foster gave
on May 8, 1993, at the University of Arkansas Law School, although I do not
agree with the "spin" given the speech by the Fiske Report.

Most important, some twenty-five years ago, my grandfather, terminally ill
with cancer, took his life on Christmas Day by shooting himself in the head
using a Colt .38 Special revolver with a four-inch barrel, precisely the
type of weapon with which Mr. Foster is said to have taken his own life at
Fort Marcy. At his request, I had helped my grandfather into his dressing
room where he kept his .38, was necessarily first-on-the-scene a few seconds
after he fatally shot himself, and could do nothing for his massive head
wound.

I thus have direct experience with suicide-by-gunshot and with the huge
amount of damage a .38 Special "HV" round from such a revolver does when
fired point-blank into the head. I was therefore amazed when I read the
Autopsy Report on Mr. Foster (The June 30, 1994, Fiske Report at Tab 8) and
subsequent official descriptions of Mr. Foster's far less dramatic head
injury (also from an "HV" .38 round).

My professional précis is in Appendix VIII. I trust that you will be able to
satisfy yourself that I am no "kook," right-wing, or otherwise. This report
could have been completed within three or four weeks of the publication of
the Senate volumes last January, but "Baker Street Irregular" that I am, I
have normal day-to-day professional and family responsibilities. I am not
commercially involved with any individual or group calling for further
investigation of the Foster death, nor do I sell video tapes, books, or
newsletters concerning the death of Mr. Foster or other Whitewater matters.
I deal openly on a non-exclusive basis with the members of the media who
contact me. My work to-date in connection with Mr. Foster's death is
available gratis to those who request it. I hope you, and the other members
of the Committee, will take what I say seriously enough to make your own
evaluations of my report and act accordingly.

My analysis is based on the information contained in the 1994 Senate Report
(Rept. 103-433, Vol. I) and Senate Hearings Volumes (S. Hrg. 103-889,
Volumes I & II) that cover the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent
W. Foster, Jr. I believe you and the other members of the Committee will
find this report useful in connection with the hearings that began this week
and in any related subsequent congressional proceedings. Open hearings can
put vital information before the public that would otherwise remain closely
held (witness my reliance on the published volumes from last summer's Senate
hearings). Perhaps Mr. Fiske's "Final Report" and related documents can be
released in addition to the Senate Report and Hearings volumes based on the
1995 Whitewater hearings.

Committee staff tell me that the wording of the resolution governing the
1995 hearings does not explicitly authorize further inquiry into Mr.
Foster's death. However, I also understand that the resolution in no way
bars the Special Committee from undertaking such an inquiry should it choose
to do so. You and the other members of the Committee should unquestionably
re-investigate the death of Vince Foster. Why? The amazing information
latent in the 1994 Senate Report and Hearings volumes and detailed in this
report!

My report demonstrates that numerous and material errors, omissions, and
inconsistencies are submerged in the public record of the 1994 hearings.
Furthermore, the Committee is directed to investigate the fate of Mr.
Foster's White House papers, and there is evidence in the record that a
now-unaccounted-for briefcase was seen in Mr. Foster's Honda at Fort Marcy
Park. Also, the two key rings Mr. Foster carried were not found at Fort
Marcy, despite a thorough search of the body and Mr. Foster's Honda. It
appears from the record that these office, personal, and Honda keys may have
been retrieved from Mr. Foster's right front pants pocket by the Park Police
only after the body was visited at the morgue by White House staffers.

If one needed to search Mr. Foster's office (or other spaces under his
control), or move his car after he left the White House on the day he died,
these keys could be quite useful. It has long been admitted that senior
White House officials entered Mr. Foster's office the evening of his death,
despite standard investigative prohibitions and notwithstanding assurances
given the US Park Police that Mr. Foster's office would be sealed forthwith.
This report also analyzes pages from a Park Police notebook and other items
in the record indicating that Mr. Foster's White House connection was known
to the Park Police at about 6:30 PM, some two hours before the White House
officially admits having been informed of his death. If the Park Police knew
at 6:30 PM, what use did the White House make of the additional two-hour
window?

The enclosed report is drawn from the three Senate volumes cited above.
Specifically, I have had no access to data contained only in Mr. Fiske's
unreleased "Final Report," in the unreleased work-product of the US Park
Police, the Fiske or the Starr Offices of Independent Counsel (including
that developed by the FBI), or that of congressional investigators working
on the 1994/95 hearings, or to evidence developed for (or by) the currently
sitting Federal Grand Jury convened in the District by Mr. Starr.

I do not espouse any "conspiracy theory" regarding the ultimate reason for
Mr. Foster's death (there are quite a few, many of them extremely bizarre,
as you know). I have merely attempted to study the public record of the
Foster death investigations and comment reasonably thereon. The enclosed
analysis describes what I believe are numerous material errors, omissions,
inconsistencies, and curiosa submerged in the public record. Voluminous
citations to the record are provided to permit an efficient evaluation of
the care with which the enclosed report is directly tied to the Senate
volumes.

I have no particular desire to become publicly involved with any
congressional hearings, but I will speak to Committee members or staff if
such discussions would advance the cause of truth. I love my country, but I
am not in the habit of using the American flag as a blindfold. The analysis
I have made gives me little confidence in the processes that influenced the
prior Foster death probes by placing limits on the investigations, including
prior congressional hearings. I hope that you and the other members of the
Whitewater Committee will read my analysis, put partisanship aside, and do
what must be done. No "Wise Men." Certainly no "Star Chamber" in Congress
(or in the Office of Independent Counsel).

Warm regards,

/s/ Hugh H. Sprunt

HHS/hs

cc: Members of the Whitewater Committee
Special Counsel Michael Chertoff
Ms. Laura Tolson, Federal Grand Jury Coordinator
Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr
Deputy White House Counsel Bruce R. Lindsey
Chief of Staff Margaret Williams
Chairman James Leach, House Banking Committee
Mr. Miguel Rodriguez
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
FBI Director Louis Freeh [& Others]