G. Gordon Liddy: ...We now have Mr. William J. Kelly, who heard what I said over radio station WJJD, our affiliate in Chicago, and he, I understand, wishes to take issue with the Secret Service position. I think it only fair that we permit Mr. Kelly to give his side of the story. Mr. Kelly, are you there sir?
William Kelly: Yes sir.
G. Gordon Liddy: Good morning, Mr. Kelly. Would you be so kind as to tell us what you think is incorrect about what the Secret Service said?
William Kelly: Well, I have to tell you, I did not hear what you - uh... A friend of mine, who was listening, called and said that you had mentioned my name. I called the producer to give my story...
G. Gordon Liddy: Mr. Kelly, shall I tell you what it was I said - and then you can...? We received this information from Secret Service agent Harnischfeger. He says, that in the City of Chicago, in July of 1993, you were arrested after admitting to stealing a credential to get into the event in question, which was a speech at a hotel, and you were arrested for a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 752, which makes it unlawful for a person to willfully and knowingly enter a restricted area as designated by the Secretary of the Treasury. That restricted area being the temporary residence of the president. So that's what they say.
William Kelly: That is not accurate, and it's certainly not the entire story. Back in July of '93 I was 27 years old. Bill Clinton had just been elected president. He had made a promise of a middle- class tax cut. I had heard that he was coming to Chicago for one of these so-called town meetings, so I decided to attend. I thought that I would go, in the spirit of the American town hall meeting and ask him about his broken campaign promise of a middle-class tax cut. I got there. You'll recall, this was pre-Republican revolution, this was '94. He was proposing the widest tax increase in American history at the time...
And I stood up and said, "Excuse me, Mr. President, but during the campaign you promised a middle-class tax CUT. Now you are proposing the largest tax increase in American history. What you need to do is abide by your original campaign promise of a middle-class tax CUT. Well, the president blew his stack, pounded the podium, turned red, chastised me, and a Secret Service agent came over to me at that point and said okay sir, you got to ask your question; would you mind leaving now? And I said, "Yes sir." I turned around as the president was lecturing my back. I was leaving the grand ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel - there were about 650 other people there, the national press corps.
I was behind the rope; I wasn't in any way threatening; I left the hotel unescorted. I thought the entire incident was behind me. I was not arrested. I was not in any way under the impression that I was in any kind of trouble. Three hours later, federal agents came to my home, knocked on the door and told me that I was under arrest. At that time I asked them what the charges were. They said that they had no charges but they were looking into it, and they guaranteed me that they would find something and that I was coming with them. They put me in handcuffs, brought me down to the metropolitan correctional center. I asked them if I could call my lawyer - they said no. And the following day, true to their word, they charged me with a federal crime.
This whole issue of the name tag is absurd. It's the fig leaf they are trying to use to cover up their own abuse of power.
G. Gordon Liddy: How did you acquire the name tag?
William Kelly: I picked it up off a table. Anybody who's ever been to any type of reception has seen those "Hello, my name is Bill," or "Hello, my name is Joe," name tags.
G. Gordon Liddy: Is that what it was?
William Kelly: Yes. We're not talking about a Secret Service badge or something. We're talking about a piece of paper that hardly warrants being charged with a federal crime. They wanted to send me to federal prison, but luckily, what happened was there was a radio show host in Chicago - a former Republican candidate for mayor, who also happened to be an attorney, who heard about my situation over the news wires. He agreed to represent me. We went back and forth at the U.S. Attorney's office for six months, trying to get them to drop these preposterous charges against me.
When it was finally suggested that I should contact my congressman, who turned out to be former Black Panther Bobby Rush who, when he was my age, was advocating "offing the pigs," which was a 1960s euphemism for killing police officers. When I realized that,...I thought, "This is absurd." I'm being charged with a federal crime, basically for asking about a tax cut - asking an embarrassing question, and here my own president was in Moscow when he was my age, and my own congressman...
G. Gordon Liddy: What was the disposition?
William Kelly: What happened was, when I announced my candidacy, they dropped the charges against me. I ran for congress against Bobby Rush. It's a racially gerrymandered district, so despite the fact that we ran a great campaign, we lost. We've since filed a racial gerrymandering lawsuit against the First Congressional District...
G. Gordon Liddy: Okay, we're about to run out of time. They dropped the charges, right?
William Kelly: They dropped the charges. If I were some dangerous terrorist, they wouldn't have so readily dropped the charges, based on the fear of getting some negative publicity.
G. Gordon Liddy: Unfortunately, we've run out of time. But I thank you very much.
William Kelly: Thank you.