Just before the holidays, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for D.C. issued a decision sanctioning the Clinton Administration for its “dishonesty” in fighting a lawsuit which opened up the meetings and records of Hillary’s health care task force.
The successful suit was filed by NLPC and two other groups in February 1993. By making an issue of the secrecy, NLPC helped unravel Hillary’s plan for government run-and-rationed health care.
An Angry Judge
Lamberth minced no words in ruling that the government must pay legal
bills of $285,864 incurred by the plaintiffs. He ruled that task
force director Ira Magaziner lied to him, and the White House and Justice
Department lawyers of “outrageous conduct” in covering up the lies.
At issue was a March 3, 1993 sworn deposition. Magaziner claimed that all participants in the health care task force were government employees. It was a falsehood, and it was not a small point. We had sued under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). It requires open meetings of any government task force when private individuals take part.
One week later on March 10, Judge Lamberth ruled that the task force had to open its meetings to the plaintiffs and the media. This setback for Hillary was front-page news. In reality, it was a split decision. Lamberth ruled that the “official” members of the task force, meaning the First Lady and the Cabinet Secretaries, could not meet in secret because Hillary was not a government employee. But Lamberth also ruled that the “worker bees” who were developing the plan could continue to work in secret, because FACA was never meant to apply to staff. Of course, Lamberth was relying on Magaziner’s false representation that all the staffers were government employees.
Koppel Taken Aback
That evening on ABC’s “Nightline,” I debated White House aide George
Stephanopoulos. I addressed the issue head on, “What a lot of Americans
are worried about, Ted, is that we now have an American version of Imelda
Marcos, wielding vast influence behind the scenes, with little accountability
to the American people.” Leaving the “Nightline” set, I remember
Koppel chiding me for the Imelda Marcos comparison as unduly harsh.
The White House appealed Lamberth’s ruling, arguing that Hillary functioned as a government official. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed on June 22, 1993. If it was a victory for Hillary, it was a Pyhrric one. The Appeals Court opened the door for the discovery of Ira Magaziner’s lie by granting us access to task force documents after we presented evidence that private, special interests had taken part in the task force.
Uncovering the Lie
Eventually, 250 boxes containing 500,000 documents would be released.
They confirmed that lobbyists and Clinton campaign donors, who stood to
benefit financially from Hillary’s plan, illegally took part in the task
force
While there were thousands of documents addressed to Hillary, there were virtually none from Hillary. There is no doubt such documents were withheld. Their release would have shed light on Hillary’s involvement in Magaziner’s falsehoods.
It is a dubious proposition that Magaziner could have lied without Hillary’s advance knowledge. Webster Hubbell states in his new book, “I think the beginning of Vince’s downturn was when the Health Care Task Force was sued.” Hubbel asserts that Hillary snapped at Foster, “Fix it, Vince.”
Magaziner conveniently claims that his March 3, 1993 sworn declaration was prepared by Vince Foster, a dead man, and Hubbell, a convicted felon. The lawsuit was being defended by Justice Department lawyers who filed Magaziner’s declaration. At the very least, they would have read it. White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum was also aware of the contents. The notion that Magaziner could have lied without the advance knowledge of anyone else is simply not credible.
Hillary, Nussbaum and the Justice Department team handling the case
were all lawyers. As members of the Bar and Officers of the Court, they
had a responsibility to bring an instance of perjury to the attention of
the Court if they became aware of it. None of them did even though they
were undoubtedly aware of it long before Judge Lamberth or anyone else
outside the Administration.
Hillary the Culprit?
Hillary’s passivity in the face of Magaziner’s lies is easy to prove.
But the circumstances suggest a far deeper involvement. It is unlikely
that a score of prominent lawyers in two different executive departments
would have acquiesced to Magaziner marching into federal court to make
false statements. There had to be a greater force within the Administration
that they feared even more than putting their careers on the line.
EW