Later investigations by independent counsels Robert Fisk and Kenneth Starr concluded the same thing. The US Park Police had jurisdiction over the matter and concluded, in conjunction with the FBI, that it was a suicide. Then his body was found in a park with a bullet through his head and a gun in his hand. He spoke to his doctor on the phone in Little Rock and got a prescription for antidepressants. He called one, but got an answering machine. His sister provided him with the names of two DC-area psychiatrists anyway, and urged him to see one "off the record" to alleviate his clearance concerns. He told his sister that he was suffering from depression but was afraid that seeing a psychiatrist would cost him his security clearance. In the days before his death, Foster was having trouble eating or sleeping.
With his family left behind in Arkansas and feeling that his reputation for integrity was in tatters due to partisan politics, Foster killed himself on July 20, 1993, just a few months into Clinton's presidency. Then came a political firestorm over the firing of seven staffers from the White House travel office, an early (and totally ridiculous) Clinton scandal that made him the subject of multiple scathing Wall Street Journal editorials. Several of Clinton's early failed appointments - Zoë Baird, Kimba Wood, and Lani Guinier - had been under his purview, and he felt guilty about his involvement. Foster served under Bernard Nussbaum, a successful New York attorney who had more national prominence and more experience in controversial political cases but weaker ties to the Clintons.įoster was not very successful at his new position. When Bill Clinton became president, he wanted to bring some associates from Arkansas he knew personally and was comfortable with into the White House and appointed Foster to be deputy White House counsel. Who is Vince Foster?įoster was a prominent Arkansas attorney in the 1970s and '80s who lived across the street from Bill Clinton when they were very young, and who was later responsible for hiring Hillary Clinton at the Rose Law Firm. And in a sense, it's useful that he brought up perhaps the flimsiest and most ridiculous anti-Clinton allegation of all, because fully understanding exactly how flimsy and ridiculous it is helps you understand the kind of basic siege mentality with which Hillary Clinton treats the press and its suggestions of scandal. Trump's decision to bring up the case is, however, revealing about his own approach to politics and life.
It was a tragic suicide, not a murder to further a cover-up. In fact, few if any suicides have been investigated as thoroughly - or repeatedly - as Foster's, and it's very clear what happened to him. In truth, there is nothing fishy about Foster's death. Deeming the circumstances of Foster's death "very fishy," Trump observed that Foster "knew everything that was going on, and then all of a sudden he committed suicide." Speaking to the Washington Post on Monday, Donald Trump referred to "very serious" allegations that there was foul play involved in the death of White House staffer Vince Foster in the early months of the Clinton administration.
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