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Exhibit S: Vince Foster’s relationship with Hillary Clinton
The following is an excerpt from OPIUM LORDS, by Salvador Astucia, pp 313 - 314.
Astucia cites two sources, journalists Roger Morris and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who described Vince and Hillary’s relationship as both professional and romantic, but not physical.
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[Vince] Foster and Hillary [Clinton] had a symbiotic relationship. Clinton’s former bodyguard, Arkansas State Trooper Larry Douglass Brown, stated in several interviews that he was aware of a serious and longstanding affair between Foster and Hillary—then partners at the famed Rose law firm—dating back to the mid-1980s. In addition to being one of Clinton’s preferred bodyguards, Brown’s wife-to-be, Becky McCoy, was Chelsea’s nanny.(14) According to Brown, Foster and Hillary were clearly in love, but it was an affair of the mind more than anything else. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote in his book, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton: "Foster was devoted. He would do anything for her. And she took advantage of that. There was no one else in the world that she could trust more than Vince Foster."(15) Roger Morris described the complexities of Foster’s relation with Hillary in his book, Partners in Power:
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There would be several sources—including a former US attorney, sometimes aides, a number of lawyers, social friends, and many of the same troopers who testified about the governor’s illicit acts—who described the First Lady’s affair, dating to the mid-1980s, with Rose partner Vince Foster. A relationship evident in the semiprivate kisses and furtive squeezes at parties and dinners described by the security guards, it was also an intimate professional bond between two attorneys who worked together on some of their firm’s most sensitive cases. Along with Webster Hubbell, they staged a veritable coup d’état to wrest control of the Rose firm in 1988. Many thought that the governor was well aware of the affair and ultimately accepted it as one more implicit bargain in their marriage. Clinton continued to treat Vince Foster as the close friend he had been since childhood in Hope, even entrusting him with some of the most crucial secrets of the 1992 campaign. "Bill knew, of course he knew," said a lawyer close to Foster who was familiar with them all. "But what the hell was he supposed to say to anybody about being faithful?"
To some, Hillary’s relationship with Vince Foster, a tall, handsome, courtly figure who was widely respected in the Little Rock legal and business community, was an understandable and natural response to her husband’s behavior. Foster was known to treat her with dignity, respect, and abiding love she was missing in her marriage. "He adored her," said a fellow lawyer. Under other circumstances, it might have been one of those relationships that remained private and without any political relevance to the Clinton presidency. What set it apart was that, once in the White House, the Clintons would install the First Lady’s confidant in one of the nation’s most sensitive positions as deputy counsel to the president, where he would handle controversial matters stemming from their Arkansas past as well as highly classified presidential affairs.(16) |
ENDNOTES
[14] Roger Morris, Partners in Power, p. 404. Morris cited the following sources for L. D. Brown’s account: deposition of L. D. Brown in Reed v. Young, July 25, 1995; plaintiff’s response to defendant’s Motion in Limine, December 14, 1995; Nation, September 25, 1995; American Spectator, August 1995; and confidential interviews.
[15] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, p. 333. Evans-Pritchard cited an interview with L. D. Brown, December 1985, as the source for his description of Hillary’s relationship with Foster.
[16] Roger Morris, Partners in Power, p. 444. Morris cited the following sources for his description of the relationships President and First Lady Clinton had with Vince Foster: American Spectator, January 1994, and April-May 1994; American Lawyer, July-August 1992; Sunday Telegraph (London), February 6, 1994; Washington Post National Weekly Edition, August 23-29, 1993; New Yorker, August 9, 1993; Esquire, November 1993; National Enquirer, August 10, 1993; Village Voice, August 3, 1993; Economist, February 12, 1994; Hope Star (Arkansas), July 20, 1993; In These Times, September 6, 1993; New York Times, August 13, 1993; US News and World Report, August 23, 1993; and confidential interviews.
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