In the days before he committed suicide, deputy White House counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. began efforts to hire a private lawyer to advise him in connection with inquiries into the firing of seven White House travel office employees, investigators probing Foster's death recently discovered.
While Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee were pushing a "resolution of inquiry" to force a congressional investigation into the travel office affair, Foster consulted his brother-in-law, Washington lobbyist and former Arkansas Congressman Beryl F. Anthony Jr., about hiring a lawyer."He was concerned there might be a congressional inquiry and he might need an attorney," Anthony told Park Police investigators, according to knowledgeable sources. Anthony, who then recommended some lawyers, said Foster also expressed concerns that the Wall Street Journal, which had criticized Foster in several editorials, had "tarnished his reputation," sources said.
Foster, who took his life July 20, first approached Anthony on July 12. Anthony's comments were the first indication to investigators that the deputy White House counsel had felt he needed legal assistance.
Administration officials confirmed that Foster had been seeking outside legal advice on the travel office affair and had begun discussions with James Hamilton, a former deputy counsel to the Senate Watergate committee and a key legal adviser to the Clinton transition team. But they said that Foster was looking out for the interests of the entire White House counsel's office and that he did not believe he faced any personal legal difficulties.
White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum said in an interview that it would have been "prudent" for Foster to seek outside legal advice given the prospect that he might be questioned in the course of Justice Department, congressional and General Accounting Office inquiries.
While Foster was worried that a congressional investigation might be "politically driven," Nussbaum said, "Vince was not concerned that he did anything wrong in connection with the travel office. . . . If there is any implication that he was worried about personal liability, that's just totally wrong and unfair."
Hamilton, who now represents Foster's family, declined to comment.
Foster's concern about the travel office issue was evident in the handwritten note discovered in his briefcase after his death and released by the Justice Department last week. In the note, Foster wrote, "I did not knowingly violate any law or standard of conduct" and contended that the FBI had "lied" in its report to Attorney General Janet Reno on its dealings with the White House counsel's office on the travel office affair.
Foster's attempt to seek legal help is described in more than 200 pages of Park Police and FBI reports into his death that have not yet been publicly released. While those reports leave no doubt that Foster was suffering from a worsening depression, Park Police investigators say their limited efforts to explore the possibility of any specific job-related concerns that troubled Foster were hindered by what they considered impediments created by the White House counsel's office.
From the moment Park Police investigators arrived at the White House the morning after Foster's death, they were refused permission to enter and search Foster's second-floor office and denied access to examine any of his work-related papers, investigators said.
The White House's failure to immediately seal off Foster's office after his death became known made it impossible to determine if any files or documents had been removed after his body was discovered, investigators said.
The Park Police report, sources said, says that at least four White House aides entered Foster's office after his body was discovered on the evening of July 20 and before his office was officially sealed by the Secret Service at about 10:15 a.m. the following day.
About an hour after White House aides learned of Foster's death at 9 p.m. that night, Nussbaum, Maggie Williams, Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff, and Patsy Thomasson, an aide to the White House chief of administration, entered Foster's office and looked for a suicide note, the police report said.
Early the following morning, Nussbaum's secretary also entered Foster's office to straighten up papers, the report states, according to sources.
"At that point, we more or less were going through a formality," one investigator said he concluded after learning of those entries. Although Nussbaum assured them no files had been removed, "Good police work was out of the window because any evidence we found in that room could have been contaminated. . . . We basically were just jumping through the hoops."
Nussbaum confirmed that he and Thomasson conducted what he described as a brief, 10-minute search of Foster's office the night of his death, examining the top of his desk and shelves, but removing or disturbing no documents. He said Williams was too distraught to participate.
But Nussbaum vigorously disputed that he had hindered the efforts of investigators, saying he was at all times seeking to "balance the interests" of Foster's privileged communications with the president with the "legitimate" needs of the police.
In the end, investigators were provided with copies of Foster's phone logs and allowed to interview any White House employee. "I think we handled it properly," Nussbaum said.