15. Newsweek outs me
Copyright © 2000 by Dan E. Moldea
On January 8, Mark Hosenball of Newsweek, with whom I had been acquainted for several years, called and asked me to confirm or deny that I was Flynt's mystery investigator. Other than confirming that I had handled the probes of Livingston and Flynt's other targets, reminding him about the sworn affidavit on my web site, and denying any White House involvement in our investigation, I refused to discuss the matter any further.
Hosenball's story, written with Andrew Murr--"Who's on Larry List?", which first identified me--ran in Newsweek's January 18 issue, released on January 11, the same day that Flynt unloaded our information about Bob Barr. Hosenball and Murr reported:
Flynt had a tough time finding respectable journalists or gumshoes willing to take on the job. But at least one, Newsweek has learned, eagerly accepted: Dan Moldea. An investigative crime reporter and author of controversial books about pro football and the O.J. Simpson case, Moldea is a Clinton sympathizer. Last year he approached the president's private lawyers with a tantalizing story: in phone calls Moldea secretly recorded, two of Kenneth Starr's top deputies admitted that their office routinely briefed sympathetic reporters. Moldea later repeated the leak charge in a sworn statement to the judge overseeing the Starr probe. Moldea investigated the allegations against Livingston. He confirmed to Newsweek that he is continuing to investigate other Clinton critics. (Moldea and the president's attorneys deny there is any connection between the White House and Flynt.)" [Emphasis added]However, the fact remained: I did not approach the President's attorneys; rather, they had approached me. Hosenball--who apparently was trying to dismiss me as some sort of sycophant--had specifically asked me about this and even had a copy of my sworn affidavit to Judge Johnson in which I explained my contacts with Williams & Connolly. Still, he got the story wrong, and his error would start another chain of events that would cause me a considerable amount of problems.In short, this is what had happened: After I revealed my information about the OIC leaks during a speech in May 1998, Max Stier, one of the President's lawyers called me and asked for a meeting--which was a perfectly proper and legitimate request. I replied that I wanted a subpoena before cooperating and gave him my attorney's telephone number.
The following month, after Steven Brill's controversial "Pressgate" article was released, my attorney called me, saying that Stier had telephoned again and repeated his request for a meeting. When I said that I still wanted a subpoena, my attorney replied that the President's lawyers apparently did not have subpoena power and wanted to use my information to help them get it.
At that point, I agreed to the meeting--my first and only meeting with anyone from Williams & Connolly--which took place on June 26, 1998.
On January 13, 1999--the eve of the opening arguments in the Senate's impeachment trial against President Clinton--the Washington Post, Newsweek's parent company, published its own article by reporter Howard Kurtz, repeating that I was Flynt's investigator. Authorized by Flynt to comment in the wake of the erroneous Newsweek article, I told Kurtz that, indeed, Flynt had several "big fish" on his plate. However, I added that some of them would not be made public:
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill should be sending us flowers and thank-you cards. They weren't going on TV talk shows shooting off their mouths [about Clinton], or going to the floor of Congress to seize the moral high ground. We've thrown them back in the river. We're not going to interfere with their lives.Actually, I had meant these remarks to be conciliatory.That same day, Bill Sammon of the Washington Times, another Clinton critic with whom I had also agreed to speak, published a front-page story, "Flynt sleuth dished dirt for White House," cynically using my role in the OIC leaks investigation as evidence of my--and, thereby, Flynt's--connection to the White House.
Sammon wrote in his lead paragraph:
The investigator who dug up dirt on Republican Reps. Bob Barr and Robert L. Livingston for pornographer Larry Flynt is a Clinton sympathizer who has supplied the president's attorneys with evidence against independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.Although Sammon portrayed this as a major expose, he failed to mention that I had detailed all of this and more in my sworn affidavit, which was posted for all to see at my web site.Continuing his story, Sammon then quoted me about the Flynt investigation, saying:
I don't think there's anybody on our team who's getting much joy out of this. When you start hurting families, that's something that makes you pause and think about what's going on. But at the same time, I just haven't seen any mercy shown towards Clinton--I mean, none, zero.However, using a version of the quote I had given to the Post about throwing non-hypocritical Republicans "back in the river," Sammon gave this statement a nefarious twist, writing:[Moldea] made it clear he has uncovered salacious material on more Republicans whose identities will remain secret as long as they refrain from speaking out against Mr. Clinton.This statement immediately caused more problems: As spun by Sammon, I appeared to be threatening or even blackmailing unnamed members of Congress! Even though this allegation was nonsense, it quickly took on a life of its own.As the Senate trial began, Flynt, MacDonell, and I were widely accused of political terrorism with our campaign. Along with other members of Congress, Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) insisted, "Intimidation is something we have to resist. You don't negotiate with terrorists. This is almost a terrorist-like tactic being used here."
Senator James M. Jeffords (R-Vermont) told reporters, "I'm deeply concerned. I think any effort to blackmail people, . . . that's very serious."
Meantime, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) continued to suggest a link between Flynt and the White House, adding on NBC's Meet the Press, "I don't know anybody who's hiring these tough, mean investigators like has been done for the President."
At the daily White House briefing, press secretary Joe Lockhart fielded a question from a reporter who asked, "Larry Flynt's investigator, Dan Moldea, says that he has uncovered information on additional Republicans, but is going to withhold it as long as they don't criticize the President. Does this strike you as blackmail and will the White House call for him to cease and desist?"
Lockhart simply replied, "Listen, the President has been as clear as possible that he thinks the politics of personal destruction should cease and desist, and should have ceased and desisted a long time ago. I don't know anything about this gentleman you're talking about. I believe, as the President agrees, that all of this kind of sleazy politics ought to stop and it ought to stop from the right, from the left, and from the people who create the market in this stuff. And it's our hope that it does."
Regardless of anything the White House said or did, the false claims that Flynt and I were linked to the President and his operatives continued and escalated.