David Barrett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-
For the American soldier and diplomat, see David D. Barrett. For the Canadian politician, see Dave Barrett. For the software engineer, see David Barrett
David Barrett is a special prosecutor assigned to investigate the Clinton Administration's alleged abuse of the Internal Revenue Service, especially in the matter of the Henry Cisneros scandal. Barrett wrote what was rumored to be a damning report. Release of the report was blocked for a time by parliamentary maneuvers by Clinton's personal attorney David E. Kendall.
Columnist Emmett Tyrrell wrote the following about the report: "When Barrett completed his report the Clintons' lawyers, led by that legendary Clinton pettifogger, David Kendall, tried to kill off the report either by gutting it with redactions or by getting it buried altogether. Kendall entered some 140 motions pursuant to this goal. The report has been ready for publication since August 2004, but Kendall's nuisance tactics have worked, and now what do we hear from the Clintonistas? They complain that Barrett has cost too much and taken too long. As they are themselves are the reason for much of the cost and delay, advocates of good government should be up in arms. This stratagem has been used too frequently by the Clintonistas to smear an officer of the court."
Prior to his appointment as White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow wrote, "By all accounts, the 400-page Barrett report is a bombshell, capable possibly of wiping out Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential prospects. At the very least, it would bring to public attention a scandal that would make the Valerie Plame affair vanish into comical insignificance."[1]
In April 2005, Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) tried to end the $22 million investigation, including $1 million for the first six months of 2005 - by cutting Barrett's budget, saying "it's a waste of money."[2]
Kendall has not commented to the news media.
[edit] Report
Barrett's report was released in January 2006, but three judges -- David Sentelle (D.C.), Thomas Reavley (Texas) and Peter Fay (Florida) -- blacked 120 pages worth of redactions. Barrett's investigation was far and away the longest independent counsel investigation in history. After agreeing to permit Cisneros - the target of his investigation - to plead guilty to a misdemeanor with no jail sentence, Barrett thereafter spent six years investigating whether the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service had impeded his investigation.
Journalist Robert Novak reported on the release in his January 19, 2006 column: "The long-awaited final report by Independent Counsel David Barrett, to be released today [Thursday], was severely censored by court order but not enough to sufficiently obscure its importance. As long forecast, it alleges serious corruption in the Clinton administration's Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The question is what was contained in 120 pages removed by the judges."[3]
While advance press reports, particularly from the conservative columnists quoted above, suggested that Barrett's report would contain damaging information, in fact it contained nothing but speculation. There was absolutely no evidence of corruption or obstruction, as the complete lack of press after release of the report shows. Barret's investigation turned out to be a major embarrassment, not for the Clintons, but for Barrett himself.[4]
