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Whitewater Trials and Impeachment of a President: 1994-99

The Denouement: A Plea Bargain

The Castle Grande real estate deal made the headlines again on June 30, 1999, when Webster Hubbell as part of a plea bargain pleaded guilty to felony charges under the first of a 15-count indictment. The plea bargain dismissed the other 14 charges. It also kept Hubbell from returning to jail and, as part of the deal, Starr agreed not to press criminal charges against Hubbell's wife, his accountant, or his lawyer. In addition, by pleading guilty and eliminating the expected trial, saved Hubbell substantial legal fees. And there was still another benefit: the indictment on Castle Grande had included more than 30 references to Hillary Clinton, implying the possibility that she had been as much involved in illegal activities as Hubbell himself. Starr had her on his witness list, with the trial scheduled for August 9—just when she would have been on her "listening tour" of New York State in anticipation of running for a Senate seat. Altogether, observed commentators, the Hubbell plea bargain amounted to surrender by Ken Starr because it signaled that he feared defeat in another Whitewater trial.

—Bernard Ryan, Jr.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Bennett, William J. The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Beschloss, Michael R. and Bill Clinton. The Impeachment and Trial of President Clinton: The Official Transcripts, from the House Judiciary Committee Hearings to the Senate Trial. New York: Random House, 1999.

Cohen, Daniel. The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton. Brookfield, Conn.: Twenty-First Century Mediacorp, 2000.

Conason, Joe and Gene Lyons. The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. New York: St. Martin's, 2000.

Coulter, Ann H. High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case against BUI Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1999.

Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose. The Secret Life of Bill Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1997.

Finkelman, Paul. Impeachable Offenses: A Documentary History from 1787 to the Present. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1999.

Ginsberg, Benjamin and Martin Sheffer. Politics by Other Means: Politicians, Prosecutors, and the Press from Watergate to Whitewater. New York: Norton, 1999.

Gross, Martin Louis. The Great Whitewater Fiasco: An American Tale of Money, Power, and Politics. New York: Ballantine, 1994.

Lyons, Gene. Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater. New York: Harper's Magazine Foundation, 1996.

McDougal, Jim and Curtis Wilkie. Arkansas Mischief. The Birth of a National Scandal. New York: Henry Holt, 1998.

Meyer, Wayne, ed. Clinton on Clinton: A Portrait of the President in His Own Words. New York: Avon, 1999.

Morris, Roger. Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Roberts, Robert N. and Marion T. Doss. From Watergate to Whitewater: The Public Integrity War. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1997.

Sheehy, Gail. Hillary's Choice. New York: Random House, 1999.

Starr, Kenneth, Monica Lewinsky, and the United States Court of Appeals. The Starr Evidence: The Complete Text of the Grand Jury Testimony of President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Stephanopoulos, George. All Too Human: A Political Education. New York: Little, Brown, 1999.

Stewart, James Brewer. Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

Toobin, Jeffrey. A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President. New York: Random House, 2000.

Additional topics

Law Library - American Law and Legal InformationNotable Trials and Court Cases - 1989 to 1994Whitewater Trials and Impeachment of a President: 1994-99 - The Whitewater Trials, The Impeachment, Regulators In, Mcdougal Out, Suicide, Special Counsel, Hearings - Anonymous Phone Calls, McDougal Indicted Again