FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
WASHINGTON - Who did Vincent Foster and Webster Hubbell meet the weekend before Foster's death in July 1993? Nathan Landow.
Landow, a real estate mogul, has been a Democratic party power broker for decades. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter nominated him for an ambassadorship to the Netherlands, but Landow withdrew in the wake of press reports linking him to organized crime figures.
Landow has been thrust front and center in the current Zippergate scandal involving President Bill Clinton. Press reports say Kathleen Willey, who dramatically told "60 Minutes" her story of an improper sexual advance by the president, alleges Landow pressured her to keep quiet about the matter. Willey alleges Landow last fall had her flown on a chartered jet to his coastal estate in Easton, Md., where he requested that she simply deny anything improper had taken place.
Landow, while acknowledging he met Willey at his estate, has denied he tried to persuade her not to tell the truth.
This is not the first time Landow's close ties to the Clinton White House have come under press scrutiny.
A year ago, the Washington Post reported that Landow and Peter Knight, another confidant of Vice President Al Gore, had pressured two Indian tribes to pay lobbying fees to them in the tribes' efforts to regain lands from the federal government.
The Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt also reported that Landow had sought to involve Webster Hubbell, then under investigation in the Whitewater case, in a money-making real estate deal.
Starr's office has been investigating whether Clinton administration supporters swayed contracts and fees to Hubbell in order to buy his silence during Starr's Whitewater probe.
In a letter to the Journal dated March 20, 1997, Landow denied Hunt's report. "I barely know Mr. Hubbell and have never had a discussion with him concerning business of any kind, nor have I participated in any group that has done so," Landow declared.
Landow's letter didn't mention at least one contact with Hubbell. Hubbell, Foster and their wives spent part of the weekend before Foster's death at Landow's Maryland estate, along with Landow's daughter and son-in-law, Harolyn and Michael Cardozo.
Foster's widow, Lisa, told FBI investigators probing his death that the weekend trip was nothing more than a rare opportunity for the couple to take a break. In fact, it was their first weekend together since Foster moved to Washington, and going into it the pair had no set agenda and no plans to see the Hubbells.
The Fosters received a call from Hubbell's wife that Saturday inviting them to join the Cardozos at Landow's house.
The Fosters did so, and Hubbell initially described the weekend to the FBI as not having anything to do with Foster's concerns about White House matters. "Foster spent his time reading the paper, boating, hitting some golf balls and being introduced to eating fresh crab," Hubbell's 1994 statement to the FBI reads.
The Fosters' invitation seems to have been hastily arranged.
On Saturday morning, Hubbell was at the Justice Department for a meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum and FBI Director William Sessions. Reno, Hubbell and Nussbaum demanded that Sessions resign as FBI director; he refused to do so.
After the meeting, Hubbell and his wife left for the Maryland shore and arrived there during the mid-afternoon. Apparently, one of the Hubbells' first orders of business upon beginning their belated weekend was to call Foster.
Their invitation probably didn't spring from loneliness. The Hubbells already had the company of the Cardozos and Landow himself.
Cardozo, a Washington lawyer and power broker in his own right, later went on to head up Clinton's first legal defense fund.
Hubbell later told a Senate committee and wrote in his book, "Friends in High Places," that the weekend getaway occurred while administration colleagues were concerned about Foster, the deputy White House counsel.
Hubbell testified at the Senate hearing that Foster feared his phones were tapped. In Maryland, Foster indicated to Hubbell that "we really need to talk" but suggested they do so in a "park somewhere" when they returned to Washington.
Hubbell also acknowledged that upon arriving at the White House the Monday after the weekend he first reported to Chief of Staff Mac McLarty. According to Hubbell, McLarty's first queries were about Foster. "A lot of us are worried about Vince," Hubbell quoted McLarty as saying.
Hubbell and the official reports of Foster's death remain fuzzy as to why White House officials including McLarty were so concerned about Foster, especially after he told Hubbell he had an enjoyable weekend.
Independent Counsel Robert Fiske and Starr, his successor, developed detailed reports on Foster's state of mind and the factors they concluded led to his death in Fort Marcy Park.
There is no public record that they interviewed the Cardozos or Landow about Foster's last weekend to ascertain whether the get-together had any hidden purpose. - -
Vincent Foster Death Investigation, 1993-? -- The day after Sessions is fired, Clinton friend and White House aide Vincent Foster is killed.