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---
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category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
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tags:
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- Person
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- CarolineEllison
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- AlamedaResearch
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- FTX
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- SamBankmanFried
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- JaneStreet
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- EffectiveAltruism
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- FTXFoundation
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- Anthropic
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- CooperatingWitness
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- Forfeiture
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alias:
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- Caroline Ellison
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- Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research)
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summary: "Jane Street trader turned Alameda Research chief executive who pleaded guilty in December 2022, testified against Sam Bankman-Fried, forfeited Anthropic shares and was released from federal custody in January 2026."
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born: 1994-11
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location: "Boston, Massachusetts (born)"
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relations:
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Jane Street Capital]]"
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start: 2016
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end: 2018-03
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role: "assistant quantitative trader on the equities desk, after summer internships in 2015 and 2016"
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fn: 4
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Alameda Research]]"
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start: 2018-03
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role: "cryptocurrency trader"
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fn: 4
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Alameda Research]]"
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end: 2022-11-18
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role: "co-CEO, then sole CEO from about August or September 2022"
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fn: 6
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- type: director_of
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with: "[[Alameda Research]]"
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start: 2022-09-06
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end: 2022-11-11
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role: "director, per the FTX debtors' complaint"
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fn: 7
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- type: director_of
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with: "[[FTX Foundation]]"
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role: "director of the Delaware nonprofit whose sole member was Bankman-Fried"
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fn: 8
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- type: partner_of
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with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]"
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role: "former girlfriend, per the government's sentencing letter"
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fn: 1
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- type: subject_of
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with: "[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]"
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start: 2022-12-21
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end: 2025-12-23
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role: "defendant in SEC v. Ellison, No. 22-cv-10794; consent judgments of 2022 and 2025"
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fn: 12
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- type: subject_of
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with: "[[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]]"
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start: 2022-12-23
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role: "consent judgment in CFTC v. Bankman-Fried, No. 22-cv-10503"
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fn: 4
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- type: informant_for
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with: "[[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]]"
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start: 2022-12-08
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role: "cooperating witness under a cooperation agreement"
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fn: 1
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- type: prosecuted
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with: "[[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2022-12-19
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end: 2024-09-24
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role: "guilty plea to seven counts; sentenced to 24 months"
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fn: 2
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- type: represented
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with: "[[WilmerHale]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "defense counsel"
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fn: 4
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created: 2026-10-01
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updated: 2026-10-01
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---
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Caroline Ellison (born November 1994 in [[Boston]]) was a trader at [[Jane Street Capital|Jane Street]] and then at [[Alameda Research]], the cryptocurrency trading firm of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]], which she ran as co-chief executive and chief executive until her employment ended on or about November 18, 2022. She pleaded guilty on December 19, 2022 to seven counts in the Southern District of New York under a cooperation agreement, testified for about three days at Bankman-Fried's trial in October 2023,[^1] and was sentenced on September 24, 2024 by Judge [[Lewis A. Kaplan]] to 24 months in prison (Bureau of Prisons register number 36854-510).[^2] The [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] records her actual release date as January 21, 2026, from the residential reentry management office in New York.[^3]
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### Family and education
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Her counsel's sentencing memorandum, citing the presentence report, states that she was born in Boston to Glenn and Sara Ellison, both professors of economics at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], and grew up in the Boston suburbs; that she captained her middle and high school math teams and won an award at the 2011 International Olympiad in Linguistics; and that she studied mathematics at [[Stanford University]], where she was the fifth member of a newly formed [[Effective Altruism]] group, came to the movement through online communities devoted to rationalism as she moved away from the Catholic faith of her youth, and started a blog on which she wrote about effective altruism topics. The memorandum states that she adopted the precept of "earning to give," gave first to global health and animal welfare charities, and later devoted much of her giving to artificial intelligence safety; a college friend's letter quoted in it describes her concern that artificial intelligence "would take over the world and cause humanity's extinction."[^4]
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### Jane Street
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According to the memorandum, she applied in her junior year for paid internships in order to earn money to donate, received three offers from financial companies, and in June 2015 moved to New York as a summer trading intern at Jane Street, where she first met Bankman-Fried, then a full-time trader of about a year's standing who was coaching a mock trading exercise; they became acquainted at a Jane Street-sponsored dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. Her counsel wrote that Jane Street trained interns to maximize the expected value of a trading strategy rather than to focus on potential losses, through mock trading and a culture of constant small wagers, and that she did not recall structuring her thinking around expected value before Jane Street. She arranged a fifth year at Stanford in order to qualify for a second internship in the summer of 2016, was asked within weeks to forgo the master's program, and worked from the fall of 2016 for about a year and a half as an assistant quantitative trader on the equities desk, giving away most of her salary, with a social circle made up mainly of Jane Street employees, Bankman-Fried among them.[^4]
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### Alameda Research
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The memorandum states that in February 2018 Jane Street sent her on a recruiting trip to the Bay Area, that she met Bankman-Fried for coffee in [[Berkeley]], where he described Alameda as having an effective altruism ethos and as largely funded by wealthy people he knew through the movement, and that she began there as a cryptocurrency trader in March 2018, aged 23. Shortly afterward, her counsel wrote, she learned that Alameda had suffered large losses before she arrived; four managers who had pressed Bankman-Fried to disclose the losses to the wealthy investors who had lent Alameda its trading capital told the lenders against his directive, the lenders recalled much of their money, and the four managers left with many other employees. Bankman-Fried later told her he had known of the crisis when he offered her the job.[^4] A 2025 filing of the [[FTX Recovery Trust]] states that Bankman-Fried had founded Alameda in November 2017 with [[Tara Mac Aulay|Tara MacAulay]], the former chief executive of the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], and that in April 2018 MacAulay and other employees resigned after he refused their offer to buy him out.[^5]
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The memorandum describes overnight shifts from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. from the fall of 2018, moves to [[Hong Kong]] and then [[Bahamas|the Bahamas]] at Bankman-Fried's direction, and an "on-again-off-again, sometimes-secret relationship" with him; it states that she received no equity in Alameda and held less than 1 percent of [[FTX]].[^4] The government's letter of September 17, 2024, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Danielle Sassoon|Danielle R. Sassoon]], states that Bankman-Fried appointed her and [[Sam Trabucco]] co-chief executives of Alameda in the summer of 2021, explaining that he wanted to separate Alameda and FTX "more optically," that her salary did not change, that he retained 90 percent of Alameda, and that she continued to report to him.[^1] The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]'s complaint gives her tenure as co-chief executive from about October 2021 to about August 2022, when she became the sole chief executive, and records that she lived in Hong Kong and the Bahamas;[^6] the FTX debtors' complaint against the insiders gives it as August 2021 to September 2022 and states that she was also a director of Alameda from September 6, 2022 until the bankruptcy petition.[^7]
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The debtors' complaint in the [[Latona Biosciences Group|Latona]] proceeding states that the directors of the [[FTX Foundation]], a Delaware nonprofit whose sole member was Bankman-Fried, included Bankman-Fried, [[Nishad Singh]], [[Gary Wang]], Ellison and [[Nick Beckstead]];[^8] a later complaint by the FTX Recovery Trust describes the same five as its directors and officers.[^9] A December 30, 2021 document in which Bankman-Fried set out proposed terms for hiring [[Ross Rheingans-Yoo]], a former Jane Street colleague, lists the manager as "likely Caroline [Ellison] + SBF [Bankman-Fried] + Nick [Beckstead] depending on the task," and the revised and final terms place his Alameda position "reporting to CE [Ellison]." On April 11, 2022 Ellison signed his employment agreement with Alameda Research (Bahamas) Ltd. by DocuSign on behalf of Alameda; the debtors and Rheingans-Yoo stipulated that he did not perform the duties of a trader or investment associate there, was not employed by the FTX Foundation, and was paid from the bank accounts of FTX Digital Markets Ltd.[^10]
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### Conduct described by prosecutors
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The government's letter described Ellison as "Alameda's nominal CEO and Bankman-Fried's former girlfriend." Prosecutors wrote that she never worked at FTX and had no role in designing the code that gave Alameda special treatment there, that she had no knowledge of Bankman-Fried's campaign finance scheme, and that once she learned of the features she used them at his direction to misappropriate customer funds. The letter recounts, citing trial testimony and exhibits, the mid-2021 repurchase of [[Binance]]'s stake in FTX, then worth about 2 billion dollars, with a mix of FTX funds and customer deposits; an analysis she prepared in the fall of 2021 showing Alameda's net asset value at negative 2.7 billion dollars without FTT, Solana and Serum, after which she told Bankman-Fried that further venture investments were too risky and he proceeded with billions of dollars of them; and the May 2022 collapse of Terra and Luna, after which Alameda's lenders recalled nearly all their loans and Alameda repaid more than 6 billion dollars on demand. A spreadsheet prepared at Bankman-Fried's request showed Alameda with a negative 11 billion dollar balance on FTX and 13 billion dollars borrowed in customer funds; of the 6.5 billion dollars repaid to lenders, almost 70 percent was customer money. She prepared seven alternative balance sheets for lenders such as [[Genesis Global Capital|Genesis]], and Bankman-Fried chose "alternative 7," which hid Alameda's borrowing from FTX and about 5 billion dollars of related-party loans to FTX executives.[^1]
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The government wrote that in November 2022 she posted tweets meant to reassure FTX customers after Bankman-Fried told her, "I can't be the one to tweet because I don't want to be associated with Alameda"; that at an all-hands meeting on November 9, 2022, which she did not know was being recorded, she told Alameda employees that customer funds had been used to repay recalled loans and that she, Bankman-Fried, Wang and Singh had been involved; and that, unlike [[Ryan Salame]], she did not try to withdraw large sums from her FTX accounts before the bankruptcy. It quotes her testimony that Bankman-Fried's attitude toward lying and stealing "made me more willing to do things like lie and steal over time." She disclosed to prosecutors a payment of about 140 million dollars in cryptocurrency to unfreeze Alameda's accounts in China by bribing a Chinese official; the government charged Bankman-Fried with conspiracy to violate the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] on that basis but, "without the Bahamas consent," did not proceed on the count at trial.[^1]
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The SEC's complaint alleged that from at least May 2019 through November 2022 Ellison, Wang and Bankman-Fried defrauded the equity investors who put more than 1.8 billion dollars into FTX, and that Ellison, at Bankman-Fried's direction, caused Alameda to borrow from third-party lenders against holdings of FTT, a token FTX issued to Alameda at no cost, and engaged in automated purchases of FTT in order to increase its price and the value of Alameda's collateral.[^6]
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### The debtors' claims and her FTX holdings
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On July 20, 2023 FTX Trading Ltd., Alameda and other debtors sued Bankman-Fried, Wang, Singh and Ellison in the Delaware bankruptcy court for breach of fiduciary duty, waste, conversion and fraudulent transfers. As to Ellison, the debtors alleged that on February 22, 2022 she caused 22.5 million dollars to move from an Alameda account on FTX named "off_market_ftt" to an Alameda payroll account, then to an account of Salameda Limited, an FTX group entity, and then to her own FTX account; that on March 29, 2022 she transferred 10 million dollars from that account to her personal bank account; and that this money funded her 10 million dollar investment, through an M-SAFE agreement in late March 2022, in an unnamed "artificial intelligence safety and research company." They also alleged that she received 2,000,000 FTX call options on December 29, 2020 and a further 750,000 less than three months later without paying for them, and cash bonuses of 6,262,529.89 dollars on July 23, 2021 and September 14, 2022. The complaint quotes her private notes of March 2022 estimating a cash deficit at FTX.com of more than 10 billion dollars, and records that she responded with a "claps" emoji to a developer's warning about Alameda's borrowing on FTX US.[^7]
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The equity holder lists filed by the debtors on March 13, 2023 record Caroline Ellison as the holder of 38,160,000 shares of Class A common stock of West Realm Shires Inc., the parent of FTX US, and of 2,750,000 shares of common stock of FTX Trading Ltd.[^11]
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### Plea and cooperation
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According to the government's letter, federal agents executed a search warrant at her residence on November 16, 2022 and seized her phone; her attorneys relayed her interest in assisting the government the same day, gave an attorney proffer on December 7, and she began proffering on December 8. A grand jury indicted Bankman-Fried on December 9, 2022. On December 19, 2022 she pleaded guilty before Judge [[Ronnie Abrams]] to a superseding information charging conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers (18 U.S.C. section 1349), wire fraud on customers (section 1343), conspiracy to commit and commission of wire fraud on lenders, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and securities fraud (section 371), and conspiracy to commit money laundering (section 1956(h)). The pleas of Ellison and Wang were unsealed after Bankman-Fried consented to extradition and arrived in the [[United States]] on December 21, 2022. She met the government about 20 times after her plea and testified for about three days at the October 2023 trial, at which Bankman-Fried was convicted on all seven counts.[^1] Prosecutors wrote that she reviewed hundreds of documents and spreadsheets in discovery to identify evidence in an investigation hampered by Bankman-Fried's destruction of evidence, located the seven-tab balance sheet spreadsheet whose metadata showed his review before one version went to a lender, flagged chats concerning the use of Alameda trading to raise the price of FTT, and continued despite public scrutiny and Bankman-Fried's efforts to "weaponize her personal writings."[^1]
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The SEC filed its action against Ellison and Wang on December 21, 2022 (No. 22-cv-10794, [[U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]]), and judgments on consent were entered as to each on December 23, 2022.[^12] Her counsel wrote in 2024 that under the consent judgments with the SEC and with the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]] (in *CFTC v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22-cv-10503) she had accepted lifetime bans from working in the securities or commodities industries, from trading for others, and from serving as an officer or director of a public company.[^4] On December 19, 2025 the SEC filed her consent and moved for final judgment, and on December 23, 2025 Judge [[P. Kevin Castel]] entered a final judgment permanently enjoining her from violating section 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and section 17(a), barring her for 10 years from the date of the initial judgment from acting as an officer or director of an issuer with registered securities, and enjoining her for five years from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer or sale of securities other than for her own account. The final judgment entered as to Wang the same day carries an eight-year officer and director bar.[^12]
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### Settlements and civil cooperation
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The sentencing memorandum states that she had settled with the plaintiffs' steering committee in the FTX multidistrict litigation in the [[Southern District of Florida]] by a stipulation dated January 23, 2024, and, subject to the approval of the United States Attorney's Office, gave it documents and a declaration, filed February 16, 2024, describing how the Bahamian bank [[Deltec Bank and Trust]] provided Alameda a "clandestine line of credit of approximately $2 billion." It states that she sat for multiple interviews with the [[FTX bankruptcy examiner]] about Alameda and its relationship to FTX US, provided information to the [[New York Attorney General]]'s Investor Protection Bureau for a cryptocurrency investigation, and assisted the SEC and CFTC on market manipulation and FTX US compliance. Her counsel wrote that she had lived largely in hiding since December 4, 2022, and that friends declined to submit sentencing letters for fear of being identified.[^4] On September 23, 2024 her counsel, [[Anjan Sahni]] of [[WilmerHale]], informed the court that the settlements anticipated in the sentencing submission had been finalized: a consent preliminary order of forfeiture with the government, and a settlement with the FTX debtors resolving all their claims against her and setting a framework for her continuing cooperation. The letter was copied to [[Christopher Dunne]] of [[Sullivan & Cromwell]], counsel to the debtors.[^13]
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### Sentence, forfeiture and the Anthropic shares
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The presentence report put the guideline sentence at life, capped at 1,320 months, on an offense level of 43 driven by a loss above 10 billion dollars, and the probation office recommended time served. The government moved under section 5K1.1 of the [[Federal Sentencing Guidelines|Sentencing Guidelines]] on account of what it called her "extraordinary cooperation."[^1][^4] Her memorandum was filed by WilmerHale lawyers Sahni, [[Stephanie Avakian]], [[Peter Neiman]] and [[Nicholas Werle]].[^4] On September 24, 2024 Judge Kaplan imposed 24 months on each of the seven counts, to run concurrently, recommended a minimum security facility as close to Boston as possible, set surrender no earlier than November 7, 2024, and imposed three years of supervised release, with a special condition that throughout that term she continue to cooperate with the government, the SEC, the CFTC and, if requested, the FTX bankruptcy estate. All open counts were dismissed on the government's motion.[^2] The government later asked the court to correct the judgment to reflect that the court had declined to order restitution, as it had for Bankman-Fried, in favor of a remission process for forfeited assets.[^14]
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The consent preliminary order of forfeiture, filed September 25, 2024, provides for a money judgment of 11,020,000,000 dollars, for which she is jointly and severally liable with Bankman-Fried, Wang and Singh. It forfeits "the shares of Series B Preferred Stock in Anthropic PBC, acquired by the defendant on or about May 13, 2022, through the Simple Agreement for Future Equity the defendant purchased in exchange for $10,000,000 on or about March 31, 2022," recites a financial affidavit she swore on or about May 9, 2024, requires her to liquidate a Vanguard brokerage account and pay the proceeds to the United States before October 8, 2024, and records her admission that the property involved in the offenses, other than the [[Anthropic]] shares, "cannot be located upon the exercise of due diligence." The United States agreed not to pursue substitute assets if she made the payment and the forfeiture was completed.[^15] Her counsel wrote that the Anthropic shares, which she viewed as an investment in the safe development of artificial intelligence, were the only significant purchase she made while at Alameda and supplied the bulk of the value of her settlements.[^4] The FTX estate agreed in March 2024 to sell the majority of its own Anthropic stake for 884 million dollars, with Jane Street the second-largest buyer at almost 100 million dollars.[^16]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Letter of the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon, *United States v. Ellison*, 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 17, 2024), ECF No. 502, pp. 1-10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.502.0.pdf
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[^2]: Amended Judgment in a Criminal Case as to Caroline Ellison, *United States v. Ellison*, (S2) 22 Cr. 673-03 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y.; date of imposition Sept. 24, 2024; signed Oct. 9, 2024; filed Oct. 10, 2024), ECF No. 520, pp. 1-4. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.520.0.pdf
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[^3]: Federal Bureau of Prisons, Inmate Locator, Caroline Ellison, register number 36854-510, facility "New York" (residential reentry management office), actual release date 01/21/2026, queried October 1, 2026. https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/
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[^4]: Defendant Caroline Ellison's Sentencing Memorandum (redacted public filing), *United States v. Ellison*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2024), ECF No. 497, memorandum pp. 1-17, 26-27, 41, 46-48 and signature page (ECF pp. 4-21, 30-31, 44, 49-51). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.497.0.pdf
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[^5]: FTX Recovery Trust's Motion for Reconsideration or to Modify Order Allowing Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 31846, paras. 8-9. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.31846.0.pdf
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[^6]: Complaint, *Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ellison*, No. 22-cv-10794 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 21, 2022), ECF No. 1, paras. 1-5, 13-17. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.591453/gov.uscourts.nysd.591453.1.0.pdf
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[^7]: Complaint, *FTX Trading Ltd. v. Bankman-Fried* (Bankr. D. Del. filed July 20, 2023), filed as D.I. 1886 in *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD), parties, pp. 18-19, 25 and 30-31. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1886.0.pdf
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[^8]: Complaint, *Alameda Research Ltd. v. Platform Life Sciences Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. July 19, 2023), filed as D.I. 1881 in No. 22-11068, para. 17. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1881.0.pdf
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[^9]: First Amended Complaint, *FTX Recovery Trust v. Manifold Markets, Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 24-50214 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 38, para. 10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.194811/gov.uscourts.deb.194811.38.0.pdf
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[^10]: Stipulation of Undisputed Facts Relating to Ross Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. Jan. 15, 2025), D.I. 29218, paras. 3-6, 13, 21-25, 44-46. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.29218.0.pdf
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[^11]: Notice of Filing of Lists of Equity Holders, Exhibit A (WRS Equity Holders List) p. 8 and Exhibit B (FTX Trading Equity Holders List) p. 25 of 69, filed Mar. 13, 2023 in *In re Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd.*, No. 23-10149 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del.), D.I. 76-1. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.189054/gov.uscourts.deb.189054.76.1.pdf
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[^12]: Docket, *Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ellison*, No. 22-cv-10794-PKC (S.D.N.Y.), judgments of Dec. 23, 2022, consents and motions of Dec. 19, 2025, and final judgments as to Caroline Ellison and Zixiao ("Gary") Wang signed by Judge P. Kevin Castel on Dec. 23, 2025 (docket text); CourtListener docket 66676576. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66676576/securities-and-exchange-commission-v-ellison/
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[^13]: Letter of Anjan Sahni, *United States v. Ellison*, No. 1:22-cr-673-LAK (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 23, 2024), ECF No. 505. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.505.0.pdf
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[^14]: Letter of the United States re amendment of judgment, *United States v. Ellison*, S2 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 7, 2024), ECF No. 517. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.517.0.pdf
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[^15]: Consent Preliminary Order of Forfeiture as to Specific Property/Money Judgment, *United States v. Ellison*, S2 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. filed Sept. 25, 2024), ECF No. 510, pp. 3-4, 8. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.510.0.pdf
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[^16]: MacKenzie Sigalos, "FTX estate selling majority stake in AI startup Anthropic for $884 million, with bulk going to UAE," *CNBC*, March 25, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/ftx-estate-sells-majority-stake-in-startup-anthropic-for-884-million.html
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---
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category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
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tags:
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- Person
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- CarterCornick
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- FBI
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- Chilbom
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- OrlandoLetelier
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- DINA
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- CubanNationalistMovement
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- PuertoRico
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- Counterterrorism
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- CounterTerrorismConsultants
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- PrivateSecurity
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alias:
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- Carter Cornick
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- C. Carter Cornick
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- L. Carter Cornick
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- L. Carter Cornick Jr.
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- L. Carter Cornick, Jr.
|
||||
summary: "FBI agent who received informant reports on Puerto Rican independence groups, ran the Chilbom investigation of the 1976 Letelier and Moffitt murders, and in 1988 founded Counter Terrorism Consultants with the case's prosecutor."
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
|
||||
start: 1967
|
||||
end: 1988
|
||||
role: "special agent; supervisor, counterterrorism section, FBI headquarters"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño]]"
|
||||
start: 1972-11
|
||||
end: 1973-10
|
||||
role: "agent receiving informant reports, San Juan file 100-4014"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[DINA]]"
|
||||
start: 1976-09
|
||||
role: "case agent, Letelier and Moffitt murders (Chilbom)"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Cuban Nationalist Movement]]"
|
||||
start: 1976-09
|
||||
role: "case agent, Letelier and Moffitt murders (Chilbom)"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Michael Townley]]"
|
||||
start: 1979-02
|
||||
end: 1979-02
|
||||
role: "co-interviewer with Robert Scherrer, FD-302 interviews of February 6, 8 and 9, 1979"
|
||||
fn: 12
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Intelligence Information Handling Committee]]"
|
||||
start: 1984-11
|
||||
end: 1985-03
|
||||
role: "FBI member, Geographic Information Systems Subcommittee"
|
||||
fn: 16
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Hostage Locating Task Force]]"
|
||||
role: "FBI representative (as stated in the CTC resume packet)"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]]"
|
||||
start: 1988-08
|
||||
role: "co-founder"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]]"
|
||||
start: 1988-08
|
||||
role: "president; chief executive officer by 1990"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Eugene Propper]]"
|
||||
start: 1988-08
|
||||
role: "co-founder of Counter Terrorism Consultants"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
L. Carter Cornick Jr. was a special agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] from 1967 to 1988.[^1] He was a former Marine,[^2] described in 1978 as "descended from several generations of Virginians,"[^3] and held a bachelor's degree in Asian history from the [[University of Virginia]].[^4] He spent sixteen of his twenty-one bureau years on terrorism.[^5] In San Juan in 1972 and 1973 he received informant reports for the bureau's file on the [[Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño]]; from September 1976 he was case agent of the investigation code-named Chilbom into the murders of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]]; in the 1980s he worked in the counterterrorism section at FBI headquarters; and in August 1988 he and the case's prosecutor, [[Eugene Propper]], formed [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]][^1][^5][^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### San Juan, 1972 to 1976
|
||||
|
||||
The FBI's [[San Juan]] field office kept the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño under file 100-4014. Cover sheets for informant reports (form FD-306) in that file record Cornick as the receiving agent on at least eight occasions between November 1972 and October 1973. A report of November 1972 described planned activity of the [[Puerto Rican Socialist Party]], a planned demonstration in [[Washington, D.C.]], and a party meeting set for November 24, 1972, and was routed to a further file on the Committee for the Defense of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners. A report of July 24, 1973 consisted of a "mailing-membership list" of the [[Casa de la Amistad]]. One of September 28, 1973 covered activities of the group the cover sheet abbreviates as NPPR, including the September 12 celebration of the birth of [[Pedro Albizu Campos]] and of the [[Grito de Lares]]. Each cover sheet carried the printed notations that persons marked with an asterisk "only attended a meeting and did not actively participate" and that "violence or revolutionary activities were not discussed," and each instructed that information from the source, when disseminated, be paraphrased and classified to protect the source's identity.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Cornick also served as the San Juan office's media coordinator and completed the FBI's first media in-service training, at which the columnist [[Jack Anderson]] was the keynote speaker.[^1] He investigated bombings in [[Puerto Rico]] and, by the account of the journalist [[Zach Dorfman]], armed robbery cases.[^2][^3] He was transferred to the Washington field office several weeks before September 21, 1976, and placed on a newly formed criminal squad that handled bombing matters.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Sheridan Circle
|
||||
|
||||
Cornick reached [[Sheridan Circle]] about ten minutes after the bomb under Letelier's car exploded on the morning of September 21, 1976. [[Michael Moffitt]], who had been in the back seat, was shouting about DINA, a name that meant nothing to Cornick.[^2] His first questions were whether further devices remained and whether the FBI had jurisdiction. The jurisdiction rested on the Protection of Foreign Officials statute, whose coverage of former ambassadors had been added at the suggestion of a junior [[State Department]] attorney; without it the case would have gone to the homicide squad of the [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|Metropolitan Police Department]].[^1] The special agent in charge, [[Nick F. Stames]], assigned Cornick because of his availability, his Spanish and his experience with the Puerto Rico bombings.[^3] "It's your case. Do it," Stames told him at the scene.[^7] [[Stuart Case]], chief of the FBI explosives unit, directed the forensic search, which extended to the roofs of neighboring embassies and wire mesh over the storm drains. When another official moved to reopen part of the circle to traffic, Cornick refused: "The crime scene is here once."[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Letelier had worked at the [[Institute for Policy Studies]], which, Cornick wrote, had been "formerly investigated by the FBI"; the [[Washington Post]] reported in 1978 that the institute had been "infiltrated and spied upon by informants for the FBI" during the [[Vietnam War]]. Its staff resisted the evacuation and search of their building, which was ordered after a dog reacted to a car parked in front; Cornick wrote that he learned thirty years later that the dog had reacted to marijuana residue.[^1][^3] [[Saul Landau]] wrote that he met Cornick at [[Isabel Letelier]]'s house on the night of the murder, that the institute's staff accused Cornick personally of having tapped their telephones, opened their mail and gone through their garbage, and that Cornick answered: "I don't know anything about that, but I'll tell you one thing. We're on the same side in this one."[^7] [[John Dinges]] and Landau wrote that some senior FBI officials referred to Letelier and the institute as "pinkos" and "commie perverts" and suggested that Cornick direct the investigation at the American left and Chilean exiles, and that Cornick, "a staunch anticommunist," resisted.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
The United States Attorney, [[Earl Silbert]], assigned a prosecutor from his major crimes unit at once, which Cornick attributed to the loss of evidence in the early "Watergate" investigation.[^1] The prosecutor was Eugene Propper. Cornick recalled telling Stames the next morning: "I have no intention of working with the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. I don't want some assistant U.S. attorney telling me how to run a case."[^2] The two had never met; they worked together for the next eighteen months before arrests were made in April 1978.[^3] The bureau designated the case a special, with major case status and the code name Chilbom.[^1] Cornick's plan was to rule out every motive other than the obvious one, including a Venezuelan mistress, a disgruntled colleague and a personal enemy abroad. His first report, written after three weeks, ran to more than 1,300 pages with a 50-page administrative section asking every receiving office and legal attaché for comment.[^1] He had the FBI interview every person in Letelier's address book, and some agents, by the account of Dinges and Landau, probed for leftist activity and suggested that the left had a motive.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Caracas and the Cuban exiles, 1976 to 1977
|
||||
|
||||
Because the Cuban exile side of the investigation would involve intelligence information, Propper, Assistant Attorney General [[J. Stanley Pottinger|Stanley Pottinger]] and the director of central intelligence, [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]], met to determine to what extent the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] could help.[^3] Within two days of the bombing [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete|Ricardo Morales]], an informant for the CIA, the FBI, the [[Drug Enforcement Administration|DEA]] and the [[Miami]] police who was also an officer of the Venezuelan intelligence service [[DISIP]], told the FBI that the Novo brothers of [[Union City, New Jersey]], had done it, citing [[Orlando Bosch]].[^2] On November 5, 1976, Assistant Attorney General [[Richard Thornburgh]] asked the State Department to arrange interviews of four men then held in [[Caracas]] in connection with the bombing of [[Cubana Flight 455 bombing|Cubana Flight 455]]: Bosch, [[Luis Posada Carriles]], [[Freddy Lugo]] and [[Hernán Ricardo Lozano]]. Thornburgh named the investigators to be sent: Propper and FBI special agents Carter Cornick and Raul Salinas. [[Harry Shlaudeman]] relayed the request to the embassy in Caracas on November 11 in a cable sent under [[Henry Kissinger]]'s name.[^8] Venezuelan officials kept Propper from Bosch for months.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Cornick later said that the CIA had placed Cuban exiles "recruited by the agency to fight the good war against Castro" in DISIP. "The agency put them down there!" he told Dorfman in 2015. Dorfman put the claim to [[Jack Devine]], a retired CIA officer stationed in Chile from 1971 to 1974, who answered: "Go show me. Prove it."[^2] Cornick repeated the claim in 2016: "the CIA inserted many anti-Castro Cubans into its intelligence service (DISIP) while still on friendly terms."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Propper brought [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Ignacio Novo]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] before the grand jury.[^2][^3] The State Department gave Propper and Cornick photographs and background on two Chileans, Juan Williams and Alejandro Romeral, who had entered the [[United States]] through Miami in August 1976 on official Chilean passports. In July 1977 the informant [[Ricardo Canete]] and the jailed militant [[Rolando Otero]] identified the Williams photograph, Otero in Cornick's presence. In December 1977 Cornick and a team of agents found immigration forms showing that both men had entered in August and left on September 2, 1976.[^2] An investigative clerk of the Washington field office found them after more than six weeks of searching forms by hand in a warehouse in [[Suitland, Maryland]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Santiago, 1978
|
||||
|
||||
The Chilean foreign ministry announced that it would answer only formal letters rogatory. The letters were sent with only the questions sealed, and Propper told courthouse reporters that they might find something in the clerk's office; the next day's front pages reported that the investigation was focused on members of the Chilean government. Cornick wrote that within several days the Chilean press identified "the individual with blond hair" as an American, [[Michael Townley]], "who also worked for the CIA," and the second man as a DINA captain, [[Armando Fernandez Larios]].[^1] Propper and Cornick arrived in [[Santiago]] on March 19, 1978.[^2] At the headquarters of DINA's successor, the [[Central Nacional de Informaciones|CNI]], Cornick saw two soldiers feeding books into a fire in an oil drum; inside, the general in charge admitted for the first time that Townley had worked for DINA.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Propper, Cornick and the legal attaché [[Robert Scherrer]] questioned two Chilean army captains that month about their roles. One said under questioning on March 24 that the purpose of their August 1976 mission to the United States had been to see [[Vernon Walters]]. Walters gave the FBI a deposition in June 1978 denying any knowledge of the case or contact with the officers.[^9] One evening members of the [[Carabineros de Chile|Chilean National Police]] told Cornick and Scherrer that a warrant required them to appear before a magistrate; Cornick wrote that both held diplomatic passports accrediting them to Chile, cited immunity, and that the police backed down.[^1] Chile expelled Townley on April 8, 1978, and Cornick escorted him to the United States; the [[Federal Aviation Administration|FAA]] ordered the plane to land at [[Baltimore]] short of New York.[^1][^10] On May 9 Ambassador [[George Landau]] cabled from Santiago that Chilean courts were investigating the expulsion, that the press had named Scherrer and Cornick as Townley's escorts, and that lawyers for Townley and his wife wanted them called before the investigating judge. Scherrer held a diplomatic passport; "in order to preserve same option with respect to Carter Cornick," Landau recommended "strongly" that Cornick be issued one for future visits, and likewise Propper.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
Townley's plea agreement, signed on April 18, 1978, capped his sentence at ten years. "We did not have, in my opinion, a prosecutable case," Cornick told Dorfman. "So what we did was we made a deal with the worst possible guy."[^1][^2] Townley implicated DINA's commander, [[Manuel Contreras]], its chief of operations, [[Pedro Espinoza]], and Fernandez Larios, and told the investigators that President [[Augusto Pinochet]] began every working day with a briefing from Contreras.[^1] A CIA report dated April 28, 1978, while Cornick was working in Santiago, stated that "Contreras told a confidant he authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." Shown that report and others in 2015 by John Dinges, Cornick said: "As you may suspect, none of this was new to us at the time." He called the information hearsay from people who would never testify, and said that "the interests of the U.S., according to [the Department of] State, were that Chile was a non-Communist country in [[Latin America]] and therefore no further punitive action against them was warranted."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### The test bomb
|
||||
|
||||
Cornick proposed a replication test: a second car of the same model, a bomb built by Townley from the same components, and a comparison of the damage. The prosecutors feared that a failed test would reach the defense in discovery, and the request went for approval to the bureau's deputy director.[^1][^2] An agent in [[Detroit]] obtained the car from [[General Motors]]. Townley, escorted by deputy marshals, was taken to each place where he had bought parts, including a Radio Shack on E Street behind FBI headquarters, and built the device with Stuart Case.[^1][^2] On July 20, in the summer of 1978 by Cornick's account, the bomb was detonated at the FBI explosives range; the electronics expert [[Bill Koopman]] wired the modified Fanon-Courier transmitter to the car's cigarette lighter. A search of the test site turned up a brass spacer post that matched one recovered at Sheridan Circle.[^1] A photograph Cornick supplied to Dorfman is captioned "Aftermath of controlled FBI bombing, 1979."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Indictment and trial, 1978 to 1979
|
||||
|
||||
On August 1, 1978, three Chilean officers and four Cuban exiles were charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official and with murder.[^1] On October 17 the prosecutors stated in a court filing that Townley had made "two unrelated contacts" with the CIA in Florida "a number of years ago," one of them in 1970 or 1971.[^9] That fall a bomb exploded at the home of the Chilean Supreme Court judge considering the American extradition request, and eleven days later another at the home of the judge investigating the first.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
After a [[New York Times]] magazine feature that summer, the producers of the [[CBS]] program "60 Minutes" asked for a segment with [[Mike Wallace]]. Cornick favored it as a platform to describe the Cuban Nationalist Movement as "a group of criminals, not super patriots, who regularly extorted the anti-Cuban exile community for personal gain"; CBS agreed to let a prosecutor censor any question that could affect the trial. Afterward, Cornick wrote, "according to public, police and FBI sources, CNM funding sustained a major blow," and the program entered the curriculum for FBI media coordinators at [[FBI Academy|Quantico]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The trial opened on January 9, 1979. The lead defense attorney, [[Paul Goldberger]], told the jury that the murder "was carried out by Michael Townley . . . working as an agent of the CIA." Propper concluded that the defense had taken on DINA's case because DINA was funding the defendants, "which turned out to be the case," Cornick wrote, and the CIA's chief personnel officer testified that Townley had never worked for the agency.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
During the trial Townley was held in the offices of the Major Crimes Unit of the [[United States Attorney for the District of Columbia|United States Attorney]], and with the knowledge of Propper and Barcella he telephoned people in Chile, including his Chilean lawyer and [[Gustavo Etchepare]], to gather information on the extradition case. Etchepare was a former member of [[Patria y Libertad]] with connections to DINA. On January 30, 1979, locked alone in Propper's office, Townley called Etchepare without authorization. Defense attorneys and relatives of the Cuban defendants told reporters that Contreras's Chilean lawyer, [[Sergio Miranda Carrington]], had brought from Chile a cassette on which Townley threatened to kill the trial judge, [[Barrington Parker]]; according to Miranda Carrington, Etchepare had recorded the call and given it to him, and he had passed it to the Cuban defendants' lawyers. A transcript was distributed to reporters at the courthouse by people connected with the defendants.[^12] The FBI's translation of the cassette has Townley saying: "the fact is that this was one of the things which were discussed like so, among friends, with people from the FBI, that is, have as many friends as we all have call . . . make threatening calls to the Judge for him to withdraw from the case."[^12] Scherrer and Cornick interviewed Townley about it on February 6, 8 and 9, 1979. On February 8 Townley denied asking anyone to threaten the judge and denied that any FBI agent or federal official had ever suggested or implied it. In a later interview with the same agents he said the remarks were a deliberately provocative "diatribe" meant to persuade Etchepare that the FBI was not taping their calls, that the transcript had been altered, and that DINA's electronics section had doctored recordings of Contreras's enemies when he worked for it.[^12] The FBI Laboratory reported on March 30, 1979, in a report captioned Chilbom, that the cassette showed six bursts of noise consistent with the recorder being stopped and restarted and "characteristics indicating that segments of one or more previously recorded conversations were copied onto" it.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The jury asked for two exhibits, the photographs of the two cars and the telephone records linking Townley to Guillermo Novo, and convicted Guillermo Novo and [[Alvin Ross]] on all counts; Ignacio Novo received eight years on lesser charges.[^1][^2] Dorfman reported that in May 1979 Pinochet's former press secretary, [[Federico Willoughby]], traveled secretly to Washington with a message that Pinochet would hand over Contreras if the charges against Fernandez Larios and Espinoza were dropped.[^2] About three months after the verdict Chile denied extradition, ruled the Townley evidence inadmissible, and sent the remaining evidence to a military tribunal. At the end of November 1979 the United States announced diplomatic sanctions without trade or commercial measures.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Leaks and the Director of Central Intelligence, 1979 to 1980
|
||||
|
||||
In early December 1979 Cornick met the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] on leaks. A memorandum to the director of March 10, 1980 states: "I have scheduled Carter Cornick (FBI) to call on you at the EOB tomorrow (Tues) at 1500. This is a follow-up to his meeting with you in early Dec on leaks."[^13] The director's schedule for Thursday, March 13, 1980 lists, at 1500, "Carter Cornick (FBI), re Leaks."[^14] Cornick later wrote that "capricious media leaks by both Field and Bureau officials were harmful, but not fatal to the case," and that the intervention of Deputy Associate Director [[Jim Adams]] prevented "stove piping" between the bureau's intelligence and criminal divisions.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In September 1980 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|Court of Appeals]] reversed the convictions on the authority of *[[United States v. Henry]]*, and the Solicitor General's office declined to seek review.[^1] On May 30, 1981 a second jury acquitted Guillermo Novo and Ross of the murder counts.[^1] A week later [[Joe Trento]] reported that Canete, then in the witness protection program, said he had deliberately made his testimony less convincing for fear of anti-Castro Cubans, and that Barcella said Townley "understood that the politics of the situation had changed. The Reagan people had a lot of support in the Cuban community." Trento quoted an unnamed high Justice Department official who expected an order to put the case "on the shelf," and an unnamed CIA official who had helped train the Cubans: "when you implicate the Chilean secret police, you implicate our own CIA." The same official said that Contreras had "recently participated in security exercises with U.S. intelligence." Barcella and Cornick, whom Trento described as the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, told him that the most humiliating part of the case was having to go to the CIA "hat in hand" to ask how large a role American intelligence had played in training the Cubans and the Chileans. "It is very possible the CIA lied to me and withheld information from me on these cases," Barcella said.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Headquarters, 1980 to 1988
|
||||
|
||||
Cornick became a supervisor in the terrorism section at FBI headquarters, where, he wrote, he found reports from the Letelier case that had been marked for dissemination to the legal attaché in Argentina still in a file cabinet.[^1] On November 27, 1984 the executive secretary of the [[Intelligence Information Handling Committee]] of the Director of Central Intelligence sent "FBI/L. Carter Cornick" and the other members of its Geographic Information Systems Subcommittee a draft of standards for video disc maps, to be produced under a [[Defense Mapping Agency]] contract.[^16] A memorandum of March 11, 1985 called the subcommittee to a meeting on March 22 to discuss the contracts; its membership list gives Cornick's office as Room 4445 of the J. Edgar Hoover Building.[^17] In April 1985 he attended, as a supervisory special agent, the tenth annual symposium on the role of behavioral science in physical security, "Outthinking the Terrorist," at Springfield, Virginia.[^18] Townley was paroled in May 1983 after 62 months, and Fernandez Larios, who in early 1986 had approached the American government through Willoughby and the embassy's Chilean lawyer, [[Alfredo Etcheberry]], met State Department, United States Attorney and FBI representatives in Santiago on January 14, 1987; because of fears that he would be recognized there, Cornick worked with a secondary team in [[Buenos Aires]].[^2] Cornick wrote that Fernandez Larios agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to murder; Dorfman wrote that he pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact and served seven months.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
A resume packet that Counter Terrorism Consultants circulated in 1990 describes Cornick's last years in the bureau. It states that he spent sixteen of his twenty-one FBI years in the counterterrorism program, the last eight at headquarters; that he had headed the FBI's Terrorist Research and Analytical Center and, at his retirement, the section's computer center; that he had supervised the investigations of the 1983 bombings of the American embassy and the Marine compound in [[Beirut]] and of the 1984 seizure of American hostages in Lebanon, and in 1985 had supported the investigations of the [[TWA Flight 847]] hijacking and the [[Achille Lauro]] case; that he had created the FBI's crisis management protocol for special events and held posts in security for the 1980 Winter Olympics, the 1984 Summer Olympics, the 1984 party conventions, the 1986 rededication of the Statue of Liberty and the 1987 Pan American and World Games; and that he had helped create logistical, operational and computer support for the [[Hostage Rescue Team]]. It also states that he "was the FBI representative to the [[Hostage Locating Task Force]] at the [[White House]], the inter-agency group coordinating American policy on U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and to the State Department's Persian Gulf Threat Working Group," and that he received the FBI Director's Award in 1986.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Counter Terrorism Consultants
|
||||
|
||||
Cornick retired in May 1988 by his own account, and on June 1, 1988 according to the company's resume packet.[^1][^4] In early August 1988 he and Propper, then with the Washington law firm [[Lane and Edson]], announced Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc., to sell foreign "democratic" governments, airlines, shipping companies and sponsors of events such as the Olympic Games "pro-active" strategies against terrorism and the management of kidnappings and hijackings. Cornick was president; Propper said he was a full partner without a title. Scherrer, recently retired as the FBI's records chief, joined as a consultant, and Barcella, then with [[Laxalt, Washington, Perito & Dubuc]], was to advise on extradition. The company's services included "amassing in-depth intelligence files for a client," "liaison programs with national and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies," hostage negotiation and "media leak investigations." It was seeded with about $500,000 from "a lot" of investors whom the founders declined to name, and they said their success would not depend on classified information. Cornick said he would draw on fifteen to twenty part-time consultants retired from the [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]], the State Department, the Justice Department, the FBI and the [[Defense Investigative Service]], and had developed "artificial intelligence" computer models of terrorist behavior. "This is the first time anyone has retired from the FBI's terrorism section" to sell such services, he said. [[Jeff Stein]] of [[United Press International]] reported that the four men had also worked together on the investigation of [[Edwin Wilson]], and listed Cornick's direction of the FBI investigations of the Beirut bombings, the TWA 847 hijacking and the Achille Lauro seizure and his management of security at the [[1980 Winter Olympics|Lake Placid]] Games.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
By 1990 the firm was CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., at 2300 M Street NW in Washington, with Cornick as co-founder and chief executive officer. A copy of its resume packet, bearing a fax header of 1990, is among the papers of the journalist [[Danny Casolaro]]. Besides Cornick, Propper and Barcella, the associates listed were an unnamed former senior CIA operations officer described as a former chief of counterterrorism for the agency and its representative on White House, State Department and [[National Security Council]] counterterrorism committees, who had retired in 1987 and had earlier been chief of the agency's air and maritime elements from 1974 to 1977; [[Francis J. McNeil|Frank McNeil]], ambassador to [[Costa Rica]] from 1980 to 1983 and later senior deputy for intelligence and research at the State Department; [[James B. Motley]], vice president for national security studies and programs at [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] Advanced Technologies Corporation since September 1987, who had appeared before the [[Vice President's Task Force on Combatting Terrorism]] in 1985; and a former foreign service officer, Nudell, who had served in [[Nicaragua]] and in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### After the bureau
|
||||
|
||||
After Pinochet's arrest in [[London]] in October 1998, the Justice Department approved Cornick's testimony before the Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzón]] at the federal courthouse in Washington, and he was deputized as a deputy United States marshal so that he could review the case files, then still on manual index cards.[^1] On September 19, 2001, in Washington, he gave a statement to United States judicial authorities in the presence of the Italian prosecutor [[Giancarlo Capaldo]] for the Rome investigation of [[Operation Condor]]; he described Scherrer's contacts with the Argentine [[Secretaría de Inteligencia|SIDE]] and with DINA, said that Scherrer had received his information on Condor from an Argentine SIDE officer, and said that Contreras was known as "Condor One."[^19] A letter of May 18, 2005 from twenty members of the House of Representatives to President [[George W. Bush]], placed in the [[Congressional Record]] by [[Dennis Kucinich]], quoted Cornick as having said in an interview that the Cubana bombing and the Letelier bombing were both planned at a June 1976 meeting in [[Santo Domingo]] attended by Posada, who was involved "up to his eyeballs."[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
Cornick wrote in 2016 that the Letelier case, more than the assassination of the Swedish prime minister [[Olof Palme]], the Beirut embassy and Marine bombings, or the kidnapping and murder of the CIA station chief in Beirut, [[William Buckley]], was the culmination of his career as an investigator.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: L. Carter Cornick Jr., "Chilbom," *The Grapevine* (Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI), August 2016, pp. 11 to 16, https://fbistudies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FBI-Grapevine-Chilbom.pdf.
|
||||
[^2]: Zach Dorfman, "Codename: Chilbom," *The Atavist Magazine*, no. 59, June 21, 2016, https://magazine.atavist.com/2016/codename-chilbom.
|
||||
[^3]: Timothy S. Robinson, "The Letelier Case," *The Washington Post*, May 21, 1978, p. A4, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050048-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000100050048-7.
|
||||
[^4]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents the Resumes of its Associates," fax copy (header 1990), pp. 141 P01 to P12, in the Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
|
||||
[^5]: Jeff Stein, "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," United Press International, August 2, 1988, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/02/A-group-of-top-former-FBI-agents-and-federal/9684730900658/.
|
||||
[^6]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, San Juan field office, file 100-4014 (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño), FD-306 cover sheets for informant reports received by SA L. Carter Cornick Jr., dated between November 22, 1972 and October 10, 1973, released to Representative José Serrano and posted by the project "The FBI Files on Puerto Ricans," file parts SJ-100-4014 33 and 34, https://archive.org/details/PartidoIndependentistaPuertorriqueno.
|
||||
[^7]: John Dinges and Saul Landau, *Assassination on Embassy Row* (New York: Pantheon, 1980; McGraw-Hill paperback, 1981), pp. 211, 229 to 236, https://archive.org/details/assassination-on-embassy-row.
|
||||
[^8]: Secretary of State to American Embassy Caracas, "Interrogation of Bosch," telegram 1976STATE277225, November 11, 1976 (drafted and approved by Harry W. Shlaudeman, quoting Richard L. Thornburgh's letter of November 5, 1976), Department of State, released 2006, https://archive.org/details/State-Dept-cable-1976-272754.
|
||||
[^9]: Jeremiah O'Leary, "Chileans Inject CIA Into Letelier Slaying Probe," *Washington Star*, October 18, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060103-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00901r000700060103-4.
|
||||
[^10]: American Embassy Santiago (George Landau) to Secretary of State, "Letelier/Moffitt Assassination Investigation," telegram 1978SANTIA03456, May 9, 1978, Department of State, released 2014, https://archive.org/details/StateDeptcable1978-117178.
|
||||
[^11]: John Dinges, "A Bombshell on Pinochet's Guilt, Delivered Too Late," *Newsweek*, October 14, 2015 (issue of October 30, 2015), https://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/30/bombshell-pinochets-guilt-delivered-too-late-383121.html.
|
||||
[^12]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington field office file WF 185-425 (Chilbom): FD-302 reports of interviews of Michael Vernon Townley by SAs Robert W. Scherrer and L. Carter Cornick Jr., February 6, 8 and 9, 1979, and a later undated interview; FD-302 of interview at FBI headquarters, March 28, 1979; FBI Laboratory report to SAC WFO, re Chilbom, Lab. No. 90313098 E TV, March 30, 1979; FBI translation of cassette Q188, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-townley-phone.pdf.
|
||||
[^13]: Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, March 10, 1980, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP05T00644R000401190032-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp05t00644r000401190032-5.
|
||||
[^14]: "DCI's Schedule for Thursday 13 March 1980," CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP05T00644R000401230043-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp05t00644r000401230043-8.
|
||||
[^15]: Joe Trento, untitled article, *Wilmington Sunday News Journal*, June 7, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680027-3, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403680027-3.
|
||||
[^16]: Executive Secretary, Intelligence Information Handling Committee, to GISS Members, "Proposed Video Disc Standards," memorandum IHC/MM 84-92, November 27, 1984, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP86M00017R000400310007-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86m00017r000400310007-4.
|
||||
[^17]: Acting Chairman, Intelligence Information Handling Committee, to GISS Members, "GISS Meeting," memorandum IHC/MM 85-50, March 11, 1985, with Geographic Information Systems Subcommittee membership list, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP87M00220R000500530039-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp87m00220r000500530039-7.
|
||||
[^18]: *Supplemental Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on the Role of Behavioral Science in Physical Security (10th): Outthinking the Terrorist, an International Challenge*, Springfield, Virginia, April 23 to 24, 1985, attendee list, Defense Technical Information Center ADA161669, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA161669.
|
||||
[^19]: Operation Condor proceeding (Rome), ordinanza di custodia cautelare, part 2, note 1731 and a later note, citing C. Cornick, statement before United States judicial authorities in the presence of PM G. Capaldo, Washington, September 19, 2001, Rogatoria USA, fd. 1, fll. 941 to 975, DocumentCloud 6165069, https://archive.org/details/6165069-Condor-Ordinanza-custodia-cautelare-2.
|
||||
[^20]: Dennis J. Kucinich, "Letter to President Bush Regarding Luis Posada Carriles," extension of remarks, May 18, 2005, *Congressional Record* (bound edition) 151, pt. 8, p. 10512, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRECB-2005-pt8/pdf/CRECB-2005-pt8-Pg10512.pdf.
|
||||
105
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md
Normal file
105
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Authors & Journalists"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- Journalist
|
||||
- JFKAssassination
|
||||
- Angleton
|
||||
- Nosenko
|
||||
- ColdWar
|
||||
- ReadersDigest
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Edward Jay Epstein
|
||||
- Edward J. Epstein
|
||||
- Edward Epstein
|
||||
summary: "American investigative journalist whose books on the Warren Commission and Soviet defectors drew on classified information from James Angleton and other CIA officers, and who kept an acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein from 1987 to 2019."
|
||||
born: 1935-12-06
|
||||
died: 2024-01-09
|
||||
location: "New York, New York (died)"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Reader's Digest]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "research sponsor for Legend"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
|
||||
role: "named target of a January 1967 dispatch on critics of the Warren Report"
|
||||
start: 1967-01
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Edward Jay Epstein (December 6, 1935, to January 9, 2024) was an American investigative journalist and the author of more than twenty books, among them [[Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth|Inquest]] (1966), [[Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald|Legend]] (1978), [[Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA|Deception]] (1989), [[Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer|Dossier]] (1996) and [[How America Lost Its Secrets]] (2017). He took his bachelor's and master's degrees in government at [[Cornell University]] and a doctorate at [[Harvard University]]; the obituary placed by his family gives the doctoral field as Urban Studies. He died at home in [[New York City]] after a brief struggle with Covid.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Inquest and the CIA dispatch of January 1967
|
||||
|
||||
Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth was published by [[Viking Press]] in 1966. It was his master's thesis at Cornell.[^1][^2] In the December 1966 issue of [[Esquire]] he published a further article that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] later described as explaining away objections to the book.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
A CIA dispatch to chiefs of certain stations and bases, titled "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report" and dated January 1967, stated that the trend of opinion about the [[Warren Commission]] "is a matter of concern to the [[U.S. government]], including our organization." Its sixth paragraph stated that "another kind of criticism has recently emerged, represented by Edward Jay Epstein's Inquest," that he "adopts a scholarly tone, and to the casual reader, he presents what appears to be a more coherent, reasoned case than the writers described above," and that [[Richard Rovere]] and [[Lord Devlin]], "previously backers of the Commission's Report," had changed their minds. The seventh paragraph stated that "Epstein's competence in research has been greatly exaggerated," giving as examples the date on which the CIA passed a [[Mexico City]] photograph to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (November 22, 1963, not November 18 as Inquest had it) and a Secret Service interview report that Inquest said had been withheld from the National Archives; the dispatch stated that an Archives staff member told a CIA officer that Epstein asked for the document, was told it was classified, and ended a two-day visit before the Secret Service declassified it. The eighth paragraph compared Epstein and other "intellectual critics" with [[Richard H. Popkin]], the author of The Second Oswald, whom it described as showing "love of theorizing and lack of common sense and experience." The action paragraph directed that "a useful strategy may be to single out Epstein's theory for attack, using the attached [[Fletcher Knebel]] article and Spectator piece for background."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Reader's Digest, Angleton and Legend
|
||||
|
||||
Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald was published in 1978 by [[Reader's Digest]] Press.[^2] A Reader's Digest condensation stated that the magazine's editors had asked Epstein to examine the world through which [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] moved, that over two years he had studied "more than 10,000 pages of previously classified documents pertaining to Oswald" and had conducted, "with a staff of assistants, more than 400 interviews."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Cleveland Cram]], a CIA officer, reviewed the book in a 1993 monograph for the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence. Cram wrote that Epstein learned of the case of the Soviet defector [[Yuri Nosenko]] through Reader's Digest, that this led to his acquaintance with [[James Jesus Angleton]], that Angleton became his major source on Nosenko, and that Reader's Digest sponsored his research "to the tune of $500,000." Cram wrote that Epstein's articles and the book "publicized for the first time" the clashes inside the Agency between the Counterintelligence Staff and the Soviet Division over Nosenko, that Epstein "stated that he had spoken occasionally with James Angleton" without acknowledging him as the source, and that in Deception, which Cram placed in the year after Angleton's death on May 11, 1987 (the catalog record gives 1989), Epstein admitted that from 1977 onward he had obtained large amounts of highly classified information from Angleton, [[Newton Miler]], [[Tennent Bagley]] and others in the CIA who shared Angleton's views. In his review of Deception Cram wrote that Epstein described Angleton as his major source since 1976, when they first met, and that Angleton had referred him to Miler and [[Raymond Rocca]], to the retired CIA officer [[William Hood]], to the FBI officers [[William Sullivan]] and [[Sam Papich]], to the former [[MI6]] officer [[Stephen de Mowbray]] in England and to Bagley in Belgium. Cram listed from Epstein's source notes for Legend [[Gordon Stewart]], [[Stansfield Turner]], [[Richard Helms]], Angleton and members of his staff, Sullivan and Papich.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
Cram also wrote that [[Henry Hurt]], a Reader's Digest writer, helped with the research for Legend and was introduced by Epstein to Angleton, and that "nothing was officially done" to caution Angleton about leaking classified information, whereas when the CIA found that [[Clare E. Petty]] had leaked classified material to the press "he received an official warning letter." He described Legend as having given "enormous stimulus" to the thesis that Nosenko had been sent by the [[KGB]] as a cover story for Oswald, wrote that Deception, which Epstein published after Angleton's death, "like Legend, is propaganda for Angleton and essentially dishonest," and described the book as having "the smell of attic dust" and as Epstein's "last hurrah" in the world of intelligence, adding that "with glasnost, he apparently sensed that the days of the conspiracists were numbered. It was time to take the money and run." Cram also wrote that in an interview with Vanity Fair in May 1989 Epstein admitted that Golitsyn shaped Angleton's views and possibly was a liar, and ended the interview with the remark "Actually, I don't know whether to believe Angleton at all!"[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In a letter published in the [[New York Times]] on September 27, 1981, answering a column of [[William Safire]] on the source "Fedora," [[G. Robert Blakey]], chief counsel of the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] in 1977 to 1979, wrote that he had directed an investigation of Nosenko and had concluded, with a unanimous committee, that Nosenko had lied to the FBI and the CIA in 1963 and 1964 and to the committee in 1978. He wrote that the committee had reviewed Epstein's allegations about a relationship between Fedora and Nosenko and concluded, "contrary to Epstein's assertion," that the bona fides of Nosenko were not inextricably intertwined with those of any other defector.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Office of Security file
|
||||
|
||||
A [[CIA Office of Security]] memorandum for the record of July 18, 1978, by [[Bruce Solie|Bruce L. Solie]], Chief of the Security Analysis Group, bears the subject "EPSTEIN, Edward Jay #488 768" and the record number 104-10113-10396. It states that it identifies the Office of Security files reviewed by staff members of the [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]]; that certain items were not reviewed, were placed in sealed envelopes, and were returned to the security file; and that material placed in the file at the time of the review is marked with a green dot. A review sheet naming the Committee's reviewers and the dates of review is described as attached and is not part of the copy released.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### George de Mohrenschildt, March 29, 1977
|
||||
|
||||
On March 29, 1977, [[George de Mohrenschildt]] was found dead of a gunshot wound in the Manalapan, Florida, house where he was a guest. A [[Washington Star]] account filed under March 30, 1977, in CIA files, reported that Sheriff Richard Wille said, "We're 99 percent certain he killed himself," and that Wille and State Attorney David Bludworth questioned witnesses until shortly before midnight, among them "free lance writer Ed Epstein, who had told the [[West Palm Beach Post]] Monday night that he had been interviewing de Mohrenschildt in connection with a book he was doing about Lee Harvey Oswald." The AP account stated that de Mohrenschildt was traced by a House Assassinations Committee investigator to the Florida address and returned to the house at about 2:45 p.m., and that about an hour later he apparently shot himself. The sheriff said that a call to the house was believed to have been placed from Miami by the House investigator [[Gaeton Fonzi]]. After the questioning Epstein said, "the police told me not to talk."[^9] A memorandum from the CIA's Dallas office over the name of [[J. Walton Moore]] records that on March 31, 1977, a Dallas Morning News reporter telephoned to ask about the Agency's relationship with de Mohrenschildt, and that Moore told him the relationship was documented in the Warren Commission Report and that he had nothing further to add.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later articles and books
|
||||
|
||||
*The Rise and Fall of Diamonds* was published by [[Simon & Schuster]] in 1982.[^2] In [[The Atlantic]] for March 1983 Epstein published "The Cartel That Never Was," with the subtitle "[[Saudi Arabia]] finds in the perceived unity and power of OPEC a convenient illusion."[^11] A 1982 clipping in CIA files carries an article by Epstein titled "Disinformation," on the verification of arms-control agreements, from a periodical not named in the copy.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1985 [[The New Republic]] carried Epstein's article "The Spy Who Came In to Be Sold," circulated in galley by June 26, asserting that the memoir *Breaking with Moscow* by the Soviet defector [[Arkady Shevchenko]], published by [[Alfred A. Knopf]], had invented the "supermole" account of Shevchenko's work for the CIA. The Associated Press reported that Epstein wrote, "What is fabricated here are not just car-chases, meetings, conversations, reports, dates, motives and espionage activities, but a spy who never was." The editor of the book, [[Ashbel Green]], said his own contacts in the intelligence community "have always confirmed Shevchenko's role" and described Epstein as "a well-known conspiracy theorist." The Associated Press reported that the memoir, published by Knopf, had sold 180,000 copies and been serialized in Time magazine.[^12] [[William A. Reuben]], writing in The Nation, quoted Epstein's conclusion that "Shevchenko's book is a fraud on the same level as Clifford Irving's fake about [[Howard Hughes]]."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
Deception (Simon & Schuster, 1989), The Assassination Chronicles (Carroll & Graf, 1992) and Dossier (Random House, 1996) followed.[^2] In a review of Dossier in the [[Baltimore Sun]], [[Scott Shane]] wrote that Epstein, drawing on Soviet archives, FBI files and secret tapes Hammer made of himself arranging bribes, described [[Armand Hammer]] as having used his business at the direction of Soviet intelligence to move money to operatives abroad, having moved millions from [[Occidental Petroleum]] to a Swiss account, and having had a woman on his payroll change her name legally; Shane wrote that Hammer died in 1990.[^14] In *Commentary*, Daniel Silver wrote that Epstein concluded Hammer "was more of an agent than an opportunist," basing the conclusion on interviews, Soviet archival material and tape recordings Hammer made secretly of his own transactions, including acts of bribery; Silver wrote that Epstein described a Libyan oil concession obtained through kickbacks to Libyan officials, illegal contributions to the Nixon campaign that led to Hammer's only criminal conviction, and a personal estate at his death valued at no more than $40 million, and that Epstein left open how long Hammer was an active Soviet agent and whether he acted under orders from Moscow.[^15] The Big Picture (Random House, 2005) and How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), about [[Edward Snowden]], appear in the library catalog records.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein
|
||||
|
||||
In September 2019, after [[Jeffrey Epstein]] died in custody, [[Air Mail]], the online magazine of [[Graydon Carter]], published Epstein's "My Tea with Jeffrey Epstein," which he told [[The Daily Beast]] was Chapter 46 of an unpublished memoir.[^16] The opening paragraphs of the article, which are public, state that he met Jeffrey Epstein in 1987 at the annual Halloween party of the film producer [[Coco Brown]], where he was standing with [[Isabel Goldsmith]] when Jeffrey Epstein and his brother [[Mark Epstein]] joined them, and that at a tea the following Thursday Jeffrey Epstein asked whether he would write about his business for his monthly "Wall Street Babylon" column in [[Manhattan, inc.]] magazine.[^17] According to the Daily Beast's report of its interview with him, on later occasions Jeffrey Epstein arranged first-class airline upgrades that proved to be bogus, and he accepted lodging in a Santa Monica apartment rented for [[Eva Andersson]]. He told the Daily Beast that a Simon & Schuster executive he had introduced to Jeffrey Epstein at his birthday dinner on December 6, 1988, later said he had given Jeffrey Epstein $70,000 to invest in a takeover of [[Pennwalt]] and had received no papers; the Daily Beast reported that it could not confirm the executive's identity. He said he used a computer program Jeffrey Epstein gave him to read financial records, found "dozens of demands for the return of investment money" and a twice-bounced check, and wrote a 1989 column describing Jeffrey Epstein without naming him, after which Jeffrey Epstein stopped speaking to him; the Daily Beast reported that the column brought attention from the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]. According to the same report, contact resumed in 2013 after Epstein published an essay on [[Vladimir Nabokov]] in the [[New York Review of Books]], and continued with visits to the East 71st Street house, walks in Central Park and emails until 2019.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
Epstein told the Daily Beast that he "hung around with Jeffrey because I was fascinated with him," that "Everything about Jeffrey was a con," that Jeffrey Epstein had claimed to him to be a private detective and to fly monthly to Moscow to meet [[Vladimir Putin]], that he never discussed the allegations about underage girls with him, never flew on his plane, never visited his homes other than the East 71st Street townhouse, and was never offered a massage. He called Jeffrey Epstein "the poster boy for rehabilitation" after his 2008 plea and suggested that the July 2019 federal charges were an act of bad faith on the part of the government.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Correspondence in the Jeffrey Epstein estate documents
|
||||
|
||||
Documents released by the [[Department of Justice]] in its [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]] include emails between the two men dated 2012 and 2013. On March 8, 2012, Epstein wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, "My book in dsk is just about finished. My title is 3 DAYS IN MAY:the DSK THRILLER. When in ny it would be great to see you"; Jeffrey Epstein answered "next week??" and Epstein replied "Next week is good for me."[^18] On April 14, 2012, Jeffrey Epstein sent Epstein a message about a scandal involving [[United States Secret Service]] agents in Colombia; Epstein answered that he had just landed at Kennedy airport and had "Spent day with dsk yesterday" (the book concerned [[Dominique Strauss-Kahn]]); Jeffrey Epstein wrote "Come by at 645 if you are free," and Epstein replied "I can't tonight."[^19] In an exchange of April 16 and 17, 2012, an assistant of Jeffrey Epstein and Epstein, who signed himself Ed Epstein, arranged his arrival at Jeffrey Epstein's home at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17.[^20] On February 9, 2013, Jeffrey Epstein forwarded to an assistant an invitation from the author [[Michael Wolff]] to a party on March 5, 2013, in honor of Epstein's book The Annals of Unsolved Crime, with the note "and remind me to call him on the 19th."[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### Death
|
||||
|
||||
Epstein died on January 9, 2024, at his home in New York City, aged 88. The family obituary states that he had "built an astounding network of dear friends."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "Edward Jay Epstein," obituary placed by the family, Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, Dignity Memorial, January 2024. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/new-york-ny/edward-epstein-11625388
|
||||
[^2]: Internet Archive catalog records for Epstein's books: *Inquest* (New York: Viking Press, 1966), https://archive.org/details/inquestwarrencom00epst; *Legend* ([New York]: Reader's Digest Press, 1978), https://archive.org/details/legendsecretworl00epst; *The Rise and Fall of Diamonds* (Simon and Schuster, 1982), https://archive.org/details/risefallofdiamon0000epst; *Deception* (Simon and Schuster, 1989), https://archive.org/details/deceptioninvisib00epst; *The Assassination Chronicles* (Carroll & Graf, 1992), https://archive.org/details/assassinationchr0000epst; *Dossier* (Random House, 1996), https://archive.org/details/dossiersecrethis00edwa; *The Big Picture* (Random House, 2005), https://archive.org/details/bigpicturenewlog00epst; *How America Lost Its Secrets* (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), https://archive.org/details/howamericalostit0000epst. Metadata only; the texts of Inquest, Legend, Deception and Dossier are lending-restricted and were not read.
|
||||
[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency dispatch, "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report," January 1967, paragraph 6 (reference to Epstein's article in the December 1966 issue of Esquire), CIA document C00352448. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00352448
|
||||
[^4]: Central Intelligence Agency dispatch, "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report," January 1967, to Chiefs, Certain Stations and Bases, paragraphs 2, 3, 6 and 7, CIA document C00352448 (released 2025). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00352448
|
||||
[^5]: Epstein, Edward Jay. "Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald," *Reader's Digest* condensation, 1978, editors' introduction, JFK record 104-10404-10388 (CIA copy 00364632). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00364632
|
||||
[^6]: Cram, Cleveland C. *Of Moles and Molehunters: A Review of Counterintelligence Literature, 1977 to 92*. Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1993, essay section "A Turning Point" and reviews of Epstein, *Legend* (pp. 24 to 26) and *Deception* (pp. 58 to 59), and of Henry Hurt, *Shadrin*. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/books-monographs/of-moles-and-molehunters-a-review-of-counterintelligence-literature-1977-92/
|
||||
[^7]: Blakey, G. Robert. "Unpersuasive Case Against 'Fedora,'" letter to the editor, *New York Times*, September 27, 1981 (letter dated September 17, 1981), CIA-RDP90-00552R000100590002-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000100590002-6
|
||||
[^8]: Solie, Bruce L., Chief, Security Analysis Group, CIA Office of Security. Memorandum for the Record, "EPSTEIN, Edward Jay #488 768," July 18, 1978, JFK record 104-10113-10396 (CIA document 00412727). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00412727
|
||||
[^9]: "George de Mohrenschildt," *Washington Star* (Associated Press), March 30, 1977, in CIA files (document 00543522; text also in 00551716 and 00503961). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00543522
|
||||
[^10]: Memorandum from Chief, Dallas Office (J. Walton Moore) to Chief, Domestic Collection Division, "Call from Dan Watson of Dallas Morning News re George de Mohrenschildt," JFK record 104-10244-10157 (CIA document 00469125). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00469125
|
||||
[^11]: Epstein, Edward Jay. "The Cartel That Never Was," *The Atlantic Monthly*, March 1983, CIA-RDP90-00806R000200870004-0; Epstein, Edward Jay. "Disinformation: Or, Why the ... Verify an Arms-Control Agreement" (title partly illegible in the copy), 1982, CIA-RDP90-00552R000606540019-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000606540019-2 https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000200870004-0
|
||||
[^12]: "Writer says 'mole' invented tale," Associated Press, *Chicago Tribune*, June 28, 1985, CIA-RDP90-00965R000100370008-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000100370008-6 The article text is in Epstein, "The Invention of Arkady Shevchenko, Supermole: The Spy Who Came In to Be Sold," 1985, CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860011-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000301860011-5
|
||||
[^13]: Reuben, William A. "The Documents That Weren't There," *The Nation*, 1985, quoting Epstein in *The New Republic*, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300023-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605300023-6
|
||||
[^14]: Shane, Scott. "Nailing Hammer: Epstein's 'Dossier,'" *Baltimore Sun*, September 8, 1996. https://www.baltimoresun.com/1996/09/08/nailing-hammer-epsteins-dossier/
|
||||
[^15]: Silver, Daniel. "Reprobate" (review of Epstein, *Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer*, Random House, 418 pp.), *Commentary*. https://www.commentary.org/articles/daniel-silver/dossier-by-edward-jay-epstein/
|
||||
[^16]: Grove, Lloyd. "Edward Jay Epstein, Yet Another Journalist Who Accepted Favors From Jeffrey Epstein," *The Daily Beast*, September 14, 2019. https://www.thedailybeast.com/edward-jay-epstein-yet-another-journalist-who-accepted-favors-from-jeffrey-epstein/ Epstein's own article, "My Tea with Jeffrey Epstein," *Air Mail*, September 14, 2019, is paywalled and was read only to its first paragraphs. https://airmail.news/issues/2019-9-14/my-tea-with-jeffrey-epstein
|
||||
[^17]: Epstein, Edward Jay. "My Tea with Jeffrey Epstein," *Air Mail*, September 14, 2019, opening paragraphs (the remainder is behind a subscription wall and was not read). https://airmail.news/issues/2019-9-14/my-tea-with-jeffrey-epstein
|
||||
[^18]: Email chain "Re: Dsk," March 8, 2012, EFTA02012785. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02012785.pdf
|
||||
[^19]: Email chain, April 14, 2012, EFTA01767728. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01767728.pdf
|
||||
[^20]: Email chain "Re: Jeffrey Epstein," April 16 to 17, 2012, EFTA00415113. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00415113.pdf
|
||||
[^21]: Email, Jeffrey Epstein to an assistant, "Fwd: INVITATION: EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN 'THE ANNALS OF UNSOLVED CRIME,'" February 9, 2013, EFTA02018963. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02018963.pdf
|
||||
194
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Griffin Bell.md
Normal file
194
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Griffin Bell.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,194 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- GriffinBell
|
||||
- AttorneyGeneral
|
||||
- DepartmentOfJustice
|
||||
- KingAndSpalding
|
||||
- FISA
|
||||
- JimmyCarter
|
||||
- FBI
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
- IranContra
|
||||
- Georgia
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Griffin Bell
|
||||
- Griffin B. Bell
|
||||
- Griffin Boyette Bell
|
||||
- Judge Bell
|
||||
summary: "Georgia lawyer and Fifth Circuit judge who, as Carter's Attorney General, testified for the FISA bill, countersigned Liddy's commutation, and headed the department that charged FBI officials Felt and Miller and two ITT executives."
|
||||
born: 1918-10-31
|
||||
died: 2009-01-05
|
||||
location: "Americus, Georgia (born)"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[King & Spalding]]"
|
||||
role: "partner"
|
||||
start: 1953
|
||||
end: 1961
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Ernest Vandiver]]"
|
||||
role: "chief of staff (honorary)"
|
||||
start: 1959-01-13
|
||||
end: 1961-10
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]]"
|
||||
role: "circuit judge"
|
||||
start: 1961-10-06
|
||||
end: 1976-03-01
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: appointed
|
||||
with: "[[John F. Kennedy]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "circuit judge"
|
||||
start: 1961
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
role: "attorney general"
|
||||
start: 1977-01-26
|
||||
end: 1979-08-16
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: appointed
|
||||
with: "[[Jimmy Carter]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "attorney general"
|
||||
start: 1977
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Edward Gerrity]]"
|
||||
role: "attorney general at the filing of charges"
|
||||
start: 1978-03-20
|
||||
fn: 26
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Robert Berrellez]]"
|
||||
role: "attorney general at the filing of charges"
|
||||
start: 1978-03-20
|
||||
fn: 26
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[W. Mark Felt]]"
|
||||
role: "attorney general at the indictment"
|
||||
start: 1978-04
|
||||
fn: 28
|
||||
- type: prosecuted
|
||||
with: "[[Edward S. Miller]]"
|
||||
role: "attorney general at the indictment"
|
||||
start: 1978-04
|
||||
fn: 28
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[E.F. Hutton]]"
|
||||
role: "counsel for internal investigation"
|
||||
end: 1985-09-05
|
||||
fn: 33
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform]]"
|
||||
role: "vice chairman"
|
||||
start: 1989
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[George H.W. Bush]]"
|
||||
role: "counsel on release of Iran-Contra deposition"
|
||||
start: 1992-12-30
|
||||
fn: 34
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Griffin Boyette Bell (October 31, 1918 to January 5, 2009) was a Georgia lawyer, a partner of the [[Atlanta]] firm [[King & Spalding]], a judge of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] from 1961 to 1976, and [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] of the [[United States]] under President [[Jimmy Carter]] from January 26, 1977 to August 16, 1979.[^1] As Attorney General he testified in support of the bill that became the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]], countersigned the commutation of [[G. Gordon Liddy]]'s sentence, and headed the Department of Justice when former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] officials [[W. Mark Felt]] and [[Edward S. Miller]] and two [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] executives were charged. After leaving office he conducted an internal investigation for the brokerage [[E.F. Hutton]] and in 1992 was asked by President [[George H.W. Bush]] to assist in seeking release of Bush's [[MOC - Iran-Contra|Iran-Contra]] deposition.
|
||||
|
||||
### Georgia Practice, the Vandiver Administration and the Fifth Circuit
|
||||
|
||||
Bell was born in [[Americus, Georgia]], served in the Army from 1941 to 1946, attaining the rank of major, and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1947. He practiced in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] and Rome and joined King & Spalding in Atlanta in 1953.[^1] A biographical sketch placed in the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] record in January 1977 lists him as chief of staff to Georgia Governor [[Ernest Vandiver]], an honorary position, from January 13, 1959 to October 1961, and as a judge of the Fifth Circuit from October 6, 1961 to March 1, 1976.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
A [[Scripps-Howard News Service]] report that was placed in the record of his 1977 confirmation hearings stated that in January 1961, when a federal judge ordered two Black students admitted to the [[University of Georgia]], Bell was instrumental in drafting legislation that gave local communities the option of closing schools rather than integrating, assured students the right to refuse to attend desegregated classes, and provided state grants for students who left public schools for private academies. The report quoted Vandiver as saying of Bell, "He was very helpful to us," and stated that Bell served as John F. Kennedy's Georgia campaign chairman in 1960.[^3] Bell testified that the moderation in his role lay in the fact that "we did not close the schools" and that Georgia had "no violence" and "no disruption of any sort in the educational process."[^4] A newspaper article that Bell introduced into the record stated that Bell, then Vandiver's chief of staff, had asked the banker [[John A. Sibley]] to head the study commission on the state's school systems.[^5] Warren Cochran of Atlanta, a YMCA worker who testified on Bell's behalf, said that Bell asked Black leaders to meet with him, told them he was doing so voluntarily so that they would know what was happening, and said he was trying to convince Vandiver to change his position, which Vandiver did not do; Cochran said the meetings took place at night in the King & Spalding offices in the [[Trust Company of Georgia]] building, and, asked by Senator [[John Chafee]] whether Bell had asked them to hold off on lawsuits, answered, "We were not ready to file the suits anyway."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
In July 1961 [[Leon Jaworski]], the Houston lawyer who became the [[Watergate]] special prosecutor in 1973, investigated Bell's background for the [[American Bar Association]]'s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary at the request of the committee's chairman, [[Bernard G. Segal]], who had been told that Deputy Attorney General [[Nicholas Katzenbach]], on behalf of Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy|Robert Kennedy]], had asked for the investigation and that President Kennedy intended to appoint Bell if he was found qualified. Jaworski filed his report on July 25, 1961 and testified in support of Bell at the 1977 hearing.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1977 Confirmation Hearings
|
||||
|
||||
The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on Bell's nomination on January 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 19, 1977 under Chairman [[James Eastland]], who told Bell on the first day, "I will vote to confirm you."[^8] The Scripps-Howard report in the record described Bell as "a law partner of Carter intimate [[Charles Kirbo]]."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
Questioned by Senator [[Donald Riegle]] about private clubs, Bell testified that he joined the [[Capital City Club]] in Atlanta in 1955 and the [[Piedmont Driving Club]] in 1956, that he was made an honorary member of both when he was appointed to the court, that he joined the [[Oglethorpe Club]] in Savannah as a nonresident member, and that he became a dues-paying member of the Atlanta clubs again when he resigned from the bench. He said the clubs had no restrictive covenants and that the judges of the Fifth Circuit had debated at a court meeting whether to continue in private clubs and "stayed in."[^9] [[Clarence Mitchell Jr.|Clarence Mitchell]], director of the Washington bureau of the [[NAACP]], testified that a judge who belonged to a private club that denied membership on the basis of race had a duty to inform the litigants of the membership, and that, as far as the NAACP knew, Bell had not done so in a case he tried.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
Bell testified that he had withdrawn from King & Spalding as a senior partner on December 31, 1976, would retain no equity and be paid nothing, and had made a written statement disqualifying himself from any matter in which King & Spalding or his son's Savannah firm [[Lee & Clarke]] represented a party, from matters involving parties that paid the firm a regular monetary retainer, and from matters involving a "regular client," defined as one that had made "a substantial financial contribution to the gross fees of King & Spalding on a regular basis over a significant number of years."[^11] [[David Cohen]], president of [[Common Cause]], asked that Bell provide the committee with a list of all corporate, business and other institutional clients of King & Spalding and a gross-dollar figure for the "substantial" threshold; a representative of the [[National Organization for Women]] told the committee that, according to information from attorneys, the firm had no women or Black partners.[^12][^13] The Justice Department's official biography records that Bell was sworn in on January 26, 1977.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Liddy Commutation, April 12, 1977
|
||||
|
||||
On April 12, 1977 President Carter signed an order commuting Liddy's sentence from 20 years to eight years; the order bore the countersignature "Attorney General: Griffin B. Bell." [[White House|The White House]] announcement stated that the action was taken "in the interest of equity and fairness based on a comparison of Mr. Liddy's sentence with those of all others convicted in Watergate related prosecutions."[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Warrantless Wiretaps and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
|
||||
|
||||
On August 22, 1973, in [[United States v. Brown]], Bell wrote for a Fifth Circuit panel affirming the conviction of [[H. Rap Brown|Hubert Geroid Brown]] on a federal firearms charge, and held that warrantless wiretaps authorized by the then Attorney General for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence, in which Brown's involvement was "happenstance at the most," were lawful. The opinion stated that the President "may constitutionally authorize warrantless wiretaps for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence" and cited as accord the district court decision in [[Zweibon v. Mitchell]], which had sustained a wiretap authorized by Attorney General [[John N. Mitchell]].[^15] At the 1977 hearing Senator [[Charles Mathias]] read the passage to Bell, who answered that it was written "before we knew of the abuses that we now know of, in foreign intelligence gathering" and was "too broad in today's context perhaps." Senator [[James Abourezk]] asked whether the President had the power to wiretap American citizens without a warrant in the foreign security field, and Bell answered: "I have some doubt that he does," adding that "as long as I am Attorney General, if I have any thing to do with it, that will not happen."[^16][^17]
|
||||
|
||||
Bell testified on July 19, 1977 before the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]'s Subcommittee on Intelligence and the Rights of Americans, accompanied by [[John M. Harmon]] of the [[Office of Legal Counsel]], Frederick D. Baron and William Funke, in support of S. 1566, a bill to authorize applications for a court order approving electronic surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence information within the United States. He adopted the prepared statement he had given to the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures, which described a procedure in which applications for warrants would be made to one of seven district judges publicly designated by the Chief Justice, with appeal to a three-judge court of review, on a finding that the target was a "foreign power" or an "agent of a foreign power," with certification by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs or a similar official.[^18] Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 on October 25, 1978 and stated that it required "for the first time, a prior judicial warrant for all electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purposes in the United States in which communications of U.S. persons might be intercepted."[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Correspondence with the Central Intelligence Agency
|
||||
|
||||
[[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] records from the Bell years show the Attorney General and [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[Stansfield Turner]] writing to each other by first name ("Dear Griffin," "Dear Stan"). On May 9, 1977 Bell answered a request from Deputy Director [[E. H. Knoche]] for legislation on unauthorized disclosure of classified information by saying he would wait for the study of a Presidential Review Memorandum working group chaired by the Office of Legal Counsel and including the CIA general counsel.[^20] On June 1, 1977 Bell asked the CIA for any documents of the preceding five years containing significant analysis of competition in energy markets, to support a Justice Department antitrust policy statement on the energy sector; Turner's reply, catalogued as July 1977, stated that the agency had published none directed at the competitive practices of United States energy firms.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
On May 25, 1978 the [[Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] wrote to Bell about the delay in the FBI investigation of its staff member [[Stephen Bryen]], begun after [[Michael Saba|Michael P. Saba]] filed an affidavit with the Department of Justice on March 13, 1978.[^22] On August 24, 1978 Bell wrote to Turner about the prosecution of [[William Kampiles|William Peter Kampiles]], a former CIA employee charged with passing a classified manual to the [[Soviet Union]], assuring him that the Department would take protective measures and stating that "prosecutive judgments and decisions" were "solely the responsibility of this Department"; he told Turner that the case would go to a grand jury in [[Hammond, Indiana]] on Friday, August 25.[^23] On August 17 and November 13, 1978 Turner wrote to Bell seeking support for legislation to protect the identities of CIA officers and agents.[^24] On February 6, 1979 Turner invited Bell to speak to CIA employees in the headquarters auditorium on "Intelligence and the Legal System," and on May 10, 1979 thanked him for his discussion of "Foreign Intelligence and the Legal System."[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### The ITT Charges, March 1978
|
||||
|
||||
A newspaper account of March 21, 1978, preserved in the CIA Reading Room, stated that the Justice Department had charged [[Edward Gerrity]] and [[Robert Berrellez]] of ITT with perjury and obstruction of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on multinational corporations, over testimony about the company's cooperation with the CIA in [[Chile]]; that the department had decided not to prosecute ITT chairman [[Harold Geneen]]; that "Attorney General Griffin Bell decided to go ahead with the prosecution of Gerrity and Berrellez despite fears in the intelligence community a perjury trial would disclose national security secrets"; and that "CIA director Stansfield Turner met with Bell last Thursday to express his concern." The article stated that the statute of limitations was about to expire for all three officials. A *[[The Washington Star|Washington Star]]* report of August 1978, also preserved in the CIA Reading Room, stated that the Justice Department had announced that "to safeguard national security and U.S. foreign intelligence interests" it would not pursue three of the six counts against Gerrity.[^26][^27]
|
||||
|
||||
### The FBI Surveillance Prosecutions
|
||||
|
||||
According to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Justice Department began in April 1976, before Bell took office, an investigation of FBI break-ins against relatives and acquaintances of [[Weather Underground]] suspects, and in April 1978 a grand jury indicted [[L. Patrick Gray|L. Patrick Gray III]], Felt and Miller for conspiring to deprive them of their rights under 18 U.S.C. 241. Gray's trial was severed on March 5, 1979. Felt and Miller were convicted on November 6, 1980. The government filed a nolle prosequi as to Gray on December 10, 1980, acknowledging that the charges were "unconvincing." Gray sued Bell and Justice Department attorneys on April 9, 1981; the district court dismissed the suit on immunity grounds in July 1982 and the court of appeals affirmed on June 21, 1983.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
In discovery proceedings in 1979, Chief Judge [[William B. Bryant]] ruled that Felt and Miller could assert the "Barker-Martinez defense" of reasonable reliance on the authority of superiors, a defense drawn from the 1976 appeal of the Fielding break-in defendants, in which Liddy was a co-defendant.[^29] Mark D. Cummings, who was assigned to Felt's defense, wrote that former Attorneys General John N. Mitchell and [[Richard Kleindienst]] testified at the trial, and that [[Richard Nixon]] testified for the defense, citing trial transcript pages 5909 to 5936.[^30] The *[[The Christian Science Monitor|Christian Science Monitor]]* reported on April 16, 1981 that President [[Ronald Reagan]] had granted "full and unconditional" pardons to Felt and Miller, who had been fined a total of $8,500.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
The Liddy commutation bears Bell's countersignature on April 12, 1977; the charges against Gerrity and Berrellez were filed on March 20, 1978; and the indictment of Gray, Felt and Miller was returned in April 1978.[^14][^26][^28]
|
||||
|
||||
### After the Justice Department
|
||||
|
||||
Bell resigned as Attorney General on August 16, 1979 and returned to practice in Atlanta. In 1980 he headed the United States delegation to the [[Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe|Madrid Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe]], and in 1982 he was a co-chair of the Attorney General's National Task Force on Violent Crime.[^1] He served on the Secretary of State's advisory committee on [[South Africa]] from 1985 to 1987.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
On September 5, 1985 Bell held a press conference to release his report on E.F. Hutton, which the company had commissioned after pleading guilty earlier in 1985 to 2,000 counts of mail and wire fraud over a check-overdrafting scheme operated from mid-1980 to mid-1982. The *Christian Science Monitor* reported that Bell said he tried to link top officers to the conduct but was "never able to do that from a standpoint of criminality," found "excessive or abusive" overdrafts, and recommended reorganization of the board of directors; the report cleared former president [[George L. Ball]] and others in the top circle of improper activity in connection with the overdrafting. The same report stated that a House subcommittee on crime was investigating the case, in particular the Justice Department's failure to seek criminal penalties against any individuals.[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1989 Bell became vice chairman of President Bush's [[President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform|Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform]].[^1] On December 30, 1992, White House Press Secretary [[Marlin Fitzwater]] announced that Bush had asked Bell to assist him in seeking a copy of his deposition of January 11, 1988 in the Iran-Contra investigation, which the [[Independent Counsel]] had decided not to provide, and that Bell would assume full responsibility for advising the President should the Independent Counsel fail to complete the investigation during Bush's term.[^34] In a statement prepared for the 1999 debate over reauthorizing the independent counsel statute, Bell wrote that he had experience under the statute "as Attorney General and later as counsel for President Bush in the Iran-Contra investigation," that he was opposed to renewal, and that he had been co-chair, with Senator [[Howard Baker]], of the [[Miller Center]] commission that unanimously recommended that the statute be allowed to expire.[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
Bell died on January 5, 2009 at [[Piedmont Hospital]] in Atlanta, at the age of 90; the [[Associated Press]] reported the cause as kidney failure, with pancreatic cancer and kidney disease.[^36]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, "Griffin Boyette Bell," Attorneys General biographies (born Americus, Georgia, October 31, 1918; Army 1941 to 1946; admitted to the Georgia bar 1947; King & Spalding 1953; appointed to the Fifth Circuit by President Kennedy in 1961; sworn in as Attorney General January 26, 1977; resigned August 16, 1979; Madrid delegation 1980; Task Force on Violent Crime 1982; Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform 1989; died Atlanta, January 5, 2009). https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/bell-griffin-boyette
|
||||
[^2]: *Griffin B. Bell: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session, on the Prospective Nomination of Griffin B. Bell, of Georgia, to Be Attorney General*, January 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 19, 1977 (Government Printing Office, 1977), biographical sketch, pp. 7-8. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^3]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), Scripps-Howard News Service report placed in the record, pp. 60-62. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^4]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Griffin B. Bell, resumed, p. 460. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^5]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), article "Lifelong Friend of Education, He Made Possible Peaceful School Integration in Georgia," *Buckhead* (Atlanta), January 24, 1977, introduced by Bell, p. 461. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^6]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Warren Cochran, pp. 278-280, 293-294. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^7]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Leon Jaworski, pp. 221-222. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^8]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), title page, and testimony of Griffin B. Bell, opening exchange with Chairman Eastland, p. 8. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^9]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Griffin B. Bell, pp. 120-122. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^10]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Clarence Mitchell, director, Washington Bureau, NAACP, pp. 159-161. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^11]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Griffin B. Bell, pp. 35-36 (disqualification statement) and p. 133 (severance). https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^12]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony and statement of David Cohen, president of Common Cause, pp. 353, 358-359. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^13]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Melissa Thompson, National Organization for Women, pp. 427-428. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^14]: Jimmy Carter, "Commutation of G. Gordon Liddy's Prison Sentence: Announcement of the Commutation, With the Text of the Order," April 12, 1977, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/commutation-g-gordon-liddys-prison-sentence-announcement-the-commutation-with-the-text-the
|
||||
[^15]: *United States v. Brown*, 484 F.2d 418 (5th Cir. 1973) (No. 72-2181) (Bell, J.), decided August 22, 1973, Parts I and V. https://static.case.law/f2d/484/cases/0418-01.json
|
||||
[^16]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), exchange of Senator Charles Mathias and Griffin B. Bell, pp. 12-13. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^17]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), exchange of Senator James Abourezk and Griffin B. Bell, resumed testimony, p. 80. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit
|
||||
[^18]: *Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Intelligence and the Rights of Americans of the Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, on S. 1566*, July 19 and 21, 1977 and February 8, 24 and 27, 1978, testimony of Griffin B. Bell, July 19, 1977, pp. 11-12 and following (CIA Reading Room copy CIA-RDP80S01268A000400010006-3). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80s01268a000400010006-3
|
||||
[^19]: Jimmy Carter, "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Statement on Signing S. 1566 Into Law," October 25, 1978, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act-1978-statement-signing-s-1566-into-law
|
||||
[^20]: Letter, Griffin B. Bell to E. H. Knoche, May 9, 1977, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP94B00280R001200100002-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp94b00280r001200100002-3
|
||||
[^21]: Letter, Stansfield Turner to Griffin B. Bell, July 1977 (catalog date July 26, 1977), CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP80M00165A001900150002-7. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80M00165A001900150002-7
|
||||
[^22]: Letter, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to Griffin B. Bell, May 25, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP81M00980R001400080081-0. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP81M00980R001400080081-0
|
||||
[^23]: Letter, Griffin B. Bell to Stansfield Turner, August 24, 1978, re *United States v. William Peter Kampiles*, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP86B00963R000200100024-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86b00963r000200100024-8
|
||||
[^24]: Letters, Stansfield Turner to Griffin B. Bell, August 17 and November 13, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP81M00980R000700080035-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000700080035-9
|
||||
[^25]: Letters, Stansfield Turner to Griffin B. Bell, February 6, 1979 (CIA-RDP83-00156R001000100046-6) and May 10, 1979 (CIA-RDP80B01554R003300260033-6), CIA Reading Room. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP83-00156R001000100046-6 and https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01554r003300260033-6
|
||||
[^26]: "2 ITT Men Charged with Senate Lies," March 21, 1978, newspaper clipping in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030069-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09t00207r001000030069-7
|
||||
[^27]: "3 Charges Dropped Against ITT Executive," *Washington Star*, August 1978, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030079-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09t00207r001000030079-6
|
||||
[^28]: *Gray v. Bell*, 712 F.2d 490, 493-494 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (No. 82-1838), decided June 21, 1983. https://static.case.law/f2d/712/cases/0490-01.json
|
||||
[^29]: *United States v. Felt*, 491 F. Supp. 179 (D.D.C. 1979) (Crim. No. 78-00179) (Bryant, C.J.), decided December 21, 1979; *United States v. Barker*, 546 F.2d 940 (D.C. Cir. 1976). https://static.case.law/f-supp/491/cases/0179-01.json
|
||||
[^30]: Mark D. Cummings, "Presidential 'Warrants,'" 7 *National Security Law Journal* 142, 148-151 nn.49, 62 (2020). Cummings states that he was assigned to the defense of W. Mark Felt. https://www.nslj.org/wp-content/uploads/Cummings_Presidential-22Warrants22-Final.pdf
|
||||
[^31]: "2 former top FBI men pardoned by Reagan," *Christian Science Monitor*, April 16, 1981. https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0416/041631.html
|
||||
[^32]: "Griffin Bell (1977-1979)," Miller Center, University of Virginia. https://millercenter.org/president/carter/essays/bell-1977-attorney-general
|
||||
[^33]: David T. Cook and John Yemma, "Bell probe of E. F. Hutton check scam finds conduct unethical," *Christian Science Monitor*, September 6, 1985. https://www.csmonitor.com/1985/0906/ahutton.html
|
||||
[^34]: George Bush, "Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Iran-Contra Investigation," December 30, 1992, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-press-secretary-fitzwater-the-iran-contra-investigation
|
||||
[^35]: Griffin B. Bell, "Independent Counsel Statute," statement (undated; prepared for the 1999 reauthorization debate), Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs archive. https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/bell.pdf
|
||||
[^36]: "Griffin Bell, former attorney general, dies at 90," Associated Press, via NBC News, January 5, 2009. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna28505758
|
||||
264
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hillary Clinton.md
Normal file
264
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hillary Clinton.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,264 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- Politician
|
||||
- HillaryClinton
|
||||
- BillClinton
|
||||
- Arkansas
|
||||
- RoseLawFirm
|
||||
- Whitewater
|
||||
- MadisonGuaranty
|
||||
- IndependentCounsel
|
||||
- BCCI
|
||||
- ClintonFoundation
|
||||
- UraniumOne
|
||||
- PrivateEmailServer
|
||||
- PerkinsCoie
|
||||
- FusionGPS
|
||||
- JeffreyEpstein
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Hillary Clinton
|
||||
- Hillary Rodham Clinton
|
||||
- Hillary Rodham
|
||||
- Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton
|
||||
- Hillary Diane Rodham
|
||||
- Mrs. Clinton
|
||||
- Secretary Clinton
|
||||
- HRC
|
||||
summary: "Lawyer, First Lady, New York senator and Secretary of State whose Madison Guaranty work, White House testimony, private email server and 2016 campaign spending were examined by independent counsel, inspectors general and the FEC."
|
||||
born: 1947-10-26
|
||||
location: "Chicago, Illinois (born)"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: spouse_of
|
||||
with: "[[Bill Clinton]]"
|
||||
role: "wife"
|
||||
start: 1975
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[House Committee on the Judiciary]]"
|
||||
role: "counsel, impeachment inquiry staff"
|
||||
start: 1974
|
||||
end: 1974
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Legal Services Corporation]]"
|
||||
role: "board member, later chair"
|
||||
start: 1977
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Systematics]]"
|
||||
role: "lawyer in the Financial General Bankshares litigation"
|
||||
start: 1978
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[James McDougal]]"
|
||||
role: "co-owner of the Whitewater land and company"
|
||||
start: 1978
|
||||
end: 1992
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Rose Law Firm]]"
|
||||
role: "partner"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association]]"
|
||||
role: "billing partner"
|
||||
start: 1985-04
|
||||
end: 1986-07
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform]]"
|
||||
role: "chairman"
|
||||
start: 1993-01-25
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Robert B. Fiske Jr.]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "regulatory independent counsel"
|
||||
start: 1994-01-20
|
||||
end: 1994-08-05
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Kenneth Starr]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "independent counsel"
|
||||
start: 1994-08-05
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Robert W. Ray]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "independent counsel"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[David Kendall]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "personal lawyer"
|
||||
fn: 12
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[United States Senate]]"
|
||||
role: "senator from New York"
|
||||
start: 2001-01-03
|
||||
end: 2009-01-21
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[State Department]]"
|
||||
role: "Secretary of State"
|
||||
start: 2009-01-21
|
||||
end: 2013-02-01
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
|
||||
role: "Midyear Exam email investigation"
|
||||
end: 2016-07-06
|
||||
fn: 26
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Perkins Coie]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "counsel to the 2016 campaign"
|
||||
fn: 27
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]]"
|
||||
role: "Epstein inquiry subpoena and deposition"
|
||||
start: 2025-08-05
|
||||
end: 2026-02-26
|
||||
fn: 31
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Hillary Diane Rodham was born in [[Chicago]] on October 26, 1947, to Dorothy and Hugh Rodham and grew up in [[Park Ridge, Illinois]]. She graduated from [[Wellesley College]] in 1969 and enrolled at [[Yale Law School]], where she met [[Bill Clinton]], and she married him in 1975.[^1] She took her law degree in 1973 and in 1974 served as counsel on the impeachment inquiry staff of the [[House Committee on the Judiciary]].[^2] The same year she moved to [[Arkansas]], where she taught as an assistant professor at the [[University of Arkansas School of Law]]. In 1977 President [[Jimmy Carter]] appointed her to the board of the [[Legal Services Corporation]], which she later chaired.[^3] During the twelve years her husband was Governor of Arkansas she practiced law in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Systematics and the BCCI Takeover of Financial General
|
||||
|
||||
In 1978 [[Financial General Bankshares]] sued the Little Rock investment banker [[Jackson Stephens]], his firm [[Stephens Inc.]] and the bank data processor [[Systematics]] over the accumulation of its stock for clients of [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], a campaign that ended with BCCI's secret control of the bank, renamed [[First American Bankshares]]. Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin, then reporters for the [[Wall Street Journal]], wrote in 1992 that Stephens's firm had given "substantial legal work" to the [[Rose Law Firm]], that "Mrs. Clinton even represented one of Stephens's companies in a case related to BCCI," and that "in 1978, she did legal work for Systematics Inc. when it was sued for its role in Abedi's scheme to collect stock in First American." They based the statement on a court filing and noted that she then practiced under the name Hillary Rodham. The same writers recorded that Stephens backed [[George H.W. Bush]] in 1992 while employees of Stephens Inc. gave more money to the Clinton campaign than the employees of all but two other firms in the country.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Whitewater
|
||||
|
||||
In 1978 Attorney General Bill Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, and [[James McDougal|Jim]] and [[Susan McDougal]] bought land near the White River in [[Marion County, Arkansas|Marion County]] as equal partners, and in 1979 they transferred it to the [[Whitewater Development Company]]. The Clintons contributed about 36,862 dollars and the McDougals about 80,076 dollars; the company lost more than 80,000 dollars, and in 1992 McDougal bought the Clintons' share for 1,000 dollars. McDougal bought the [[Bank of Kingston]] in October 1980 and renamed it [[Madison Bank & Trust]]; on December 16, 1980, it lent Mrs. Clinton 30,000 dollars at 20 percent interest, secured by Lot 13, of which she was the record owner. When bank regulators objected to her construction loan and to a Whitewater loan, the first was replaced by a loan to Governor Clinton from the Security Bank of Paragould and the second by a [[Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association|Madison Guaranty]] loan in his name, which was later retired through a nominee loan to [[Chris Wade]] and a chain of transfers that ran through a McDougal company's loan at [[Stephens Security Bank]].[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The independent counsel found that the McDougals held substantially all managerial control until 1986 and that Mrs. Clinton took a more active part afterward. Madison Guaranty failed in 1986 at a cost to taxpayers of 73 million dollars. On September 1, 1992, in the presidential campaign, the [[Resolution Trust Corporation]] office in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] sent Criminal Referral No. C-0004 on Madison Guaranty to the United States Attorney in Little Rock and the local office of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. Jim and Susan McDougal were convicted of felonies in May 1996, and Wade pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud in March 1995. The office concluded that "insufficient evidence exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in the criminal financial transactions Jim McDougal engaged in to benefit Whitewater Development."[^5] The matter passed from the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s Criminal Division to the regulatory independent counsel [[Robert B. Fiske Jr.]], who served from January 20 to August 5, 1994, and then to [[Kenneth Starr]].[^6][^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Madison Guaranty and the Securities Department
|
||||
|
||||
Madison Guaranty's principal counsel was [[Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard]], the firm of McDougal's business partner [[Jim Guy Tucker]]. The Arkansas Securities Commissioner, nominated by the Governor, also served as Arkansas Savings and Loan Supervisor and regulated state-chartered thrifts. In January 1985 Governor Clinton appointed [[Beverly Bassett]], who had worked on Madison Guaranty matters as an associate at the Mitchell Williams firm. McDougal told investigators that at the request of the former commissioner [[John Selig]] he recommended Bassett to the Governor, and a message slip records that he telephoned Clinton on December 22, 1984, to do so. Bassett testified that she did not know McDougal had recommended her and would not have asked him to; President Clinton said he did not remember whether McDougal had.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
Rose's representation began on April 23, 1985, with two matters before the [[Arkansas Securities Department]]: a plan for Madison Guaranty to raise its net worth by issuing preferred stock, which no state-chartered Arkansas thrift had done, and a broker-dealer subsidiary. The Rose associate [[Rick Massey]] billed the most hours, and Mrs. Clinton billed more than any other Rose partner. On April 29 and 30 she billed one hour for a "telephone conference with B. Bassett, Securities Commissioner" and one with Massey. The next day Rose sent the department supervisor [[Charles Handley]], who had told Madison Guaranty that Arkansas law did not permit the stock, a two-page opinion letter arguing that it did; the letter closed, "Should you require further information or assistance, please advise Hillary Rodham Clinton or Richard Massey of this firm." Massey testified that he drafted it and named her because she was the billing partner. Handley maintained his position, and the staff attorney Bill Brady advised Bassett to refer the question to the Arkansas Attorney General; Bassett did not.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
On May 14, 1985, Bassett wrote, "Dear Hillary: I agree with your analysis and conclusion," and that "as the Savings and Loan Supervisor, I concur in your opinion that Madison's proposed capitalization plan is not inconsistent with Arkansas law." On May 23 Mrs. Clinton forwarded the letter to McDougal: "We appreciate the opportunity to work for you and look forward to continuing success in resolving whatever questions arise as you continue your plan for growth." McDougal wrote on Bassett's letter, "John: Be sure we keep their $2,000 a month retainer paid. Jim." The independent counsel agreed that Bassett's analysis appeared consistent with Arkansas law. Madison Guaranty never met the net worth conditions for issuing the stock; by December 1985 it had acquired the property known as IDC, and the independent counsel found that the fraudulent Castle Grande sales to insiders "achieved the same result the stock offering was intended to achieve." The retainer checks drawn on Madison Guaranty's account were made out to "Rose Law Firm, Attn: Hillary Clinton," in amounts from 2,000 to 2,018 dollars between May 1985 and October 1986.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Retention Dispute
|
||||
|
||||
How Rose was hired was disputed. McDougal said Governor Clinton jogged into his office early one morning in August or September 1984, complained about his wife's earnings, and that McDougal then put Rose on a retainer of 2,000 dollars a month. Mrs. Clinton said Massey brought the client in and that her own role was to collect an old bill owed by Madison Bank & Trust; she stated that on April 23, 1985, she arranged for the bill to be paid so that Massey could take the new client. President Clinton said he could not remember asking McDougal to give his wife business but did not say McDougal's recollection was false. Massey did not remember bringing Madison Guaranty to Rose.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The independent counsel "conclusively established that the old bill had been settled in October 1984, six months before Mrs. Clinton's supposedly having arranged for it to be paid," when Madison Bank & Trust paid 5,000 dollars of a 5,893 dollar balance and Rose never pursued the rest. The independent counsel found the statement "factually incorrect" but not shown to have been knowingly false. "On balance, the weight of evidence supports McDougal's version of events," it concluded, but the evidence was insufficient to warrant prosecution, and McDougal, "the most important percipient witness," had died in March 1998.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Castle Grande and the Billing Changes
|
||||
|
||||
Before Rose's billing records surfaced, Mrs. Clinton testified in April 1995 that she was to be the billing partner with no substantive role and that she did not remember what the IDC matter was. A 1993 Rose fee recap showed her receiving 2,731.25 dollars for "Madison Guaranty/Stock Offering and IDC" in January 1986, several times her largest allocation on any Madison Guaranty matter. On January 30, 1986, Rose sent five bills under her name as billing partner. The computerized memorandum for the IDC matter showed 912.50 dollars of her work; she raised it by hand to 2,731.25 dollars, adding 14.5 hours of work with no indication of what it was, and no supporting entry was ever made in the Rose billing computer. Her time sheets for 1985 and 1986 were never found. In 1992, during the presidential campaign, her secretary requested those time sheets from Rose storage; no investigation located them afterward.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
The records show twelve unspecified conferences with the landowner [[Seth Ward]], the father-in-law of the Rose partner [[Webster Hubbell]] and a Madison Financial employee, between November 14, 1985, and January 7, 1986. On November 20, 1985, McDougal sent Ward a memorandum about a brewery and tasting room on the property: "I have spoken with the Governor on this matter and expect that it will be approved. We must be very careful to not mention that there will be a 'tavern' in the location." On April 7, 1986, the day Madison Guaranty and Ward executed two "cross notes" on Ward's commissions, she billed the IDC matter for a telephone conference with a Madison Guaranty officer; the independent counsel found that significant evidence corroborated the officer's account that they discussed the notes, while she said the call concerned another matter. She also billed for drafting a May 1, 1986, option agreement between Ward and Madison Guaranty's subsidiary, which federal examiners concluded had misled them about sham loans between Ward and the thrift.[^11][^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Billing Records
|
||||
|
||||
The billing records for 1985 and 1986 were produced to the Office of the Independent Counsel on Friday, January 5, 1996, by her personal lawyer [[David Kendall]], with a cover letter to the associate independent counsel [[John D. Bates|John Bates]]; they had been subpoenaed eighteen months earlier.[^7] The [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]] inspector general reopened the Rose investigation and on September 20, 1996, issued a supplemental report. Its counsel [[Patricia Black]], who had told the House that Rose's involvement was "minor and brief," testified before the grand jury in 1998: "As evidenced by the billing records, it was neither. My testimony, in short, was wrong." The independent counsel found that the regulators had given Congress materially incomplete testimony about her role and that "partially as a result of Hubbell's actions, the United States Congress was misled." Hubbell, her former partner and then Associate Attorney General, resigned in March 1994 and pleaded guilty in December 1994 to mail fraud and tax evasion for defrauding Rose and its clients of at least 394,000 dollars; the independent counsel later prosecuted him for concealing Rose's Madison Guaranty conflicts, and he pleaded guilty to one further felony.[^12][^13]
|
||||
|
||||
The independent counsel's table of contents for the part on the records lists sections titled "Huber Testified She Found the Records in Room 319A," "Evidence Relating to Mrs. Clinton's Conduct in July 1995," "Fingerprint Analysis Disclosed Mrs. Clinton's and Vince Foster's Prints," "Webb Hubbell and Vince Foster Had the Billing Records in 1992," "Attempts to Locate Mrs. Clinton's Time Sheets," and "Billing Records Found in Foster's Attic, July 1997," the last a second set of Madison Guaranty and Madison Bank & Trust records. The body of that part is not among the published volumes on the Government Publishing Office site.[^14] The analysis in the published volume records that an FBI laboratory report of March 21, 1996, found her fingerprints on the copy produced from the [[White House]], that she testified she may have handled the records during the 1992 campaign but not after they were subpoenaed, and that Hubbell reviewed the records in 1992 and discussed with her "her numerous conferences with Seth Ward."[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
The independent counsel found "substantial evidence" that she did "more than an insubstantial amount of legal work on the IDC matter," "significant evidence" that her testimony about it was "incomplete and factually inaccurate," and three motives to minimize her role: political embarrassment over work "representing the thrift before state agencies regulated under her husband's authority as Governor," possible civil claims against Rose, and possible criminal exposure. It concluded that there was "no substantial evidence to support the conclusion that Mrs. Clinton was a knowing participant in the criminal conduct of McDougal or others," that her statements could not be proven knowingly false beyond a reasonable doubt, and that prosecution was declined.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Foster's Office
|
||||
|
||||
On the evening of July 20, 1993, after the death of Deputy White House Counsel [[Vince Foster]], White House Counsel [[Bernard Nussbaum]], the First Lady's chief of staff [[Maggie Williams]] and [[Patsy Thomasson]] entered Foster's office; before going to the White House Williams spoke by telephone with Mrs. Clinton. A uniformed [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] officer later said he thought he saw Williams leave with documents; Williams passed a polygraph on the question. On July 22 Nussbaum reviewed Foster's files himself and told the Justice Department attorneys [[David Margolis]] and Roger Adams that he would turn over only what investigators were entitled to have; they and Deputy Attorney General [[Philip Heymann]] said he broke an agreement, which Nussbaum denied. There was a series of calls that morning among Mrs. Clinton, [[Susan Thomases]] and Williams, and between Thomases and Nussbaum, all of whose participants denied trying to influence the search.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
After the search, Williams collected the Clintons' personal files and, she testified, called Mrs. Clinton to ask where to put them in the residence; she said Mrs. Clinton told her, "I think Carolyn has a closet up on the third floor that you could use to store them. You should call Carolyn." Williams and a White House Counsel's office intern entered the residence at 7:25 p.m., and [[Carolyn Huber]] put the box in a locked closet in Room 323, the room in which she and Mrs. Clinton stored the family's personal papers. The files went to [[Williams & Connolly]] on July 27; the firm's index shows that one file in the box was titled "Whitewater Development." On July 26 an associate counsel found a torn note in Foster's briefcase; Nussbaum showed it to Mrs. Clinton, and it was not reported to investigators for about thirty hours, until Attorney General [[Janet Reno]] told Nussbaum to hand it over. No complete index of Foster's office was made, and the independent counsel found the evidence insufficient to establish that anyone obstructed justice or that the Clintons withheld documents from the grand jury.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Health Care Task Force
|
||||
|
||||
On January 25, 1993, President Clinton established the [[President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform]] with his wife as chairman and as members the Secretaries of the Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Labor and Commerce, the budget director and the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. A separate working group of about 300 permanent federal employees, about 40 "special government employees" and an unknown number of consultants was headed by the presidential adviser [[Ira Magaziner]], the only Task Force member who attended its meetings. The Task Force held one public hearing and met behind closed doors at least 20 times in April and May 1993. In [[Association of American Physicians and Surgeons v. Clinton]], decided June 22, 1993, the [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit]] held that the Task Force was exempt from the [[Federal Advisory Committee Act]] because 3 U.S.C. 105(e) could be read as treating the President's spouse as "a de facto officer or employee," so that the panel was composed wholly of full-time government officials; it remanded the question of the working group. The district court had held that she was not an officer or employee "merely by virtue of her status as 'First Lady.'"[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
### Travel Office and the FBI Files
|
||||
|
||||
On May 19, 1993, the seven employees of the [[White House Travel Office]] were dismissed; its director, [[Billy Dale]], was later prosecuted and acquitted. On January 4, 1996, the White House produced a 1993 draft memorandum by the management chief [[David Watkins]] stating that "Foster regularly informed me that the First Lady was concerned and desired action, the action desired was the firing of the Travel Office staff." Watkins's notes record her telling him on May 14, 1993: "We need those people out. We need our people in. We need the slots." The independent counsel found that the Clintons' friend [[Harry Thomason]] was "the impetus for Mrs. Clinton's concerns," and that [[Mack McLarty]], Watkins, Foster and Thomason met on at least three occasions to discuss them. The confidential FBI background report of Billy Dale was requested by White House officials on December 20, 1993, seven months after his dismissal.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
In the final report, filed June 22, 2000, and released October 18, 2000, Independent Counsel [[Robert W. Ray]] wrote that "the evidence is overwhelming that she in fact did have a role in the decision to fire the employees," that her sworn testimony that she had no input or role "is factually inaccurate," and that the evidence was nevertheless "insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mrs. Clinton knowingly made a false statement." The independent counsel "fully and completely" discharged Watkins and Mrs. Clinton "from all criminal liability." Kendall, in a letter of September 28, 2000, appended to the final report, called the "factually inaccurate" finding "highly unfair and misleading."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
When the report on the White House acquisition of about 900 FBI background files of former Reagan and Bush administration staff was unsealed on July 28, 2000, Ray stated that "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official, or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, was involved in seeking confidential Federal Bureau of Investigation background reports." He found no personal relationship between her and [[Craig Livingstone]], the director of the White House personnel security office, and no corroboration for an FBI document recording that Nussbaum had told agents Livingstone came highly recommended by her and that she knew his mother. She and Livingstone had denied any such relationship under oath.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Senate
|
||||
|
||||
She served as a senator from [[New York]] from January 3, 2001, until her resignation on January 21, 2009, and sat on the [[Senate Armed Services Committee|Armed Services Committee]].[^2][^3] On October 11, 2002, she voted yea on House Joint Resolution 114, the authorization for the use of military force against [[Iraq]], which passed 77 to 23.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Clinton Foundation and the State Department
|
||||
|
||||
She was sworn in as Secretary of State on January 21, 2009, and her appointment terminated on February 1, 2013.[^3] At her confirmation hearing before the [[Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] on January 13, 2009, the ranking member, [[Richard Lugar]], said that "the main issue related to Senator Clinton's nomination that has occupied the Committee" was how her service could be reconciled with the activities of Bill Clinton and the [[Clinton Foundation]], that "foreign governments and entities may perceive the Clinton Foundation as a means to gain favor with the Secretary of State," and that "the only certain way to eliminate this risk going forward is for the Clinton Foundation to forswear new foreign contributions." The Obama transition and the Foundation had instead signed a memorandum of understanding requiring disclosure of past donors, annual disclosure thereafter, and a State Department ethics review of donations from foreign governments and government-controlled entities. Lugar called it "a beginning, not an end" and proposed that all foreign gifts of 50,000 dollars or more be reviewed, since "conflicts of interest could arise from a donation from a Gazprom executive or a member of the Saudi Royal family as easily as from the governments of Russia and [[Saudi Arabia]]."[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation (EIN 31-1580204) reported revenue of 57.1 million dollars for 2011 and 54.7 million for 2012. For 2013, the year she left the department, it reported revenue of 148.9 million and contributions of 144.4 million; for 2014, 177.8 million and 172.6 million; for 2015, 116.1 million and 108.9 million; and for 2016, 70.8 million and 62.9 million. Revenue for 2017 was 38.4 million.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### Uranium One
|
||||
|
||||
On June 30, 2015, Senator [[Chuck Grassley]] wrote to Treasury Secretary [[Jack Lew]], citing reporting by Jo Becker and Mike McIntire in the [[New York Times]], that in September 2005 [[Frank Giustra]] won a uranium deal in [[Kazakhstan]] for his company UrAsia days after visiting the country with Bill Clinton, and then gave 31.3 million dollars to the Clinton Foundation; that UrAsia merged into [[Uranium One]]; that Uranium One and former UrAsia investors gave 8.65 million dollars between 2008 and 2010 while the company's Kazakh mining licenses were in doubt; that the Uranium One chairman [[Ian Telfer]] gave 1 million dollars in 2009 through his family's Fernwood Foundation and 250,000 dollars in 2010 as [[Rosatom]], through its subsidiary ARMZ, sought a majority of the company; and that in June 2010 Bill Clinton was paid 500,000 dollars for a speech in Russia funded by a Russian investment bank. Uranium One and ARMZ notified the [[Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States]], on which the Secretary of State sits and which Treasury chairs, in the first week of August 2010 and were told on October 22, 2010, that "there were no unresolved national security concerns." Grassley wrote that "Secretary Clinton's involvement in the decision-making process needs to be more closely examined."[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
Dan Friedman of [[Mother Jones]] reported that the State Department's representative on the committee, Assistant Secretary [[Jose Fernandez]], told the Times that Clinton "never intervened with me" on any matter before it, that the approval was unanimous among the committee's member agencies, and that a second approval in 2013, when Rosatom bought the remaining shares, came after she had left the department; Giustra said he had sold his interest three years before the Russian purchase.[^23] In November 2017 Attorney General [[Jeff Sessions]] directed the Utah United States Attorney [[John Huber]] to review the Foundation and Uranium One matters. Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky of the [[Washington Post]] reported in January 2020, citing current and former officials, that Huber had conferred with FBI agents in Little Rock handling "a meandering probe into the Clinton Foundation," had largely finished and had found nothing worth pursuing, with no criminal charges.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Private Email Server
|
||||
|
||||
She used a personal email account on a private server for official business throughout her tenure. The State Department inspector general reported in May 2016 that she had not sought approval to do so, that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Information Resource Management "did not, and would not, approve her exclusive reliance on a personal email account," and that she "did not comply with the Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act." On January 9, 2011, the outside adviser to Bill Clinton who supported the system shut the server down because he believed "someone was trying to hack us," and later that day wrote, "We were attacked again." Her production omitted the first months of her tenure, and through her counsel she declined the inspector general's request for an interview.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General]] reported in June 2018 that in the summer of 2014, after the department told her former chief of staff [[Cheryl Mills]] that it could not locate her emails for requests from the [[House Select Committee on Benghazi]], she asked Mills and Kendall to oversee their production. Mills, Kendall and the former department lawyer [[Heather Samuelson]] devised a method by which Samuelson culled the work-related messages, and in December 2014 she produced about 55,000 pages, about 30,000 emails. The committee sent preservation orders on March 3, 2015. Later that month [[Paul Combetta]] of [[Platte River Networks]], the company administering the server, realized he had not applied a retention change Mills had requested months earlier, had what he told the FBI was an "oh shit" moment, and used BleachBit to delete the emails from the server; according to FBI documents her attorneys had advised him of the preservation order before he did so. In all, 31,830 emails her lawyers had deemed personal were deleted from the laptops of Mills and Samuelson and from the server. The Intelligence Community inspector general referred the matter to the FBI on July 6, 2015.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 27, 2016, Attorney General [[Loretta Lynch]] and Bill Clinton met for 20 to 30 minutes aboard Lynch's aircraft at [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] Sky Harbor Airport; Lynch publicly denied discussing the investigation. Mrs. Clinton was interviewed at FBI headquarters on July 2, 2016, with Mills and Samuelson present as her lawyers. On July 5 FBI Director [[James Comey]] described her and her aides as "extremely careless" in handling classified information, a phrase that earlier drafts had rendered "grossly negligent," and said "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case. His statement reported that 110 emails in 52 chains among the 30,000 had contained classified information when sent, eight chains at Top Secret, that the FBI had recovered several thousand more work-related emails, and that "we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them." Lynch accepted the recommendation to decline prosecution on July 6.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 2016 Campaign, Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS
|
||||
|
||||
In the spring of 2016 the law firm [[Perkins Coie]], counsel to [[Hillary for America]] and the [[Democratic National Committee]], retained [[Fusion GPS]], whose co-founder [[Glenn Simpson]] in mid-May 2016 retained the former British intelligence officer [[Christopher Steele]] and his firm [[Orbis Business Intelligence]]; Steele was then also a confidential human source for the FBI.[^27] Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS 1,024,407.97 dollars in 2016. Between July 15 and August 26, 2016, the DNC paid Perkins Coie 849,407.97 dollars, of which it reported 782,907.97 dollars as "legal and compliance consulting," and the campaign paid Perkins Coie 175,000 dollars, which it reported as "legal services." On a complaint by the [[Coolidge Reagan Foundation]], the [[Federal Election Commission]] voted 4 to 0 on July 23, 2019, to find reason to believe that both committees had misreported the purpose of funds paid to Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie, after deadlocking 2 to 2 on whether they had also misreported the payee. It found probable cause by votes of 4 to 2 on December 16, 2021, and on February 17, 2022, accepted conciliation agreements with civil penalties of 105,000 dollars for the DNC and 8,000 dollars for the campaign. Each committee stated that it "does not concede" the finding and contended that Fusion GPS worked at the direction of Perkins Coie, including in anticipation of litigation. On March 25, 2022, the Commission voted 6 to 0 to dismiss the allegations under the foreign national provision against Steele, [[Marc Elias]], Perkins Coie, the campaign and Fusion GPS.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
The report of Special Counsel [[John Durham]], dated May 12, 2023, records that in late July 2016 American intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that she had approved "a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify [[Donald Trump]] by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services," a document the intelligence community said it did not know to be accurate and that "may reflect exaggeration or fabrication." [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Director [[John Brennan]] briefed President [[Barack Obama]] on it on August 3, 2016, and on September 7 the intelligence agencies sent an investigative referral on it to Comey and [[Peter Strzok]]. The Perkins Coie lawyer [[Michael Sussmann]] gave the FBI's general counsel data purporting to show a covert channel between the [[Trump Organization]] and [[Alfa Bank]], telling him he was not acting for any client; Durham found that he was representing the campaign, as shown by Perkins Coie billing records, and the technology executive [[Rodney Joffe]]. A jury acquitted Sussmann of making a false statement. At his trial Elias and the campaign manager [[Robby Mook]] testified that the campaign did not authorize Sussmann to go to the FBI, and Mook testified that senior campaign officials favored giving the Alfa Bank allegations to the media and that Clinton approved doing so, before their accuracy had been resolved.[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Hillary Victory Fund
|
||||
|
||||
The [[Hillary Victory Fund]], a joint fundraising committee first registered with the Federal Election Commission on September 10, 2015, with the campaign treasurer Elizabeth Jones as its treasurer, reported 530.0 million dollars in receipts and 529.6 million in disbursements for the 2016 cycle. Its itemized disbursements include 165.9 million dollars to Hillary for America, 108.9 million to the DNC, 68.6 million to the digital firm [[Bully Pulpit Interactive]], 29.0 million to the direct-mail firm [[Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey]] and 11.3 million to [[Financial Innovations]], with transfers of between about 2.5 million and 3.4 million dollars to each of 38 state Democratic parties.[^29] In the same cycle many of those parties reported disbursements of comparable size to the DNC. The Missouri Democratic State Committee received 3,043,700 dollars from the fund and reported 3,033,700 dollars in disbursements to the DNC; the Mississippi party received 3,025,700 and reported 3,015,700; Wyoming received 3,023,500 and reported 3,013,500; [[New Jersey]], Delaware, Kansas and South Dakota each reported disbursements to the DNC equal to the amounts they received from the fund. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party, which received 3,110,348 dollars, reported 412,626 dollars to the DNC, and the [[North Carolina]] party, which received 3,423,484 dollars, reported 379,614.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
### House Oversight and Jeffrey Epstein
|
||||
|
||||
On July 23, 2025, the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]] approved by voice vote subpoenas to ten people, including both Clintons, in its inquiry into [[Jeffrey Epstein]] and [[Ghislaine Maxwell]], and Chairman [[James Comer]] issued them on August 5. Her deposition, first set for October 9, was moved to December 18, 2025; she declined that date, citing a funeral, did not propose a January date, and did not appear on January 14, 2026, under a further subpoena. On January 21, 2026, the committee voted with members of both parties to recommend that the House hold both Clintons in contempt, and on February 3 Comer announced that they had agreed to appear.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
She was deposed on February 26, 2026, at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in [[Chappaqua, New York]]. Her opening statement said: "I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices." Afterward she said she had "never met Jeffrey Epstein" and knew Maxwell "casually as an acquaintance," and that Maxwell had attended her daughter's wedding as the guest of an invited guest. Comer said the times she answered "I don't know. You'll have to ask my husband" numbered "more than a dozen," and Representative [[Scott Perry]] said questions about the [[Clinton Global Initiative]] or the Clintons' relationship with Epstein and Maxwell had to go to Bill Clinton. Representative [[Lauren Boebert]] gave a photograph of the closed session to the commentator Benny Johnson, and the deposition was briefly paused.[^32]
|
||||
|
||||
In video released on March 2, 2026, each Clinton is questioned for about four and a half hours. Representative [[Nancy Mace]] asked how she had known [[Howard Lutnick]] in the early 2000s and said she had an email in which Lutnick invited Epstein and his associates to an "intimate event" on Clinton's behalf at his New York offices; Clinton said she knew nothing about it. Boebert asked her about [[Pizzagate]].[^33]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "Biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton," The White House, Office of the First Lady (Clinton administration archive, National Archives). https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/HILLARY_Bio.html
|
||||
[^2]: "CLINTON, Hillary Rodham," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, capture of February 1, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160201012933/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C001041
|
||||
[^3]: "Hillary Rodham Clinton," Biographies of the Secretaries of State and Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State (appointed January 21, 2009; termination of appointment February 1, 2013). https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/clinton-hillary-rodham
|
||||
[^4]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992, ch. 18 and source notes, p. 428 (index entry "Clinton, Hillary, 428"). https://archive.org/details/bypetertruellauthorlarrygurwinauthorfalseprofitstheinsidestoryofbccitheworldsmos
|
||||
[^5]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part A, "The Clintons, the McDougals, and the Whitewater Development Company," pp. 1-5 and 27-28 (RTC Criminal Referral No. C-0004; Bank of Kingston loan of December 16, 1980). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-2.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: Office of the Independent Counsel (Robert W. Ray), *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In re Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association*, vol. I, table of contents, section III.B to III.C ("Department of Justice Criminal Division Fraud Section (November 1993 to January 1994)"; "Regulatory Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. (January 20, 1994 to August 5, 1994)"). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-1-1.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: Office of the Independent Counsel (Robert W. Ray), *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In re Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association, In re William David Watkins and In re Hillary Rodham Clinton*, filed June 22, 2000, released October 18, 2000, pp. 1-5, 14-17 and 233-234, with notes 4, 10-16, and the letter of David E. Kendall to Hon. Mark J. Langer, September 28, 2000, in the appendix. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheIndependentCounselReMadisonGuarantySLDavidWatkinsAndHillaryRodhamClinton
|
||||
[^8]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 1, pp. 114-117 and notes 497-505 (Bill Clinton to Beverly Bassett, January 22, 1985, Doc. No. DEK219149; message slip of December 22, 1984, Doc. No. DEK218791; Senate Whitewater Committee hearing, January 25, 1996; W. Clinton deposition, April 22, 1995, at 77). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-3-1.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 1, pp. 115-132 and notes 545-581 (Rose letter to Charles Handley, April 30, 1985, Doc. Nos. RFL1 03182-3183; Bassett to Clinton, May 14, 1985, Doc. No. RLF1 03184; Clinton to McDougal, May 23, 1985; Brady RTC affidavit, May 18, 1994; McDougal note to Latham, McDougal grand jury testimony, April 2, 1997, at 121). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-3-1.pdf
|
||||
[^10]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 3, "Mrs. Clinton's Madison Guaranty Representation," pp. 410-414 and 466-467. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-4-2.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 1, pp. 161-164, 174-175 and notes 713-723, 766 (Rose billing records, January 1986, Doc. No. DEK015017; McDougal to Ward memorandum, November 20, 1985). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-3-1.pdf
|
||||
[^12]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 2, pp. 251-252, 288-292 and 406, with notes 1131-1140 (letter from David E. Kendall to John D. Bates, January 5, 1996; Rose Law Firm billing records 1985-1986, Doc. Nos. DEK 014936 through 5049; FDIC-OIG, Supplemental Report on Rose Law Firm Conflicts of Interest, WA-94-0016, September 20, 1996; Black grand jury testimony, February 19, 1998, at 4-7). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-4-1.pdf
|
||||
[^13]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. III, Part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings," introduction. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf
|
||||
[^14]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. III, table of contents, Part D, "Rose Law Firm Billing Records," sections III.A to III.G, pp. 71-143. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-1.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 3, pp. 488-495 and notes 1959-1964 (FBI Laboratory Report, March 21, 1996; H. Clinton grand jury testimony, January 26, 1996, at 28; Hubbell grand jury testimony, December 19, 1995, at 177-178). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-4-2.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. III, Part E, "The Discovery and Removal of Documents from Vincent W. Foster Jr.'s Office," pp. 151-156, 239-240 and 245-247, with notes 1422-1423 and 1458-1471 (Williams & Connolly index, Doc. No. 325-DC-00000028; M. Williams sworn interview, October 28, 1994; Secret Service residential movement logs, July 22, 1993). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-3.pdf
|
||||
[^17]: Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. v. Clinton, 997 F.2d 898 (D.C. Cir. June 22, 1993), Nos. 93-5086, 93-5092, opinion of Silberman, J. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/997/997.F2d.898.93-5092.93-5086.html
|
||||
[^18]: "Independent counsel: No evidence to warrant prosecution against first lady in 'filegate,'" CNN, July 28, 2000 (Bob Franken and Tom Dunleavey contributing). https://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/07/28/clinton.filegate/
|
||||
[^19]: U.S. Senate, roll call vote 237, 107th Cong., 2d sess., on H.J. Res. 114, October 11, 2002. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1072/vote_107_2_00237.xml
|
||||
[^20]: Lugar, Richard G. Opening statement for the confirmation hearing of Senator Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, January 13, 2009, pp. 2-4 and Attachment A. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/LugarStatement090113a.pdf
|
||||
[^21]: Bill Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, EIN 31-1580204, Form 990 financial data for tax years 2011 to 2017, via the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/311580204.json
|
||||
[^22]: Grassley, Charles E. Letter to Jacob J. Lew, Secretary of the Treasury, June 30, 2015, pp. 1-3, citing Jo Becker and Mike McIntire, "Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal," New York Times, April 23, 2015, and Uranium One to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, January 29, 2013. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2015-06-30%20CEG%20to%20Treasury%20(CFIUS%20+%20Uranium).pdf
|
||||
[^23]: Friedman, Dan. "The Clinton-Uranium 'Scandal' Is Right-Wing Nonsense. Here's Everything You Need to Know," *Mother Jones*, October 31, 2017. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/the-clinton-uranium-scandal-is-right-wing-nonsense-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/
|
||||
[^24]: Barrett, Devlin, and Matt Zapotosky. "Justice Department winds down Clinton-related inquiry once championed by Trump. It found nothing of consequence," *Washington Post*, reprinted in the *Philadelphia Inquirer*, January 10, 2020. https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/justice-department-hillary-clinton-inquiry-trump-20200110.html
|
||||
[^25]: U.S. Department of State, Office of Inspector General, *Office of the Secretary: Evaluation of Email Records Management and Cybersecurity Requirements*, ESP-16-03, May 2016, pp. 2, 22-23, 36-37 and 39. https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/esp-16-03.pdf
|
||||
[^26]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election*, Report 18-04, June 2018, Executive Summary pp. i-iii, ch. 1 pp. 1-5, ch. 2 pp. 37-39, and the draft of Comey's statement of July 5, 2016, Bates FBI DOJ OIG ELEC 003446 to 003448. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-J37-PURL-gpo93700/pdf/GOVPUB-J37-PURL-gpo93700.pdf
|
||||
[^27]: Durham, John H., Special Counsel. *Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns*, U.S. Department of Justice, May 12, 2023, pp. 11-12, 16-17, 81-85, 266 and 287. https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf
|
||||
[^28]: Federal Election Commission, MURs 7291 and 7449: conciliation agreements with DNC Services Corporation/Democratic National Committee and with Hillary for America, and letter of Richard L. Weiss to Graham Wilson, February 22, 2022 (doc. 64); certification of July 23, 2019 (doc. 20); Commission votes of December 16, 2021, February 17, 2022, and March 25, 2022, recorded in the MUR 7449 case file. https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7449/7449_64.pdf ; https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7449/7449_20.pdf ; https://www.fec.gov/data/legal/matter-under-review/7449/
|
||||
[^29]: Federal Election Commission, Hillary Victory Fund, committee C00586537: committee record, 2016 cycle totals, and Schedule B disbursements by recipient and by recipient committee, 2016 cycle, via the FEC API. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00586537/?cycle=2016
|
||||
[^30]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule B disbursements by recipient committee (recipient C00010603, DNC Services Corp./Democratic National Committee), 2016 cycle, for the Missouri Democratic State Committee (C00135558), Mississippi Democratic Party PAC (C00149641), WY Democratic State Central Committee (C00001917), New Jersey Democratic State Committee (C00104471), Democratic State Committee (Delaware) (C00211763), Kansas Democratic Party (C00019380), South Dakota Democratic Party (C00160937), Pennsylvania Democratic Party (C00167130) and North Carolina Democratic Party-Federal (C00165688), via the FEC API. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/by_recipient_id/
|
||||
[^31]: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, "Oversight Committee Republicans and Democrats Hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in Contempt for Defying Lawful Subpoenas," January 21, 2026, https://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-committee-republicans-and-democrats-hold-bill-and-hillary-clinton-in-contempt-for-defying-lawful-subpoenas/ ; "Chairman Comer Announces the Clintons Caved, Will Appear for Depositions," February 3, 2026, https://oversight.house.gov/release/chairman-comer-announces-the-clintons-caved-will-appear-for-depositions/
|
||||
[^32]: Yilek, Caitlin. "Hillary Clinton tells House committee she had 'no idea' about Epstein's crimes," CBS News, February 26, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-epstein-house-oversight-committee-deposition/
|
||||
[^33]: Grayer, Annie, MJ Lee, Aaron Blake, Emily Condon and Dugald McConnell. "Epstein deposition videos show Hillary Clinton in heated moments with lawmakers, Bill Clinton addressing hot tub photo," CNN, March 2, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/politics/clinton-depositions-epstein-video
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,16 +1,244 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs"
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- Politician
|
||||
- Nuclear
|
||||
- Israel
|
||||
summary: "Chief of Staff under President Reagan who agreed sanctions against Israel were essential after the 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osirak reactor."
|
||||
- JamesBaker
|
||||
- TreasuryDepartment
|
||||
- StateDepartment
|
||||
- ReaganAdministration
|
||||
- BushAdministration
|
||||
- Debategate
|
||||
- BCCI
|
||||
- BNLScandal
|
||||
- MatrixChurchill
|
||||
- BakerBotts
|
||||
- CarlyleGroup
|
||||
- FARA
|
||||
- SaudiArabia
|
||||
- IraqStudyGroup
|
||||
- Texas
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- James A. Baker III
|
||||
- James Baker
|
||||
- Jim Baker
|
||||
- James Addison Baker III
|
||||
- James A. Baker, III
|
||||
- Secretary Baker
|
||||
summary: "Lawyer and Republican campaign manager who was Reagan's chief of staff and Treasury Secretary and Bush's Secretary of State, then Baker Botts senior partner, Carlyle senior counselor, Iraqi debt envoy and Iraq Study Group co-chair."
|
||||
born: 1930-04-28
|
||||
location: "Houston, Texas"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Andrews & Kurth]]"
|
||||
role: "lawyer"
|
||||
start: 1957
|
||||
end: 1975
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[United States Department of Commerce]]"
|
||||
role: "Under Secretary of Commerce"
|
||||
start: 1975
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[President Ford Committee]]"
|
||||
role: "national chairman"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[George Bush for President Committee]]"
|
||||
role: "national chairman"
|
||||
start: 1979-01
|
||||
end: 1980-05
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[White House]]"
|
||||
role: "chief of staff to President Reagan"
|
||||
start: 1981
|
||||
end: 1985
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Debategate]]"
|
||||
role: "received the Carter briefing book from Casey and passed it to the debate team"
|
||||
start: 1980
|
||||
end: 1980
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[United States Department of the Treasury]]"
|
||||
role: "Secretary of the Treasury"
|
||||
start: 1985-02-03
|
||||
end: 1988-08-17
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[State Department]]"
|
||||
role: "Secretary of State"
|
||||
start: 1989-01-25
|
||||
end: 1992-08-23
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[BNL Scandal]]"
|
||||
role: "Secretary of State briefed on the case; interviewed by Independent Counsel Frederick Lacey"
|
||||
fn: 13
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[White House]]"
|
||||
role: "chief of staff and senior counselor to President Bush"
|
||||
start: 1992-08
|
||||
end: 1993-01
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Baker Botts]]"
|
||||
role: "senior partner"
|
||||
start: 1993-03
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Carlyle Group]]"
|
||||
role: "senior counselor"
|
||||
start: 1993
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Carlyle Group]]"
|
||||
role: "executive officer and member of TCG Holdings; managing director of TCG Ventures"
|
||||
fn: 16
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Electronic Data Systems]]"
|
||||
role: "director; chairman of the governance committee"
|
||||
start: 1996
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Reliant Energy]]"
|
||||
role: "director"
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Rice University]]"
|
||||
role: "director"
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]]"
|
||||
role: "board member"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy]]"
|
||||
role: "honorary chairman"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[George W. Bush]]"
|
||||
role: "campaign representative in the Florida recount"
|
||||
start: 2000-11-09
|
||||
fn: 17
|
||||
- type: appointed
|
||||
with: "[[George W. Bush]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "personal envoy on Iraqi debt"
|
||||
start: 2003-12-05
|
||||
fn: 22
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Iraq Study Group]]"
|
||||
role: "co-chair"
|
||||
start: 2006-03-15
|
||||
fn: 24
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
James A. Baker III served as the Chief of Staff under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. He was present at a meeting of Reagan's high command following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981, where he agreed that some sanctions against [[Israel]] were essential.[^1]
|
||||
James Addison Baker III was born in [[Houston]] on April 28, 1930, graduated from [[Princeton University]] in 1952, served two years on active duty as a lieutenant in the [[United States Marine Corps]], took his law degree with honors from the [[University of Texas School of Law]] in 1957, and practiced with the Houston firm of [[Andrews & Kurth]] from 1957 to 1975.[^1] Through the influence of his first wife he entered Republican politics, chaired [[George H.W. Bush]]'s unsuccessful 1970 Senate campaign in [[Texas]], and in 1971 became finance chairman of the Republican Party, with a regional role in the 1972 reelection of [[Richard Nixon]].[^2] He served as the Chief of Staff under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. He was present at a meeting of Reagan's high command following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing|Osirak]] in June 1981, where he agreed that some sanctions against [[Israel]] were essential.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Ford and Bush Campaigns
|
||||
|
||||
His public service began in 1975, when President [[Gerald R. Ford]] appointed him Under Secretary of Commerce. He then served on Ford's campaign staff as deputy chairman for delegate operations and, four months later, as national chairman of the [[President Ford Committee]]. From January 1979 to May 1980 he was national chairman of the [[George Bush for President Committee]].[^1][^4] He led presidential campaigns for Ford, Reagan and Bush over five consecutive elections from 1976 to 1992.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Chief of Staff
|
||||
|
||||
From 1981 to 1985 Baker was White House Chief of Staff.[^1] According to the national security adviser [[Richard V. Allen]], as recounted by [[Seymour Hersh]], at the meeting of Reagan's senior officials the morning after the Israeli raid on Osirak, Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]] proposed canceling the sale of F-16 aircraft to Israel, and Vice President Bush and Baker agreed that some sanctions were essential; Reagan, Allen said, "rolled his eyes at me" and made clear he would take no such step. A scheduled delivery of four F-16s was suspended a few days later and quietly resumed two months after that.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Carter Briefing Papers
|
||||
|
||||
In 1983 the [[Time (magazine)|Time]] correspondent [[Laurence Barrett]] wrote in *Gambling with History* that a Reagan campaign "mole" in the camp of President [[Jimmy Carter]] had "filched papers containing the main points the President planned to make" in the Cleveland debate of October 28, 1980, and that Baker, then a senior campaign adviser, "looked the other way when a dirty trick was perpetrated on Carter. He was grateful not to know the mechanics of it." Baker said through an aide that he did not know how the papers were obtained. Representative [[Donald Albosta]], chairman of the Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee, wrote to Baker, to the budget director [[David Stockman]], to the communications director [[David Gergen]] and to the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[William J. Casey]], who had managed Reagan's 1980 campaign; Albosta said the matter "appears on the surface to be more serious than Watergate."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Casey replied on June 22, 1983: "I have no recollection that I ever received, heard of or learned in any other way of a set of papers which laid out the Carter debate plan or the points which President Carter had planned to make."[^6] Baker's letter, as reported in the [[Washington Post]], stated that "it is my best recollection" that Casey was the senior campaign official who gave him a large loose-leaf book in a black binder "that was thought to have been given to the Reagan camp by someone with the Carter campaign," "with the suggestion that it might be of use to the [Reagan] Debate Briefing Team" headed by Gergen and [[Frank Hodsoll]], and that after thumbing through it he "passed it on." He called it a "compendium" of Carter administration policy positions, wrote that he had "no recollection that I ever received or saw any debate strategy or sensitive debating points prepared by the Carter campaign or Carter White House," and said he had "never, directly or indirectly" asked anyone to get it. Stockman said the material had been "useful" in preparing Reagan. The campaign consultant [[Myles Martel]] said he had urged Hodsoll to return it: "My impression was we had something we shouldn't have had." Casey then said he did not remember "any black book" but that he had sent Baker all papers that crossed his desk about the debate.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 27, 1983, Carter's former pollster [[Patrick Caddell]] delivered to the White House a copy of what he said was the complete Carter briefing book. After Baker, Stockman and Gergen reviewed it, the White House said it appeared "a more finished, more sensitive briefing book than they recall," and that papers retrieved from Reagan campaign officials' files had been forwarded to the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. Baker had discussed the matter with Casey at a meeting the day before.[^8] In June 1984 the Democratic majority of the Albosta subcommittee reported that "the persons using these papers were aware that they were using Carter debate briefing materials" and that the foreign policy papers were "most likely" taken from the Carter [[National Security Council]] front office or the White House Situation Room. At a news conference on June 14, 1984, Reagan said that "no one" in his campaign had seen the briefing book and called the differing recollections of Baker and Casey "easily understandable."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Treasury and BCCI
|
||||
|
||||
Baker became the sixty-seventh Secretary of the Treasury on February 3, 1985, exchanging jobs with [[Donald Regan]], and also chaired the President's Economic Policy Council. The Treasury Department credits him with guiding the 1986 tax reform bill through Congress and with "encouraging international economic cooperation by lowering the value of the dollar"; the State Department's historians describe him as "instrumental in passing the Plaza Accord of September 1985."[^1][^2][^4] He resigned on August 17, 1988, to chair the Bush campaign.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin wrote in their 1992 history of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] that a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report dated September 30, 1986, alleging BCCI's involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering and its secret control of [[First American Bankshares]], was distributed to the State, Treasury and Commerce departments but not to the [[Federal Reserve]], and that Regan, asked about it, said he did not recall seeing it and suggested it may have gone to Baker, his successor, who at the time was traveling in Morocco. They also wrote that in 1987 the Iranian businessman [[Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani]], whom they describe as having multiple ties to BCCI, wrote to Baker, whom they identify as Bush's campaign manager, offering to help, and that the letter was forwarded to Baker by the former CIA director [[Richard Helms]] with a note describing Irvani as "a man of substance and decency"; the letter and Helms's cover note were released by the Senate subcommittee chaired by [[John Kerry]]. They recorded that [[Jackson Stephens]], whose firm had gathered First American stock for BCCI's clients, was a member of Bush's "Team 100" and that his wife ran Bush's 1988 campaign in Arkansas.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Secretary of State
|
||||
|
||||
Baker was appointed Secretary of State on January 25, 1989, and served until August 23, 1992, the sixty-first holder of the office; he traveled to 90 countries.[^1][^2] On February 9, 1990, in Moscow, he told [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], according to the American memorandum of conversation released under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], that "if we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of [[NATO]], there would be no extension of NATO's jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east." The Soviet record of the same meeting has him saying that "not an inch of NATO's present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction." The same day [[Robert Gates]], deputy to the national security adviser [[Brent Scowcroft]], told the [[KGB]] chairman [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]] at the Lubyanka the same thing. On February 10 Baker wrote to Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] that he had asked Gorbachev whether he would prefer a unified Germany "tied to NATO, with assurances that NATO's jurisdiction would not shift one inch eastward from its present position."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Matrix Churchill and the BNL Prosecution
|
||||
|
||||
An authentication certificate numbered 89/3648-2, dated March 14, 1989, attests the seal of the Ohio Secretary of State, [[Sherrod Brown]], on papers of the Cleveland firm [[Matrix Churchill]]. It reads: "In testimony whereof, I, James A. Baker III, Secretary of State, have hereunto caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed and my name subscribed by the Authentication Officer of the said Department," and is subscribed "James A. Baker III, Secretary of State. By Annie R. Maddux, Authentication Officer, Department of State." Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs]], placed it in the Congressional Record on August 10, 1992, with a similar document of May 10, 1989, issued over the name of Acting Secretary [[Lawrence Eagleburger]]. Gonzalez said that Iraqis had taken control of Matrix Churchill in late 1988, that Iraqi law required American firms to be certified before opening a branch, that "unwittingly, in 1989 both James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburge[r] helped Matrix-Churchill establish its Baghdad branch," and that the State Department then held intelligence identifying the firm as an Iraqi front company.[^12][^13]
|
||||
|
||||
Independent Counsel [[Frederick Lacey]], appointed by Attorney General [[William Barr]] on October 16, 1992, to investigate the handling of the prosecution of [[Christopher Drogoul]] and others in the [[BNL Scandal]], listed Baker among the people he and his staff had "spoken to, interviewed or deposed under oath." Lacey classified the second part of his report "Top Secret Codeword."[^13] He recorded that, according to the daily log of the Atlanta prosecutor [[Gale McKenzie]] in the fall of 1989, "then Secretary of State Baker was most interested in the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro|BNL]] case and was receiving frequent briefings," and that the Justice Department first contacted her office on October 26, 1989, when [[Robert Mueller]] called for information on the case; by the time of Lacey's inquiry Mueller was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
Lacey quoted an October 26, 1989, State Department memorandum to Baker from Kelly and Sofaer, sent through Kimmitt and McCormack, warning that "our ability to influence Iraqi policies in areas important to us, from Lebanon to the [[Middle East]] peace process, will be heavily influenced by the outcome of the [[Commodity Credit Corporation|CCC]] negotiations." On November 8, 1989, the Agriculture and State Departments overcame the resistance of the National Advisory Council and obtained approval of 1 billion dollars in [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program|Commodity Credit Corporation]] guarantees for Iraq for fiscal 1990, of which one 500 million dollar tranche was released before the Gulf War. The two departments asserted at each stage that there was "no evidence to date that would lead us to recommend that the Department should not extend the guarantees," a claim Lacey called "inconsistent with McKenzie's statements to the contrary." He wrote that it was "not within my responsibility to address the wisdom of the decision." Citing a memorandum of April 17, 1990, from Kimmitt to Baker, he wrote that "as with the CCC program, political considerations have been brought to bear upon Eximbank decisions," while the [[Export-Import Bank of the United States|Export-Import Bank]] had found Iraq "not creditworthy by any reasonable standard" in April 1989.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
In the days before the February 1991 indictment, during the war with Iraq, the list of defendants grew to include the Jordanian businessman [[Wafai Dajani]], whose company handled grain for Iraq at [[Aqaba]] and whom Drogoul called "the brother of the Prince of Jordan," but Dajani and others "were removed as defendants a few days later at a February 13 meeting" of the Atlanta prosecutors and Justice Department officials, Mueller among them. At that meeting the State Department did not want the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] indicted while the Atlanta office still did, and the Treasury, Defense and State Departments, the Export-Import Bank and the Federal Reserve then answered Mueller with a joint memorandum supporting indictment of [[Rafidain Bank]] but opposing indictment of the Central Bank. The prosecutors denied any State Department interference and said the decision not to indict Dajani was their own, for want of evidence. Lacey recorded that Dajani had paid Drogoul 100,000 dollars through a consulting position in 1990 and 1991 and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. He found "absolutely no support" for reports that the Justice Department, "perhaps influenced by others in the Executive Branch," had imposed the theory of BNL as a victim on the Atlanta office.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Baker Botts and Foreign Principals
|
||||
|
||||
Baker served as White House Chief of Staff and Senior Counselor to President Bush from August 1992 to January 1993.[^1] The Houston firm of [[Baker Botts]] was registered under the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]] as Baker & Botts, L.L.P., registration 4293, from September 15, 1989, to September 30, 2003. Its foreign principals were the Federation of German Industries (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie, September 15, 1989, to April 30, 1993), the French chemical company [[Rhône-Poulenc]] (May 1, 1991, to February 13, 1996), Middle East Airlines Airliban of [[Lebanon]] (May 23, 1991, to November 1, 1993), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of [[Yemen]] (April 22, 1992, to July 21, 2000), the Government of [[Abu Dhabi]] (July 29, 1992, to March 31, 1995) and the Japan External Trade Organization office in Houston (November 9, 1992, to September 30, 2003). In 1977 the firm had registered for the Indonesian state oil company [[Pertamina]], and from September 15, 2017, to October 12, 2018, it was registered for the Ministry of Financial Services and Home Affairs of the [[Cayman Islands]].[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Carlyle and Corporate Boards
|
||||
|
||||
Baker has been a senior partner of Baker Botts since March 1993 and was a senior counselor of the [[Carlyle Group]] from 1993. The 2002 proxy statement of [[Electronic Data Systems]], which had been split off from [[General Motors]] in June 1996, lists him as a director since 1996 and chairman of its governance committee, and as a director of [[Reliant Energy]], Reliant Resources, [[Rice University]] and the [[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]]; it discloses that EDS retained Baker Botts for legal services during 2001.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
Carlyle's Schedule 13D filings with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] list him among the executive officers of its holding entities. The filing of May 21, 2001, on [[Net2000 Communications]] names him among the executive officers of TC Group, L.L.C. and TCG Holdings, L.L.C. and members of TCG Holdings, with [[Frank Carlucci]], [[Richard Darman]], [[William Conway]], [[Daniel D'Aniello]], [[David Rubenstein]], [[Jerome Powell]], [[Glenn Youngkin]] and [[Afsaneh Beshloss]], and as one of nine managing directors of TCG Ventures, L.L.C.; the reporting entities included Cayman Islands partnerships, and the directors of TCG Ventures, Ltd. were Rubenstein and a British Virgin Islands company in care of [[Julius Baer]] Bank & Trust. The amendment of January 13, 2005, on [[Magellan Midstream Partners]] again lists him among the executive officers of TC Group and members of TCG Holdings, with [[Louis Gerstner]] and [[William Kennard]].[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Florida, 2000
|
||||
|
||||
On November 9, 2000, Baker was in [[Tallahassee, Florida|Tallahassee]], identified by CNN as an observer for the Bush campaign "there to supervise a recount of the state vote in Florida on behalf of George W. Bush." He said he would meet the Florida secretary of state later that day and hoped to meet [[Warren Christopher]], whom the Gore campaign had sent "to do the exact same thing."[^17] On November 28 he introduced the senior litigation team for the contest of the result: [[Barry Richard]] of [[Greenberg Traurig]], [[Fred Bartlit]] and [[Philip Beck]] of Bartlit Beck in Chicago, and "two law partners of mine at Baker Botts in Houston, Texas," [[Irvin Terrell]] and [[Daryl Bristow]].[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Saudi Defense in the September 11 Litigation
|
||||
|
||||
[[Michael Isikoff]] of [[Newsweek]] reported on April 15, 2003, that "a trio of lawyers from Baker Botts" had filed a motion for Prince [[Sultan bin Abdulaziz]], the Saudi defense minister, in the September 11 families' suit, arguing that he was immune and acknowledging that he had approved payments of about 266,000 dollars a year for 16 years to the [[International Islamic Relief Organization]] and grants of 52,000 dollars to the [[World Assembly of Muslim Youth]] as official acts. Isikoff wrote that Baker Botts "still boasts former secretary of State James Baker as one of its senior partners" and that its recent alumni included [[Robert Jordan]], President Bush's former personal lawyer and then ambassador to [[Saudi Arabia]]. The plaintiffs' lead lawyer, [[Ron Motley]], said: "We smoked out the prince."[^19] On November 14, 2003, Judge [[James Robertson]] of the District of Columbia dismissed the claims against Sultan for his official acts for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and those for his personal acts for lack of personal jurisdiction, and dismissed the claims against Prince [[Turki bin Faisal Al Saud|Turki]], the former head of Saudi general intelligence, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.[^20] William H. Jeffress Jr. of Baker Botts appears among defense counsel in that opinion, and Jeffress, Christopher R. Cooper, Sara E. Kropf and Jamie S. Kilberg of Baker Botts in the consolidated opinion of January 18, 2005, in the [[U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]].[^20][^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Iraqi Debt Envoy
|
||||
|
||||
On December 5, 2003, President [[George W. Bush]] announced that "in response to a request from the Iraqi Governing Council" he had appointed Baker "to be my personal envoy on the issue of Iraqi debt," reporting directly to the President.[^22] [[Naomi Klein]] wrote in *[[The Nation]]* on November 1, 2004, that Baker was then senior counselor and an equity partner of Carlyle "with an estimated $180 million stake," that Saudi Arabia was among Iraq's largest creditors, that Carlyle and Baker Botts did extensive business with the Saudi royal family, and that on December 12, 2003, the [[New York Times]] had called editorially for him to resign from both. She wrote that documents obtained by The Nation showed a consortium including Carlyle and the [[Albright Group]] of the former Secretary of State [[Madeleine Albright]] proposing to [[Kuwait]] that its claims on Iraq, as much as 57 billion dollars, be transferred to a foundation the consortium would control, with Kuwait investing 2 billion dollars in a private equity fund, half of it through Carlyle. The proposal, she reported, said the role of Carlyle figures including former President Bush, [[John Major]] and Baker was "now more limited" because of his appointment but that after his "retirement from his temporary position" they would "once again be free to play a more decisive role." On January 21, 2004, the day Baker met Kuwait's foreign minister as envoy, the consortium hand-delivered the proposal to the same minister.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
Carlyle's spokesman [[Chris Ullman]] told Klein that "neither the Carlyle Group nor James Baker wrote, edited or authorized this proposal to the Kuwait government," that Carlyle knew of the proposal and stood to receive a 1 billion dollar investment but "played no role in procuring that investment," and that after Baker's appointment Carlyle "explicitly restricted its role to only investing assets on behalf of Kuwait." The consortium's chief executive, Shahameen Sheikh, said the timing "had nothing to do with Mr. Baker's visit." Klein wrote that the White House and Baker's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Iraq Study Group
|
||||
|
||||
In late 2005 Representative [[Frank Wolf]] asked the [[United States Institute of Peace]] to facilitate an assessment of Iraq with the [[James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy]] at Rice University, the [[Center for the Study of the Presidency]] and the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]]. Baker and the former Representative [[Lee Hamilton]] co-chaired the [[Iraq Study Group]], launched on March 15, 2006, at a Capitol Hill meeting hosted by Senator [[John Warner]]. Its members were Eagleburger, [[Vernon Jordan]], [[Edwin Meese]], [[Sandra Day O'Connor]], [[Leon Panetta]], [[William Perry]], [[Charles Robb]] and [[Alan Simpson]]; the former CIA director Robert Gates was an active member until his nomination as Secretary of Defense. Recommendation 62 of its December 2006 report urged technical assistance to the Iraqi government "to prepare a draft oil law" creating "a fiscal and legal framework for investment," and Recommendation 63 urged that the [[United States]] "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies" and help reorganize the national oil industry "as a commercial enterprise."[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### Envoys and Commissions
|
||||
|
||||
From 1997 to 2004 Baker was the personal envoy of [[United Nations]] Secretary-General [[Kofi Annan]] on the [[Western Sahara]] conflict. He co-chaired the Commission on Federal Election Reform with Carter in 2005 and the National War Powers Commission with Warren Christopher in 2008, and is honorary chairman of the Baker Institute. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Political Contributions
|
||||
|
||||
[[Federal Election Commission]] records itemize contributions from James A. Baker III of Houston: 1,000 dollars to George Bush for President on June 6, 1980, and 1,000 dollars on June 11, 1980, to the Connally for President Committee, with his employer given as Andrews Kurth Campbell & Jones; 1,000 dollars to Bush for President Inc. on March 16, 1999; 2,000 dollars to Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. on December 3, 2003, two days before his appointment as envoy; 15,000 dollars to the National Republican Senatorial Committee on April 11, 2006; 2,500 dollars to Romney for President Inc. on July 26, 2011, and July 5, 2012; 2,500 dollars to RickPerry.org on September 16, 2011, with his employer given as the Baker Institute; 2,700 dollars to Jeb 2016 Inc. on January 18, 2016; and 2,800 dollars to Team Graham on September 23, 2020, with Baker Botts as employer in the other filings.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991.
|
||||
[^1]: "James A. Baker, III," Baker Botts L.L.P., attorney biography. https://www.bakerbotts.com/people/b/baker-james-a-iii
|
||||
[^2]: "James Addison Baker III," Biographies of the Secretaries of State and Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State (appointed January 25, 1989; termination of appointment August 23, 1992). https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/baker-james-addison
|
||||
[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. New York: Random House, 1991, p. 9 (account of Richard V. Allen). https://archive.org/details/seymour-hersch-the-samson-option
|
||||
[^4]: "James A. Baker, III (1985 - 1988)," U.S. Department of the Treasury, Prior Secretaries. https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/prior-secretaries/james-a-baker-iii-1985-1988
|
||||
[^5]: "Casey fourth Reagan aide asked about '80 campaign incident," *Baltimore Sun*, Washington Bureau, June 22, 1983, reproduced in CIA Reading Room document C05560156. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-05560156
|
||||
[^6]: Casey, William J., Director of Central Intelligence, letter to Representative Don Albosta, June 22, 1983, CIA-RDP85M00364R001703320052-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp85m00364r001703320052-2
|
||||
[^7]: Hoffman, David. "Casey Is Cited as Source of Briefing Book," *Washington Post*, June 24, 1983, reproduced in CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400039-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000505400039-7
|
||||
[^8]: Schram, Martin, and Lou Cannon. "1980 Debate 'Papers' Go To Justice," *Washington Post*, June 28, 1983, reproduced in CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020034-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201020034-3
|
||||
[^9]: Hoffman, David. "Reagan Says 'No One' Saw '80 Briefing Book," *Washington Post*, June 15, 1984, reproduced in CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390080-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000505390080-3
|
||||
[^10]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992, pp. 365 and 382, with source notes. https://archive.org/details/bypetertruellauthorlarrygurwinauthorfalseprofitstheinsidestoryofbccitheworldsmos
|
||||
[^11]: Savranskaya, Svetlana, and Tom Blanton. "NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard," National Security Archive Briefing Book, December 12, 2017, Documents 05 (memorandum of conversation between Gorbachev and Baker, February 9, 1990, U.S. Department of State FOIA 199504567), 06 (Gorbachev Foundation record of the same conversation), 07 (memorandum of conversation between Robert Gates and Vladimir Kryuchkov, February 9, 1990) and 08 (letter from Baker to Helmut Kohl, February 10, 1990). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
|
||||
[^12]: Gonzalez, Henry B. Special order, "US Armed Iraq Through BNL," section "Baker and Eagleburger Approve MCC Baghdad Branch," *Congressional Record*, House, August 10, 1992, reproducing Department of State authentication no. 89/3648-2 of March 14, 1989. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm
|
||||
[^13]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," Part I, pp. 1, 12, 37 n., 43, 68-74 and 102-104, reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro*, hearing, 103d Cong., 1st sess., November 9, 1993, Serial No. 103-95, pp. 343-347, 355, 380, 386, 411-417 and 445-447. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit
|
||||
[^14]: U.S. Department of Justice, Foreign Agents Registration Act unit, registrant and foreign principal records for registration 4293 (Baker Botts L.L.P., September 15, 1989, to September 30, 2003), registration 2833 (Baker & Botts, 1977) and registration 6464 (Baker Botts, LLP, 2017 to 2018), via the FARA eFile API. https://efile.fara.gov/api/v1/ForeignPrincipals/json/Terminated/4293
|
||||
[^15]: Electronic Data Systems Corporation, Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed March 6, 2002 ("Directors Standing for Election" and "Certain Transactions"), Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR accession 0000950109-02-001187. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1007456/000095010902001187/ddef14a.htm
|
||||
[^16]: Carlyle Venture Partners, L.P., et al., Schedule 13D, Net2000 Communications, Inc., filed May 21, 2001, Item 2 (accession 0000950133-01-501284); TC Group, L.L.C., et al., Schedule 13D/A, Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P., filed January 13, 2005, Schedule A-1 (accession 0001193125-05-006004), Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1099363/000095013301501284/w49431sc13d.txt ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1126975/000119312505006004/0001193125-05-006004.txt
|
||||
[^17]: "Election 2000: James Baker Holds News Briefing on Progress of Florida Recount," CNN transcript, November 9, 2000. http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0011/09/se.03.html
|
||||
[^18]: "Bush Legal Team Remarks," Tuesday, November 28, 2000, American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/documents-related-the-2000-election-dispute-40
|
||||
[^19]: Isikoff, Michael. "Terror Watch: A Legal Counterattack," *Newsweek*, April 15, 2003. https://www.newsweek.com/terror-watch-legal-counterattack-133991
|
||||
[^20]: Burnett v. Al Baraka Investment & Development Corp., 292 F. Supp. 2d 9 (D.D.C. November 14, 2003), list of counsel; described in In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, 349 F. Supp. 2d 765, 781 n.2 (S.D.N.Y. 2005). https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/burnett-v-baraka-inv-893111164
|
||||
[^21]: In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, 349 F. Supp. 2d 765 (S.D.N.Y. January 18, 2005), list of counsel. http://uniset.ca/other/cs5/349FSupp2d765.html
|
||||
[^22]: "Statement on James A. Baker III," Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, December 5, 2003. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031205-3.html
|
||||
[^23]: Klein, Naomi. "James Baker's Double Life," *The Nation*, November 1, 2004, republished by Type Investigations. https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2004/11/01/james-bakers-double-life/
|
||||
[^24]: *The Iraq Study Group Report*, December 2006, Recommendations 62 and 63, pp. 55-56, and "Letter from the Sponsoring Organizations," p. 64. https://web.archive.org/web/2id_/http://media.usip.org/reports/iraq_study_group_report.pdf
|
||||
[^25]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts for contributor "Baker, James A. III," Houston, Texas, 1980 to 2020, via the FEC API. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
166
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James R. Bath.md
Normal file
166
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James R. Bath.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,166 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "BCCI Scandal"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- JamesBath
|
||||
- BCCI
|
||||
- SaudiArabia
|
||||
- Houston
|
||||
- TexasAirNationalGuard
|
||||
- GeorgeWBush
|
||||
- Arbusto
|
||||
- Aviation
|
||||
- Mahfouz
|
||||
- BinLaden
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- James R. Bath
|
||||
- James Bath
|
||||
- Jim Bath
|
||||
- Jim R. Bath
|
||||
summary: "Houston aircraft broker and Texas Air National Guard pilot who acted as trustee for Salem bin Laden and Khalid bin Mahfouz, sat on Main Bank's board and invested in George W. Bush's Arbusto partnerships."
|
||||
born: 1936
|
||||
location: "Houston, Texas"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Texas Air National Guard]]"
|
||||
role: "pilot, major, 147th Fighter Group, Ellington Air Force Base"
|
||||
start: 1965
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Lan Bentsen]]"
|
||||
role: "real estate partner, Bath Bentsen Interests"
|
||||
start: 1973
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Salem bin Laden]]"
|
||||
role: "business representative and trustee in Houston"
|
||||
start: 1976
|
||||
end: 1988
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: represented
|
||||
with: "[[Khalid bin Mahfouz]]"
|
||||
role: "trustee for investments in the United States"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[Houston Gulf Airport]]"
|
||||
role: "5 percent interest; bought on behalf of Salem bin Laden"
|
||||
start: 1977
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Main Bank]]"
|
||||
role: "shareholder and director"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[George W. Bush]]"
|
||||
role: "contributions to the 1978 congressional campaign"
|
||||
start: 1978-08-23
|
||||
end: 1978-10-12
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Lloyd Bentsen]]"
|
||||
role: "contributions to Senate campaigns"
|
||||
start: 1979-05-31
|
||||
end: 1988-10-05
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[John Connally]]"
|
||||
role: "contribution to Connally for President"
|
||||
start: 1979-11-14
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[George H. W. Bush]]"
|
||||
role: "contributions to presidential campaign committees"
|
||||
start: 1980-01-04
|
||||
end: 1987-04-13
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Arbusto Energy]]"
|
||||
role: "50,000 dollar investment for 5 percent of Arbusto '79 and Arbusto '80"
|
||||
end: 1986
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Skyway Aircraft Leasing]]"
|
||||
role: "sole director; company owned by Khalid bin Mahfouz according to a court document"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[Southwest Airport Services]]"
|
||||
role: "majority owner and operator, Ellington Field"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Khalid bin Mahfouz]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "1.4 million dollar loan toward the Express Auto Park garage, Hobby Airport"
|
||||
start: 1990
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Bill White]]"
|
||||
role: "partner in real estate joint ventures and Venturcorp; later adverse litigant"
|
||||
start: 1980
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "review of accusations of acting for Saudi interests, reported June 1992"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
James R. Bath, a native of [[Natchitoches, Louisiana]], moved to [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] in 1965 at the age of twenty-nine to join the [[Texas Air National Guard]], and became an aircraft broker and real estate developer there.[^1] He was 55 years old in October 1991 and in June 1992.[^2][^3] From 1976 he was the business representative in Houston of [[Salem bin Laden]], under a trust agreement, and he held a 5 percent interest in oil partnerships controlled by [[George W. Bush]].[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Texas Air National Guard
|
||||
|
||||
[[Craig Unger]] wrote that Bath became friendly with George W. Bush, who began training as an F-102 pilot at [[Ellington Air Force Base]] in 1970, in the unit called the "Champagne Unit," and that Bath called Bush "Geo," the abbreviation on his uniform.[^1] An order of the [[National Guard Bureau]] dated September 29, 1972, issued "by order of the Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force" over the name of Major General [[Francis S. Greenlief]], chief of the bureau, confirmed in paragraph 6 the "verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Aug 72 suspending 1STLT GEORGE W BUSH," Texas Air National Guard, Headquarters 147th Fighter Group, Ellington Air Force Base, Houston, "from flying status," and in paragraph 7 the "verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Sep 72 suspending MAJ JAMES R BATH" of the same group. The reason given in each case was "Failure to accomplish annual medical examination."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Unger wrote in *[[Salon (website)|Salon]]* in 2004 that when the White House released Bush's military records in March 2004 the second name on the order was redacted, although names of other guardsmen were printed in full, and that the same order, released earlier under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] to the researcher Marty Heldt, showed Bath's name. [[White House|The White House]] declined to explain. Bath confirmed that he was the man named and said the suspensions were not significant: "It happens all the time, especially in the Guard." He declined to say why he and Bush had missed their physicals and said: "Geo did not use drugs."[^1] In 1991 Bath told *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]* that his friendship with Bush dated from their service in the Guard and that he was only "slightly" acquainted with the then-President, [[George H. W. Bush]].[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Aviation, Bentsen and Connally
|
||||
|
||||
Atlantic Aviation, a [[Delaware]] company selling business aircraft, hired Bath in 1968 to open its Houston office, and he later became an aircraft broker on his own.[^1] In 1973 he formed a real estate partnership with [[Lan Bentsen]], a son of Senator [[Lloyd Bentsen]]; sources whom *Time* did not name said that one purpose was to find investments for the senator's blind trust. Bath and Bentsen said they had not been partners for years, but in 1991 secretaries at Bath's office still answered the telephone "Bath Bentsen Interests," and Bath said he had not got around to changing the name. Bath opened his own aircraft brokerage in 1976.[^2] Unger wrote that Bath counted among his friends the Bentsen family, the younger and elder Bush, whom the son introduced to Bath in the mid-1970s, the Houston lawyer [[James Baker|James A. Baker III]], his duck-hunting companion, and [[John Connally]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Saudi Clients
|
||||
|
||||
Bath told Unger that around 1974, while trying to sell an F-27 turboprop, he received a telephone call from Salem bin Laden, then about twenty-five, a son of the founder of the [[Saudi Binladin Group]], and that he befriended bin Laden and his associate [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]], heir to the [[National Commercial Bank]] of [[Saudi Arabia]]. Unger wrote that Salem bin Laden bought aircraft and construction equipment, houses at [[Marble Falls, Texas|Marble Falls]] and near [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]], and set up an aircraft services company, Binladen Aviation, in [[San Antonio]]; and that Mahfouz bought a 3.5 million dollar house in the [[River Oaks, Houston|River Oaks]] section of Houston and a 4,000-acre ranch in [[Liberty County, Texas|Liberty County]] near Bath's own ranch. "By 1976, bin Laden had appointed Bath to be his American business representative. Bin Mahfouz drew up a similar arrangement with him."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
According to the *[[Houston Chronicle]]*, the 1976 trust agreement by which Salem bin Laden appointed Bath his business representative in Houston was drawn shortly after George H. W. Bush became director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. In sworn depositions Bath said he represented four prominent Saudis as trustee and would use his name on their investments in return for a 5 percent interest in the deals.[^3] Bath told Unger: "The investments were sometimes in my name as trustee, sometimes offshore corporations and sometimes in the name of a law firm."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Houston Gulf Airport and Main Bank
|
||||
|
||||
Bath bought [[Houston Gulf Airport]] in [[League City, Texas]] in 1977 on behalf of Salem bin Laden, receiving a 5 percent interest in the companies that own and operate it; after bin Laden died in 1988 his interests in the airport passed to Mahfouz, according to court documents.[^3] Unger dates to August 1977 the purchase of the [[Main Bank]] of Houston, then a community bank with about 70 million dollars in assets, by Connally, Bath, Mahfouz and [[Ghaith R. Pharaon|Ghaith Pharaon]], and wrote that Bath acted as an intermediary between the Saudis and Connally, who was positioning himself for the 1980 presidential nomination.[^1] *Time* dated to 1978 Bath's entry as a shareholder and director of Main Bank, with Connally, Pharaon, whom it described as an alleged front man for the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], and Mahfouz, who later became a major shareholder in that bank. Pharaon later sold his Main Bank holdings and bought the [[National Bank of Georgia]], in *Time*'s words "allegedly on behalf of B.C.C.I." *Time* reported that a researcher had found that in the late 1970s Main Bank, when it held only 58 million dollars in deposits, had been buying 10 million dollars a month in new 100 dollar bills, for a purpose not known.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
A full-page advertisement for the Jeddah newspaper *[[Arab News]]* and its magazine *Saudi Business*, printed in the issues of November 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18 and 26, 1978, carried a testimonial signed by Bath: "Doing business in Saudi Arabia is a very personal experience, and ARAB NEWS and SAUDI BUSINESS give me a feel for the market there." Beneath it the advertisement stated: "Jim Bath, a former [[U.S. Air Force]] fighter pilot, heads Jim Bath and Associates, a turbine aircraft consulting firm based in Houston. He also operates an airport there on behalf of a group of Saudi investors, and travels frequently to the Kingdom."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Campaign Contributions
|
||||
|
||||
[[Federal Election Commission]] records list the following contributions from "Jim R. Bath" or "Jim Bath" of Houston. On May 30, 1978 he gave 125 dollars to the Archer for Congress Committee of [[Bill Archer|William R. Archer]], candidate for the House from the 7th District of Texas, with his employer given as Jim Bath and Associates. George Bush for Congress, the 1978 committee of George W. Bush in the 19th District of Texas, recorded 409 dollars on August 23, 1978 under the name "Bath, Jim (IK)" with a zero zip code, and gifts of 500 dollars on August 31 (employer given as "real estate aviation") and 500 dollars on October 12, 1978. The Senator Lloyd Bentsen Election Committee recorded 1,000 dollars on May 31, 1979, with the employer given as Bath Bentsen Interests. Bath gave 1,000 dollars to the Connally for President Committee on November 14, 1979 and 1,000 dollars to George Bush for President on January 4, 1980; 250 dollars on June 19, 1980 to the 1980 Republican Presidential Unity Committee, with the employer given as Bath/Bentsen International; 500 dollars to the Bentsen committee on May 20, 1982; 500 dollars on July 1, 1982 to the Friends of Prescott Bush Campaign Committee, the Connecticut Senate committee of [[Prescott Bush Jr.|Prescott S. Bush Jr.]]; 1,000 dollars to George Bush for President, Inc. on April 13, 1987; and 1,000 dollars to the Bentsen committee on October 5, 1988, with the employer field reading "realtor."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Skyway, Southwest Airport Services and Hobby Airport
|
||||
|
||||
In a sworn deposition Bath said he was the sole director of [[Skyway Aircraft Leasing]] Ltd., which a court document showed to be owned by Mahfouz.[^3] *Time* reported that Bath's partners in Skyway, one of four similarly named companies he controlled, were "artfully hidden," and that the firm that incorporated his companies in the [[Cayman Islands]] had set up a money-collecting front company for [[Oliver North]] in the [[Iran-Contra affair]]; that Skyway leased a 10 million dollar Gulfstream II to the [[Abu Dhabi National Oil Company]], controlled by Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan]], president of the [[United Arab Emirates]] and owner of BCCI; that associates confirmed Bath had brokered more than 150 million dollars of private aircraft sales and leases, concentrated among Middle Eastern royalty.[^2] Unger wrote that through Skyway Bath brokered about 150 million dollars of aircraft deals to major BCCI stockholders including Pharaon and Sheikh Zayed.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Bath operated, and held a majority stake in, [[Southwest Airport Services]] at [[Ellington Field]]. The *[[Houston Post]]* reported in 1990 that the government had spent millions of dollars more than necessary by fueling military aircraft, including [[Air Force One]], there rather than at a government fuel station, with a markup of as much as 60 percent; *Time* noted that the paper's report had prompted no official investigation.[^2] In 1990 Bath bought the [[Express Auto Park]] garage at [[William P. Hobby Airport]] for 8.4 million dollars, which included a 1.4 million dollar loan provided by Mahfouz, according to transaction documents.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Arbusto
|
||||
|
||||
Tax documents and personal financial records show that Bath held a 5 percent interest in Arbusto '79 Ltd. and Arbusto '80 Ltd., limited partnerships controlled by George W. Bush, and had invested 50,000 dollars in them; "There is no available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi interests," the *Chronicle* wrote. Bush's company, [[Bush Exploration Co.]], the general partner, went through several mergers and became [[Harken Energy]], of which Bush was a shareholder and director, which held offshore drilling rights off [[Bahrain]], and one of whose top shareholders was [[Abdullah Taha Bakhsh]]. Bush told the newspaper that to his knowledge Bath's investment came from personal funds and that no Saudi money was invested in [[Arbusto Energy|Arbusto]].[^3] Early 1980s tax records reviewed by *Time* showed that Bath remained a stockholder until Bush sold his company to Harken in 1986, while Bush had denied ever having business dealings with Bath.[^2] Bath told Unger that "100 percent of those funds were mine. It was a purely personal investment," and that bin Laden and Mahfouz "never met Bush, ever."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The White Litigation
|
||||
|
||||
Charles W. (Bill) White, a graduate of the [[United States Naval Academy|Naval Academy]] and former Navy fighter pilot, formed a real estate partnership with Bath in 1980, with a joint venture for each project under a Master Partnership Agreement and White in charge of day-to-day operations; they were also partners in the development company [[Venturcorp]], Inc.[^3][^7] White told *Time* that it was Lan Bentsen who suggested that he go into business with Bath.[^2] Bath sued White in September 1986 for rescission or dissolution of the partnership and damages, and White counterclaimed in February 1987. After two motions to compel, and a hearing on February 20, 1989 at which White's lawyer stated that all requested documents had been produced or did not exist, the trial court appointed a special master; White then swore by affidavit that all documents had been produced and afterward produced more than ten thousand others. On October 6, 1989 the master struck White's pleadings, including his counterclaims, and ordered him to pay Bath 5,000 dollars. After an evidentiary hearing from June 18 to July 2, 1990, the trial court adopted the master's findings and entered a default judgment for Bath. The [[Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals|Fourteenth Court of Appeals]] at Houston, sitting as Justices [[Paul Pressler]], Junell and Ellis, affirmed in *[[White v. Bath]]*, 825 S.W.2d 227, on February 20, 1992; Kem T. Frost appeared for Bath. Rehearing was denied on March 26, 1992, and the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] denied certiorari on April 19, 1993.[^7][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
White claimed that Bath was a front man for CIA business operations, used his connections to the Bush family and Senator Bentsen to cloak offshore companies that moved money and airplanes between the [[Middle East]] and Texas, and kept the upper hand in five lawsuits "by privately asserting to the court that he had 'national security' connections"; he also claimed in court that Bath had wanted to borrow 550,000 dollars from their venture to cover funds Bath had "misappropriated" from an aircraft company he controlled. Bath told *Time*: "I am not a member of the CIA or any other intelligence agency," and called White's account a "fantasy."[^2] Unger wrote that Bath later equivocated, telling him: "There's all sorts of degrees of civilian participation. It runs the whole spectrum, from maybe passing on relevant data to more substantive things. The people who are called on by their government and serve, I don't think you're going to find them talking about it. Were that the case with me, I'm almost certain you wouldn't find me talking about it."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1992 Federal Review
|
||||
|
||||
On June 4, 1992, Jerry Urban of the *Chronicle* reported, citing "sources close to the investigations," that the [[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network]] of the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] were reviewing accusations that Bath had guided money to Houston from Saudi investors who wanted to influence [[United States]] policy under the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and Bush administrations, and that the review stemmed in part from court documents White had obtained in litigation. Such representation would have required registration as a foreign agent with the [[Department of Justice]]. White said Bath had told him he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role with Saudi Arabia since 1976. Bath, who had previously denied working for the CIA, declined to comment for the record, as did spokesmen for FinCEN and the FBI.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Craig Unger, "Mystery man," *Salon*, April 28, 2004. https://www.salon.com/2004/04/28/james_bath/
|
||||
[^2]: Jonathan Beaty, "A Mysterious Mover of Money and Planes," *Time*, October 28, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718843/a-mysterious-mover-of-money-and-planes/
|
||||
[^3]: Jerry Urban, "Bush Said Friend's Arbusto Investment Was His Own, Not Saudi Money," *Houston Chronicle*, June 4, 1992, as reproduced at the 9/11 Timeline archive (original not retrieved). https://911timeline.s3.amazonaws.com/1990s/houstonchronicle060492.html
|
||||
[^4]: National Guard Bureau, Departments of the Army and the Air Force, orders AO 87, dated September 29, 1972, paragraphs 6 and 7, signed for the Secretaries by Francis S. Greenlief, Chief, National Guard Bureau, in "George W. Bush Presidential Papers," GWB02 Military Records, Extras and Extracts, p. 25 of the scan (Internet Archive). https://archive.org/details/GeorgeW.BushPresidentialPapers
|
||||
[^5]: *Arab News* (Jeddah), advertisement for *Arab News* and *Saudi Business*, issues of November 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18 and 26, 1978, in the Internet Archive collection "Arab News, 1978, Saudi Arabia, English." https://archive.org/details/ArabNews1978SaudiArabiaEnglish
|
||||
[^6]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts, contributor names "BATH, JIM R," "BATH, JIM R. MR," "BATH, JIM" and "BATH, JIM (IK)," Houston, Texas, committees C00000125 (Archer for Congress Committee, candidate H6TX07029), C00079350 (George Bush for Congress), C00029769 (Senator Lloyd Bentsen Election Committee), C00107318 (Connally for President Committee), C00106922 (George Bush for President), C00128306 (1980 Republican Presidential Unity Committee), C00145961 (Friends of Prescott Bush Campaign Committee), C00213538 (George Bush for President, Inc.), image numbers 78011413712, 78011503577, 78011503461, 78011283458, 79020042048, 80031040056, 80031053403, 80031110532, 82020092415, 82020080463, 87034752452, 88020213114, retrieved through the FEC API (api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/); images at https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/
|
||||
[^7]: *White v. Bath*, 825 S.W.2d 227 (Tex. App., Houston [14th Dist.] 1992), No. B14-91-00260-CV, decided February 20, 1992, rehearing denied March 26, 1992 (Junell, J.; before Paul Pressler, Junell and Ellis, JJ.), full text at the Harvard Caselaw Access Project. https://static.case.law/sw2d/825/cases/0227-01.json
|
||||
[^8]: *White v. Bath*, 507 U.S. 1039 (1993), No. 92-7783, certiorari denied April 19, 1993, Harvard Caselaw Access Project. https://static.case.law/us/507/cases/1039-01.json
|
||||
144
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leopold Aschenbrenner.md
Normal file
144
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leopold Aschenbrenner.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- LeopoldAschenbrenner
|
||||
- SituationalAwareness
|
||||
- OpenAI
|
||||
- FTXFutureFund
|
||||
- HedgeFund
|
||||
- EffectiveAltruism
|
||||
- AISafety
|
||||
- CarlShulman
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Leopold Aschenbrenner
|
||||
- Aschenbrenner
|
||||
summary: "German-born former FTX Future Fund staffer and OpenAI Superalignment researcher, fired in 2024, who founded Situational Awareness LP, an AI-infrastructure hedge fund that CNBC reported was forced to sell its public holdings in 2026."
|
||||
location: "San Francisco, California"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Global Priorities Institute]]"
|
||||
role: "research affiliate on long-run economic growth"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[FTX Future Fund]]"
|
||||
end: 2022-11-11
|
||||
role: "member of the four-person team named at launch"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[OpenAI]]"
|
||||
role: "researcher on the Superalignment team; fired for alleged leaking, according to The Information"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Situational Awareness LP]]"
|
||||
role: "founder"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Situational Awareness LP]]"
|
||||
start: 2024-05
|
||||
role: "managing partner and chief investment officer"
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: owned
|
||||
with: "[[Situational Awareness LP]]"
|
||||
role: "50 to 75 percent owner of the adviser, per Form ADV Schedule A"
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Carl Shulman]]"
|
||||
start: 2024-10
|
||||
role: "business partner; co-portfolio manager and director of research, 25 to 50 percent owner of the adviser"
|
||||
fn: 15
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Patrick Collison]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "anchor investor in the firm"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[John Collison]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "anchor investor in the firm"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Nat Friedman]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "anchor investor in the firm"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[Daniel Gross]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
role: "anchor investor in the firm"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Avital Balwit]]"
|
||||
role: "fiance, as reported by CNBC in July 2026"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Leopold Aschenbrenner is the founder of [[Situational Awareness LP]], a [[San Francisco]] investment adviser to an AI-infrastructure hedge fund. His own site states that he "originally hail[s] from Germany," "did research on long-run economic growth at Oxford's Global Priorities Institute," worked "on the Superalignment team at OpenAI," and "recently founded an investment firm focused on AGI, with anchor investments from [[Patrick Collison]], [[John Collison]], [[Nat Friedman]], and [[Daniel Gross]]."[^1] The cover pages of the firm's ownership filings with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] give his citizenship as code 2M, the EDGAR code for Germany.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Columbia and Oxford
|
||||
|
||||
[[Columbia University]]'s alumni magazine announced in April 2021 that Aschenbrenner, an economics and mathematics-statistics major from Berlin, was the valedictorian of the class of 2021. It described him as a research affiliate at the [[Global Priorities Institute]] at the [[University of Oxford]] and a cofounder of Columbia College Effective Altruism, and stated that after graduation he would be a research fellow at the [[Forethought Foundation]].[^3] In the interview he said he arrived at Columbia aged 15, and listed among his courses "War, Peace, and Strategy" with [[Richard K. Betts]] and "War in Germany" with [[Adam Tooze]].[^3] The Forethought Foundation was a project of the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], directed from October 2017 by [[William MacAskill]].[^4] In a 2024 interview [[Dwarkesh Patel]] said the two had met "through the [[Tyler Cowen]] universe."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### FTX Future Fund
|
||||
|
||||
Cowen posted the announcement of the [[FTX Future Fund]] on Marginal Revolution on 1 March 2022. The fund planned "to distribute at least $100M this year" and might "deploy up to $1B this year"; its team was "[[Nick Beckstead]] (CEO), Leopold Aschenbrenner, Will MacAskill, and [[Ketan Ramakrishnan]]." Cowen added: "[[Emergent Ventures]] winner Leopold Aschenbrenner has been a driving force behind this, congratulations to Leopold!"[^6] Aschenbrenner later described the fund as "a foundation funded by [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] but we were our own thing. We were based in the Bay Area," and said that in November 2022 "it was revealed that Sam was a giant fraud, and from one day to the next, the whole thing collapsed."[^5] He was among the signatories of a post dated 11 November 2022 announcing that the team had resigned, which stated that "to the extent that the leadership of [[FTX]] may have engaged in deception or dishonesty, we condemn that behavior in the strongest possible terms."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
In 2018, through the American affiliate of the Centre for Effective Altruism, [[Open Philanthropy]] had granted 5,000,000 dollars to "create and seed a new discretionary fund that will be administered by [[Carl Shulman]]," a research associate at the [[Future of Humanity Institute]] and Open Philanthropy adviser; the work Shulman said he might fund included "economic modeling of the impacts of automating different aspects of AI development."[^8] Shulman later became Aschenbrenner's co-portfolio manager.
|
||||
|
||||
### OpenAI
|
||||
|
||||
[[Erin Woo]] and [[Stephanie Palazzolo]] of [[The Information]] reported on 11 April 2024, citing "a person with knowledge of the situation," that [[OpenAI]] had fired two researchers for allegedly leaking information: Aschenbrenner, "a researcher on a team dedicated to keeping artificial intelligence safe for society," and [[Pavel Izmailov]]. They described Aschenbrenner as "an ally of OpenAI chief scientist [[Ilya Sutskever]], who participated in a failed effort to force out OpenAI CEO [[Sam Altman]] last fall," and wrote that "It's not clear what information the two fired staffers leaked."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
In a podcast interview with Patel posted on 4 June 2024, Aschenbrenner said the leak was a "brainstorming document on preparedness, safety, and security measures" that he had shared "with three external researchers for feedback," after redacting a reference to "a future cluster." He said he had earlier written an internal memo on OpenAI's security, "which I thought was egregiously insufficient to protect against the theft of model weights or key algorithmic secrets from foreign actors," shared it with "a couple of board members" after "a major security incident," and received "an official HR warning for sharing the memo with the board." He said that when he was fired "it was very made explicit that the security memo was a major reason," that a lawyer had questioned him about "whether the government should be involved in AGI, whether I and the superalignment team were loyal to the company, and what I was up to during the OpenAI board events," that he had not signed the employee letter during those events, and that he was offered equity worth "close to a million dollars" on leaving but "didn't want to sign."[^5] [[David Faber]] of [[CNBC]] wrote in July 2026 that "OpenAI has said those concerns were unrelated to his departure."[^10] The essay series "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," published under his name, is dated June 2024.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Funds
|
||||
|
||||
Situational Awareness Partners LP, a Delaware partnership, filed a notice of exempt offering (Form D) on 23 September 2024 as a hedge fund relying on Rule 506(b) and the section 3(c)(7) exclusion, with a minimum investment of 5,000,000 dollars and offices at 512 2nd Street, San Francisco. Its general partner is SAF AI GP LP, whose general partner is SAF AI GP LLC, managed by Aschenbrenner, who signed the form; [[Nicholas Gross-Whitaker]] is chief operating officer.[^12] Situational Awareness Offshore LP, a [[Cayman Islands]] partnership at the offices of Walkers Corporate Limited, filed on 12 December 2024 with a first sale on 1 December and 24,042,356 dollars sold to two investors.[^13] A third vehicle, "Situational Awareness LP Nov 2024 a Series of CGF2021 LLC," administered by [[Sydecar]] in Claymont, Delaware, reported 24,975,000 dollars sold to 32 investors under the section 3(c)(1) exclusion.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The adviser registered with the SEC effective 24 February 2025 (file 801-132039, CRD 333011), after withdrawing a California exempt-reporting registration on 25 January 2025.[^15] Its Form ADV of 11 June 2026 reports regulatory assets under management of 9,278,344,000 dollars, all discretionary, in two accounts, and eight employees, four of them in advisory roles. The single private fund it reports is Situational Awareness Partners LP, a master fund whose feeder is the offshore partnership, which is registered with the [[Cayman Islands Monetary Authority]]. It reports the fund's gross asset value as 9,278,344,000 dollars, its beneficial owners as about 81, the share owned by the adviser and its related persons as about 4 percent and the share owned by non-United States persons as 14 percent. The auditor is [[KPMG]] in Walnut Creek, the administrator is Stone Coast Fund Services, and the prime brokers are BofA Securities Prime, [[Citigroup]] Global Markets, [[Goldman Sachs]] and J.P. Morgan Securities, with [[Citizens Financial Group]] also listed as a custodian. Schedule A lists Aschenbrenner as chief investment officer from May 2024 with ownership of 50 to 75 percent, Shulman as director of research from October 2024 with 25 to 50 percent, and Gross-Whitaker as chief operating officer from August 2024 with 5 to 10 percent, followed by chief financial officer Patrick DeGraca (January 2026) and chief compliance officer Kimberly Summe (June 2026).[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
The amended Forms D record the cumulative amounts sold since the first sales. For the Delaware fund they were 997,910,000 dollars from 65 investors (signed 5 September 2025), 1,025,510,000 dollars from 66 investors (29 December 2025), 1,762,326,027 dollars from 93 investors (10 March 2026) and 4,346,004,027 dollars from 135 investors (11 September 2026). For the Cayman feeder they were 53,185,626 dollars from 10 investors (8 and 29 December 2025), 198,142,357 dollars from 15 investors (10 March 2026) and 5,184,671,655 dollars from 52 investors (11 September 2026).[^12][^13] Two further partnerships under the same general partner, SAF FSC2 LP and SAF PIC LP, filed on 12 May 2026 as venture capital funds, reporting 167,150,000 dollars from 25 investors and 50,100,000 dollars from nine, with first sales on 1 May 2026.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Reported Positions
|
||||
|
||||
The adviser's quarterly holdings reports (Form 13F) list long equity positions and listed options, the latter valued at the underlying shares. The first, for 31 December 2024, listed six positions worth 254,813,765 dollars, led by [[Marvell Technology]] and followed by [[Vistra]], Vertiv, Talen Energy, [[Constellation Energy]] and Modine. For 31 March 2025 the twelve positions totaled 1,005,567,727 dollars, led by call options on 20,237,400 shares of [[Intel]] (459,591,354 dollars), and included [[CoreWeave]] and [[Core Scientific]]. For 30 June 2025 the nine positions totaled 2,123,023,762 dollars, led by put options on a VanEck semiconductor exchange-traded fund. For 30 September 2025 there were 28 positions worth 4,138,368,748 dollars, and for 31 December 2025, 29 worth 5,516,758,344 dollars, led by [[Bloom Energy]].[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
For 31 March 2026 the report listed 42 positions worth 13,676,657,577 dollars, of which the five largest were put options: on the VanEck semiconductor fund (2,042,716,860 dollars), [[Nvidia]] (1,568,257,120 dollars), [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] (1,072,873,230 dollars), [[Broadcom]] (1,006,247,961 dollars) and [[Advanced Micro Devices]] (969,160,863 dollars); there were also puts on Micron, [[Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company]] and ASML, and long positions in bitcoin-mining and data-center companies including IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark and Applied Digital. The same report was filed under the Delaware fund's own registration. The report for 30 June 2026, signed by Summe, listed 26 positions worth 20,242,292,228 dollars, almost all long: [[SanDisk]] (5,673,738,513 dollars), [[Micron Technology]] (5,573,819,392 dollars), Bloom Energy, Taiwan Semiconductor, [[Nebius Group]], CoreWeave and Core Scientific.[^17][^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Core Scientific, Nebius and SharonAI
|
||||
|
||||
A Schedule 13D filed on 19 August 2025 reported that the Delaware fund held 17,682,918 shares of Core Scientific (5.8 percent), bought for 213,190,431.12 dollars, "for investment purposes." The reporting persons were the adviser, SAF AI GP LP, Situational Awareness LLC, the fund, Aschenbrenner, "the managing partner and control person of Adviser and General Partner," and Shulman, "the co-portfolio manager of the Fund"; both men signed the joint filing agreement. The filing reserved the right to recommend "mergers, consolidations, sales or acquisitions of assets, changes in control." Counsel was Anthony J. Caldwell of [[Shartsis Friese]]. An amendment of 14 October 2025 reported 28,756,478 shares (9.4 percent), bought for 362,121,757.59 dollars.[^2] In the proxy statement for Core Scientific's proposed acquisition by CoreWeave, filed on 26 September 2025, the adviser appears among the holders of more than 5 percent, alongside the [[Vanguard Group]], [[BlackRock]], Two Seas Capital and G1 Execution Services.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
The adviser reported 12,410,060 Class A shares of Nebius Group (5.6 percent) on a Schedule 13G for 19 May 2026.[^20] In June 2026 the fund bought shares of [[SharonAI Holdings]] under a securities purchase agreement with a prefunded warrant at 0.0001 dollars a share, capped at 19.99 percent until shareholders approved the issuance on 27 August 2026; the next day the reporting persons filed a Schedule 13D for 8,070,950 shares (21.1 percent), bought for 523,882,863.18 dollars, stating an investment purpose. The fund exercised the rest of the warrant on 15 September 2026.[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### July and August 2026
|
||||
|
||||
Faber reported on 30 July 2026, citing people familiar with the matter, that the fund "was forced to sell all of its public stock holdings" after losses on AI infrastructure investments "such as SK Hynix" and on "short positions in software companies such as Adobe," that it had grown to "as big as $45 billion at the start of July," and that "Ken Griffin's [[Citadel]] hedge fund reached a deal to buy the fund's publicly traded assets." He wrote that prime brokers including [[Bank of America]], Goldman Sachs and [[JPMorgan Chase]] had been "working with the fund as it seeks to meet margin requirements," that "The firm had been negotiating to sell its stake in [[Anthropic]]," and that a spokesman "said reports that it was marketing a stake it owns in Anthropic are not accurate." Citing a Fortune profile, he reported that Aschenbrenner was engaged to [[Avital Balwit]], chief of staff to Anthropic's chief executive, [[Dario Amodei]].[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
A second amendment to the Core Scientific Schedule 13D, filed on 4 August 2026 by Adriana Schwartz of [[Seward & Kissel]], reported 25,608,473 shares (8.1 percent) on 15 July and 14,089,395 shares (4.4 percent) on 4 August. Its schedule of transactions lists two sales on 3 August 2026 of 5,759,539 shares each, at 19.6896 and 19.4807 dollars, "sold through block trades with unaffiliated third parties."[^21] The SharonAI Schedule 13D followed on 28 August, and the amended Forms D, reporting the cumulative 4.35 billion and 5.18 billion dollars sold, were signed on 11 September 2026.[^12][^13][^20]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Aschenbrenner, Leopold. "Leopold Aschenbrenner," author page, situational-awareness.ai, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://situational-awareness.ai/leopold-aschenbrenner/
|
||||
[^2]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Schedule 13D, Core Scientific, Inc. (CIK 0001839341), accession 0000935836-25-000543, filed 19 August 2025, with Exhibit 99.1 (joint filing agreement signed by Aschenbrenner and Shulman); Schedule 13D/A, accession 0000935836-25-000638, filed 14 October 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000093583625000543/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000093583625000638/primary_doc.xml
|
||||
[^3]: "'21 Valedictorian Remembers Special Times at the College." Columbia College Today, 23 April 2021. https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/latest/take-five/valedictorian-special-times-college
|
||||
[^4]: Centre for Effective Altruism, Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2021, filed at Companies House 5 April 2022, Trustees' Report, "Structure, Governance & Management" and "Objectives and Activities." https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzMzNTExMDE2NGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Patel, Dwarkesh. "Leopold Aschenbrenner: 2027 AGI, China/US super-intelligence race, and the return of history." Dwarkesh Podcast, transcript, 4 June 2024, at about 02:22 to 02:41. https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/leopold-aschenbrenner
|
||||
[^6]: Cowen, Tyler. "Announcing the Future Fund." Marginal Revolution, 1 March 2022. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/03/announcing-the-future-fund.html
|
||||
[^7]: Beckstead, Nick, Leopold Aschenbrenner, Ketan Ramakrishnan and others. "The FTX Future Fund team has resigned." Effective Altruism Forum, 11 November 2022. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1
|
||||
[^8]: Open Philanthropy, "Centre for Effective Altruism, New Discretionary Fund," award date March 2018, grant investigator Holden Karnofsky, Wayback Machine capture of 5 January 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250105202534/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-new-discretionary-fund/
|
||||
[^9]: Woo, Erin, and Stephanie Palazzolo. "OpenAI Researchers, Including Ally of Sutskever, Fired for Alleged Leaking." The Information, 11 April 2024 (headline and byline; text as reproduced by CDO Times, 28 April 2024). https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-researchers-including-ally-of-sutskever-fired-for-alleged-leaking ; https://cdotimes.com/2024/04/28/openai-researchers-including-ally-of-sutskever-fired-for-alleged-leaking-the-information/
|
||||
[^10]: Faber, David. "Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness sells entire book of public investments, sources say." CNBC, 30 July 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/leopold-aschenbrenners-hedge-fund-is-facing-steep-ai-losses.html
|
||||
[^11]: Aschenbrenner, Leopold. "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," June 2024, site home page. https://situational-awareness.ai/
|
||||
[^12]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Situational Awareness Partners LP (CIK 0002038540): Form D, accession 0000935836-24-000602, filed 23 September 2024; Forms D/A, accessions 0000935836-25-000591 (signed 5 September 2025), 0000935836-25-000734 (29 December 2025), 0000935836-26-000153 (10 March 2026) and 0000935836-26-000486 (11 September 2026). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002038540
|
||||
[^13]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Situational Awareness Offshore LP (CIK 0002048430): Form D, accession 0000935836-24-000752, filed 12 December 2024; Forms D/A, accessions 0000935836-25-000718 (8 December 2025), 0000935836-25-000735 (29 December 2025), 0000935836-26-000154 (10 March 2026) and 0000935836-26-000484 (11 September 2026). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002048430
|
||||
[^14]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Form D, "Situational Awareness LP Nov 2024 a Series of CGF2021 LLC" (CIK 0002047424), accession 0002047424-24-000001, filed 5 December 2024. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2047424/000204742424000001/primary_doc.xml
|
||||
[^15]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, "Situational Awareness LP," CRD 333011, firm summary, retrieved 1 October 2026; Form ADV, other-than-annual amendment filed 11 June 2026, Items 5 and 7.B and Schedules A and D, Section 7.B.(1). https://api.adviserinfo.sec.gov/search/firm/333011 ; https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/333011/PDF/333011.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Forms D, SAF FSC2 LP (CIK 0002131438), accession 0000935836-26-000242, and SAF PIC LP (CIK 0002131439), accession 0000935836-26-000243, each filed 12 May 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2131438/000093583626000242/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2131439/000093583626000243/primary_doc.xml
|
||||
[^17]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Forms 13F-HR of Situational Awareness LP (CIK 0002045724), cover pages and information tables: accessions 0000935836-25-000120 (31 December 2024), 0002045724-25-000002 (31 March 2025), 0002045724-25-000006 (30 June 2025), 0002045724-25-000008 (30 September 2025), 0002045724-26-000002 (31 December 2025), 0002045724-26-000008 (31 March 2026) and 0000935836-26-000418 (30 June 2026). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002045724&type=13F-HR
|
||||
[^18]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 13F-HR of Situational Awareness Partners LP (CIK 0002038540), accession 0002038540-26-000004, period 31 March 2026. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002038540&type=13F-HR
|
||||
[^19]: Core Scientific, Inc., definitive merger proxy statement (Schedule 14A, DEFM14A), accession 0001140361-25-036346, filed 26 September 2025, "Beneficial Ownership of Core Scientific Common Stock," note 14; located through EDGAR full-text search, which also returns CoreWeave, Inc.'s Form S-4 of 20 August 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000114036125036346/ny20053622x1_defm14a.htm
|
||||
[^20]: Securities and Exchange Commission, filings by Situational Awareness LP: Schedule 13G, Nebius Group N.V., accession 0000935836-26-000303, filed 27 May 2026; Schedule 13G, SharonAI Holdings Inc. (CIK 0002068385), accession 0000935836-26-000334, filed 29 June 2026, and 13G/A, accession 0000935836-26-000416, filed 14 August 2026; Schedule 13D, accession 0000935836-26-000468, filed 28 August 2026, Items 3, 4 and 6; Schedule 13D/A, accession 0000935836-26-000500, filed 17 September 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2045724/000093583626000303/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2068385/000093583626000468/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2068385/000093583626000500/primary_doc.xml
|
||||
[^21]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Schedule 13D/A (Amendment No. 2), Core Scientific, Inc., accession 0000919574-26-004796, filed 4 August 2026, cover pages, Item 5 and Exhibit 99.2 ("Transactions in the Past 60 Days"). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000091957426004796/primary_doc.xml
|
||||
136
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nick Beckstead.md
Normal file
136
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nick Beckstead.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- NickBeckstead
|
||||
- FTXFutureFund
|
||||
- FTXFoundation
|
||||
- EffectiveVentures
|
||||
- OpenPhilanthropy
|
||||
- EffectiveAltruism
|
||||
- Longtermism
|
||||
- SecureAIProject
|
||||
- Latona
|
||||
- WythamAbbey
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Nick Beckstead
|
||||
- Nicholas Beckstead
|
||||
- Nicholas Michael Beckstead
|
||||
- Dr Nicholas Michael Beckstead
|
||||
summary: "American philosopher, Open Philanthropy program officer and Effective Ventures director who ran the FTX Foundation and Future Fund, was sued and then dismissed by the FTX debtors, and co-founded Secure AI Project."
|
||||
born: 1985-03
|
||||
location: "San Francisco, California"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]"
|
||||
start: 2014
|
||||
role: "program officer, science philanthropy and machine learning"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Future of Humanity Institute]]"
|
||||
role: "research fellow"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Effective Ventures]]"
|
||||
start: 2012-02-23
|
||||
end: 2019-04-02
|
||||
role: "director of the company then named Centre for Effective Altruism"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Effective Ventures]]"
|
||||
start: 2021-07-01
|
||||
end: 2023-08-23
|
||||
role: "director of the company named Centre for Effective Altruism until August 2022, then Effective Ventures Foundation"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[FTX Foundation]]"
|
||||
role: "chief executive, reporting directly to Bankman-Fried"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[FTX Foundation]]"
|
||||
role: "director of the Delaware nonprofit"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[FTX Future Fund]]"
|
||||
role: "chief executive"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: reported_to
|
||||
with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]"
|
||||
role: "chief executive of the FTX Foundation"
|
||||
fn: 9
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Alameda Research]]"
|
||||
start: 2023-07-19
|
||||
end: 2024-03-14
|
||||
role: "defendant in the debtors' Latona adversary proceeding, No. 23-50444; settled and dismissed"
|
||||
fn: 14
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Center for AI Safety]]"
|
||||
role: "policy lead"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Secure AI Project]]"
|
||||
role: "co-founder and chief executive"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Nicholas Michael Beckstead (born March 1985), an American philosopher, was a program officer at [[Open Philanthropy]] from 2014, a director of the English charitable company now named Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) in two periods between 2012 and 2023, and the chief executive of the [[FTX Foundation]] and its [[FTX Future Fund]] until the team's resignation in November 2022. The debtors in the [[FTX]] bankruptcy named him as a defendant in July 2023 and dismissed him in March 2024 after he agreed to cooperate. His website lists him as co-founder and chief executive of Secure AI Project.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Education and Open Philanthropy
|
||||
|
||||
His website states that he completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy at the [[University of Minnesota]] and a Ph.D. in philosophy at [[Rutgers University]], that he was a research fellow at the [[Future of Humanity Institute]] of the [[University of Oxford]], and that he was an early employee of Open Philanthropy, where he served as a program officer "in a variety of areas, including science philanthropy and machine learning, starting in 2014." The same page lists conversations he recorded in 2013 and 2014 on space colonization and on surviving a global food crisis.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Centre for Effective Altruism and Effective Ventures
|
||||
|
||||
[[Companies House]] records for company 07962181, incorporated on February 23, 2012 as the Centre for [[Effective Altruism]], renamed Effective Ventures Foundation on August 25, 2022 and Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) on February 27, 2023, list Dr Nicholas Michael Beckstead, an American national, as a director from February 23, 2012 to April 2, 2019 (with a correspondence address in [[San Francisco]]) and again from July 1, 2021 to August 23, 2023. The register lists [[William MacAskill]] as a director from February 23, 2012 to September 21, 2023, [[Toby Ord]] from February 23, 2012 to July 29, 2022, [[Hilary Greaves]] from April 2 to July 18, 2019, [[Claire Zabel]] from July 18, 2019 to March 28, 2024, [[Owen Cotton-Barratt]] from March 24, 2020 to February 11, 2023, and [[Tasha McCauley]] from July 1, 2021 to March 14, 2024, and records [[Tara Mac Aulay]] as company secretary from July 1, 2015 to August 17, 2018.[^1] A 2025 filing by the [[FTX Recovery Trust]] states that [[Sam Bankman-Fried|Bankman-Fried]], as chief executive of the FTX Foundation, "hired Nick Beckstead, an Effective Altruist who sat on the Board of Directors of Effective Ventures, a federation of Effective Altruist organizations and projects (including the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]])," and that the Foundation employed MacAskill as an adviser. The same filing records that Bankman-Fried had left the Centre's board in 2019 after it investigated its connections with [[Alameda Research]].[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On November 19, 2022 the charity reported to the [[Charity Commission for England and Wales|Charity Commission]] that FTX and affiliated entities, among its funders, had filed for bankruptcy, that it held 3.3 million pounds and 300,000 dollars in funding from them, and that two of its trustees were connected with FTX, one as chief executive of the FTX Foundation and the other as an unpaid adviser to the Future Fund. The Commission opened a statutory inquiry on December 19, 2022. Its report, published May 22, 2024, does not name the trustees. It records that the charity ringfenced the funds, obtained a defence against money laundering from the [[National Crime Agency]], and returned 4,246,503.16 dollars to FTX under a settlement; that the two FTX-connected trustees had been excluded from decisions on the bankruptcy and resigned during the inquiry; that their connections had produced "a lack of clarity as to whether they were acting for the charity or on behalf of FTX Foundation at any given time"; that trustees had not been required to disclose potential conflicts on joining the board until October 2022; and that there was nonetheless no evidence of unmanaged conflicts regarding funds received from the FTX Foundation.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
*[[Civil Society]]* reported in April 2024, citing the charity's accounts, that Effective Ventures Foundation bought [[Wytham Abbey]], near [[Oxford]], in April 2022 after receiving 17 million pounds from Open Philanthropy to support the purchase.[^5] *[[Third Sector]]* reported on February 18, 2026 that the charity had paid almost 15 million pounds for the abbey, recorded an impairment loss of 8.6 million pounds as of June 30, 2025, and sold it to an unnamed buyer for 6 million pounds in November 2025.[^6] The charity's announcement of March 25, 2024 stated that the Wytham Abbey Project had not met "the funding bar of our major funders" and that the board had decided to sell the property; an update of November 11, 2025 recorded completion of the sale.[^7] Beckstead was recorded as a director of the charity from July 2021 through the purchase and until August 2023.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The FTX Foundation
|
||||
|
||||
A document that Bankman-Fried created on December 30, 2021 at 1:55 a.m. Eastern time, setting out proposed terms for hiring [[Ross Rheingans-Yoo]], tells the recipient to "chat with Nick [Beckstead ('Beckstead'), the CEO of the FTX Foundation,] about foundation stuff before this is finalized," and lists the manager as "likely Caroline [Ellison] + SBF [Bankman-Fried] + Nick [Beckstead] depending on the task." A revised version Rheingans-Yoo created later that day describes a position as "Director of Special Projects, reporting to NB," and states that "FDUs," foundation direction units, "can be directed to plausibly-EA things at Ross's discretion with NB[ Beckstead]/SBF oversight for not damaging the FTXF/etc brand"; the final terms of March 24, 2022 repeat that clause. The debtors and Rheingans-Yoo stipulated in January 2025 that he began work on or about January 4, 2022 and, with the knowledge and consent of Bankman-Fried and Beckstead, held himself out as a "program officer," "project officer" and "special projects lead" of the FTX Foundation, although he was not employed by it and was paid by FTX Digital Markets Ltd.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The debtors' complaint of July 19, 2023 states that the FTX Foundation was a Delaware nonprofit, non-stock corporation whose sole member was Bankman-Fried and whose directors included Bankman-Fried, [[Nishad Singh]], [[Gary Wang]], [[Caroline Ellison]] and Beckstead, and that Beckstead, as its chief executive, reported directly to Bankman-Fried.[^9] A later complaint by the FTX Recovery Trust states that FTX Foundation, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on February 1, 2022 and renamed FTX Philanthropy, Inc. on July 1, 2022, that its directors and officers included the same five, and cites the February 28, 2022 post of [[Leopold Aschenbrenner]] and Beckstead describing the Future Fund's regranting program, which offered "discretionary budgets to independent part-time grantmakers." According to that complaint, in March 2022 the Foundation approved a regrantor's request to send 1 million dollars to [[Manifold Markets]] through simple agreements for future equity; because the Foundation was not yet incorporated, Alameda Research Ventures LLC was made the counterparty, Bankman-Fried signed the agreements on March 20 and April 2, 2022, and the money was wired from Alameda Research Ventures' account at [[Signature Bank]]. Manifold Markets applied on March 21, 2022 for funds to create a charitable arm, and on or about August 8, 2022 FTX Philanthropy sent it 500,000 dollars, which the Trust alleges funded Manifold for Charity and seeks to recover.[^10] In a motion of July 23, 2025 the Trust stated that the Bankruptcy Court had overruled, on July 9, 2025, its objection to Rheingans-Yoo's claim to a 650,000 dollar donation to an effective altruism cause of his choosing, and that he had designated Manifold for Charity, where Singh then worked as an engineer, as the beneficiary.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On cross-examination of Bankman-Fried at his trial on October 31, 2023, Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Danielle Sassoon]] asked whether he had discussed with the Bahamian prime minister [[Philip Davis]] paying off the national debt of about 11.6 billion dollars, which he said he did not remember, and whether he had joked that his employee [[Ryan Salame]] was effectively a member of the Bahamian government, which he denied. She then read from Government Exhibit 2504, a chat titled "Project Chinchilla Chatter" dated December 2, 2021, in which Bankman-Fried wrote that "the Bahamas has already asked if we want to do anything with their CBDC." The next message was from Beckstead at 12:01 a.m.: "Leopold is going to look online to try to figure out who in the Bahamas government we should be talking to." Bankman-Fried replied, "His name is Ryan Salame."[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
In a post on the [[Effective Altruism Forum]] timestamped 02:04 UTC on November 11, 2022, Beckstead, Aschenbrenner, [[Avital Balwit]], [[Ketan Ramakrishnan]] and MacAskill announced that they had resigned from the Future Fund "earlier today." They wrote that they were "shocked and immensely saddened," that they had "fundamental questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the business operations that were funding the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund," and that "it looks likely that there are many committed grants that the Future Fund will be unable to honor."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
### Equity in FTX
|
||||
|
||||
The FTX debtors' lists of equity holders, filed March 13, 2023, record Nick Beckstead as the holder of 100,000 shares of Class A common stock of West Realm Shires Inc., the parent of FTX US, and 22,400 shares of common stock of FTX Trading Ltd.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Latona adversary proceeding
|
||||
|
||||
On July 19, 2023 Alameda Research Ltd. and FTX Trading Ltd. filed an adversary complaint (Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444, Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware) against [[Platform Life Sciences]] Inc., Lumen Bioscience, [[GreenLight Biosciences]] Holdings, Riboscience, Genetic Networks, 4J Therapeutics, [[Latona Biosciences Group]], the FTX Foundation, Bankman-Fried, Rheingans-Yoo and "Nicholas Beckstead." The debtors alleged that the FTX Foundation and Latona, which they called "a sham non-profit company organized in the Bahamas," channeled approximately 71.6 million dollars of commingled Alameda and FTX funds to the life sciences companies, and sought to recover no less than 71,550,000 dollars as fraudulent transfers. Against Beckstead and Rheingans-Yoo they pleaded aiding and abetting, or knowing assistance in, Bankman-Fried's breach of fiduciary duty.[^9] Latona was incorporated in [[Bahamas|the Bahamas]] on May 20, 2022 with Rheingans-Yoo, Bankman-Fried and a third person as its initial directors.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The complaint alleges that on or around January 25, 2022 Platform Life Sciences pitched Rheingans-Yoo, Bankman-Fried and Beckstead on a 10 million dollar investment; that Rheingans-Yoo wrote that "Nick [Beckstead] had a different idea," an investment of 4 million dollars to "support short-run operations" followed by co-founding a company if it looked like "a multi-$bln opportunity"; that Beckstead approved, on a funding recommendation form dated January 27, 2022, a 3,250,000 dollar "philanthropic grant," increased from the 3 million dollar budget "to support the onboarding of 1-2 trial sites in the Bahamas"; and that because the Foundation had no bank account, Rheingans-Yoo and Beckstead, at Bankman-Fried's direction, caused FTX to wire the money on February 4, 2022. It quotes an internal document Beckstead wrote in May 2022 about the Platform Life Sciences investment: "Why did it need to be through Latona? In case it makes a lot of money. Prefer not to be disclosed on Bahamian entity balance sheet. Main thing: if it makes a ton of money, how open do we need to be about that?" It states that he conceded most of the life sciences investments were "ill-advised and not well-evaluated," that on August 9, 2022 he called a proposed GreenLight investment "unattractive" in part because it came from a "random CEO pitching this to Ross [Rheingans-Yoo] at a conference," that he forwarded Riboscience's deck to Bankman-Fried and Rheingans-Yoo in January 2022, and that on July 15, 2022 the office manager of FTX in [[Miami]] introduced [[Joseph Bankman|Joe Bankman]], Bankman-Fried's father, Rheingans-Yoo and Beckstead to the two founders of Genetic Networks, one of them [[Leland Hartwell]]. The pleading puts FTX's damages on the Platform Life Sciences transfer at 3.25 million dollars.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
The debtors' disclosure statement records that a stipulation of November 1, 2023 stayed the proceeding as to the smaller life sciences defendants and Beckstead; that on January 25, 2024 the debtors reached a settlement with him "pursuant to which he provided documents and information to the Debtors, sat for an interview, and agreed to be deposed in the adversary proceeding if necessary"; that the court approved it on March 13, 2024; and that the debtors dismissed him from the case on March 14, 2024. Platform Life Sciences paid the debtors 16 million dollars, GreenLight 420,918 dollars and Genetic Networks 450,000 dollars.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### Center for AI Safety and Secure AI Project
|
||||
|
||||
His website lists, after the Future Fund, a period as policy lead at the [[Center for AI Safety]] and his current role as co-founder and chief executive of Secure AI Project, which it describes as developing and advocating "pragmatic policies to reduce risks of severe harm from advanced AI."[^2] [[ProPublica]]'s Nonprofit Explorer, drawing on the [[Internal Revenue Service]] business master file, lists Secure AI Project (EIN 33-2394289) at 584 Castro Street in San Francisco as a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization with a ruling date of January 1, 2026, revenue and assets of 195,025 dollars, and a return for the tax period ending December 2024.[^15] [[Dario Amodei]]'s essay "The Adolescence of Technology" of January 2026, filed by [[Anthropic]] as an exhibit in its suit against the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of War]], thanks "Nick Beckstead" and "Jim McClave," among others, "for their helpful comments on drafts of this essay."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Companies House, Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), company no. 07962181, company overview (incorporation and previous company names) and officers register, accessed Oct. 1, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/officers
|
||||
[^2]: Nick Beckstead, personal website, "About Me," accessed Oct. 1, 2026. https://www.nickbeckstead.com/
|
||||
[^3]: FTX Recovery Trust's Motion for Reconsideration or to Modify Order Allowing Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 31846, paras. 1-2, 7-10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.31846.0.pdf
|
||||
[^4]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity Inquiry: Effective Ventures Foundation UK," published May 22, 2024 (since withdrawn under the Commission's retention policy), sections "Background," "Findings" and "Conclusions." https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk
|
||||
[^5]: "Crypto-backed charity plans closure and £17m Oxford property sale," *Civil Society*, April 3, 2024. https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/crypto-backed-charity-plans-closure-and-17m-oxford-property-sale.html
|
||||
[^6]: "Charity backed by crypto fraudster sells historic property at 'significantly' reduced price," *Third Sector*, February 18, 2026. https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-backed-crypto-fraudster-sells-historic-property-significantly-reduced-price/finance/article/1948737
|
||||
[^7]: Rob Gledhill, "Announcement on the future of Wytham Abbey," Effective Altruism Forum, March 25, 2024, with update of November 11, 2025. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yggjKEeehsnmMYnZd/announcement-on-the-future-of-wytham-abbey
|
||||
[^8]: Stipulation of Undisputed Facts Relating to Ross Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. Jan. 15, 2025), D.I. 29218, paras. 3-6, 9-13, 18-21, 32-35, 42-46. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.29218.0.pdf
|
||||
[^9]: Complaint, *Alameda Research Ltd. v. Platform Life Sciences Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. July 19, 2023), filed as D.I. 1881 in No. 22-11068, caption and paras. 1, 5, 9-10, 17-20, 48-51, 53-64, 82, 88, 98, 174-179. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1881.0.pdf
|
||||
[^10]: First Amended Complaint, *FTX Recovery Trust v. Manifold Markets, Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 24-50214 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 38, paras. 10, 38-40 and n.6. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.194811/gov.uscourts.deb.194811.38.0.pdf
|
||||
[^11]: Trial transcript, *United States v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 31, 2023), filed as ECF No. 380, Bankman-Fried cross-examination, pp. 2751-2752. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.380.0.pdf
|
||||
[^12]: Nick Beckstead, Leopold Aschenbrenner, Avital Balwit, Ketan Ramakrishnan and Will MacAskill, "The FTX Future Fund team has resigned," Effective Altruism Forum, published 2022-11-11T02:04 UTC. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1
|
||||
[^13]: Notice of Filing of Lists of Equity Holders, Exhibit A (WRS Equity Holders List) p. 14 and Exhibit B (FTX Trading Equity Holders List) p. 35 of 69, filed Mar. 13, 2023 in *In re Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd.*, No. 23-10149 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del.), D.I. 76-1. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.189054/gov.uscourts.deb.189054.76.1.pdf
|
||||
[^14]: Disclosure Statement for Debtors' Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization of FTX Trading Ltd. and Its Affiliated Debtors, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD), p. 59 (litigation, item 5), filed as Exhibit C to ECF No. 450, *United States v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. June 14, 2024), ECF No. 450-3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.450.3.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization 332394289, Secure AI Project (IRS EO BMF data, updated Sept. 16, 2026). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/332394289.json
|
||||
[^16]: Dario Amodei, "The Adolescence of Technology," January 2026, acknowledgments, filed as Exhibit 1 to the Declaration of Michael J. Mongan, *Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War*, No. 3:26-cv-01996-RFL (N.D. Cal. Mar. 9, 2026), ECF No. 6-7. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.6.7.pdf
|
||||
239
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Philip Agee.md
Normal file
239
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Philip Agee.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,239 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
- Defector
|
||||
- InsideTheCompany
|
||||
- Counterspy
|
||||
- CovertActionInformationBulletin
|
||||
- HaigVAgee
|
||||
- IntelligenceIdentitiesProtectionAct
|
||||
- Cuba
|
||||
- KGB
|
||||
- LatinAmerica
|
||||
- Passport
|
||||
- 1970s
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Philip Agee
|
||||
- Phillip Agee
|
||||
- Phil Agee
|
||||
- Philip B. F. Agee
|
||||
- Philip Burnett Franklin Agee
|
||||
summary: "CIA operations officer in Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico from 1957 to 1968 whose 1975 book named Agency personnel, whose passport was revoked in 1979, and who died in Havana."
|
||||
born: 1935-01-19
|
||||
died: 2008-01-07
|
||||
location: "Takoma Park, Maryland (born)"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
|
||||
start: 1957
|
||||
end: 1968
|
||||
role: "operations officer"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[United States Air Force]]"
|
||||
start: 1957-08
|
||||
role: "active duty"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Department of State]]"
|
||||
start: 1960-11
|
||||
end: 1969-01
|
||||
role: "cover employment"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
|
||||
role: "reporting to the FBI on his travel plans, 1974"
|
||||
fn: 20
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Home Office]]"
|
||||
start: 1976-11-15
|
||||
role: "deportation from the United Kingdom"
|
||||
fn: 27
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
end: 1977-03-18
|
||||
role: "disclosure of classified information in Inside the Company"
|
||||
fn: 26
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Covert Action Information Bulletin]]"
|
||||
start: 1978
|
||||
role: "co-founder"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Department of State]]"
|
||||
start: 1979-12-23
|
||||
role: "revocation of passport"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Haig v. Agee]]"
|
||||
end: 1981-06-29
|
||||
role: "respondent"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: founded
|
||||
with: "[[Cubalinda]]"
|
||||
start: 2000
|
||||
role: "online travel agency, with European investors and a state travel agent"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Philip Burnett Franklin Agee (January 19, 1935 to January 7, 2008) was an operations officer of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] who served in [[Quito]], [[Montevideo]] and [[Mexico City]] and resigned in 1968. His book [[Inside the Company: CIA Diary]] (1975) named CIA officers, agents and contacts in [[Ecuador]], [[Uruguay]] and [[Mexico]]. He was deported from [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[France]] and the [[Netherlands]]; in December 1979 the [[State Department|Department of State]] revoked his passport, and in June 1981 the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] upheld the revocation in [[Haig v. Agee]]. He died in [[Havana]].[^1][^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Early life and Agency service
|
||||
|
||||
In a letter of June 10, 1977 authorizing the attorney [[Melvin L. Wulf]] to request his government files, Agee stated that he was born on January 19, 1935 at [[Takoma Park, Maryland]], that he was employed by the CIA "from August or July 1957 until January 1969," that from August 1957 to about June 1960 he was on active duty in the [[United States Air Force]], and that from November 1960 until January 1969 he was employed by the Department of State "under a cover arrangement with the Central Intelligence Agency."[^2] The Supreme Court's opinion in Haig v. Agee gives his employment as 1957 to 1968, in the division responsible for covert intelligence gathering abroad, with training in clandestine operations "including the methods used to protect the identities of intelligence employees and sources."[^1] A CIA unclassified fact sheet of September 1978 states that he worked for the Agency for eleven years before resigning in November 1968.[^4] A CIA reviewer of his book wrote that it began "with an account of his recruitment in 1959."[^5] The [[Associated Press]] reported at his death that he "quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA reviewer, writing in the Agency's journal [[Studies in Intelligence]] in a review released in 1996, placed him in Quito from 1960 to 1963, in Montevideo from 1964 to 1966 and in Mexico City from 1966 to 1968, and wrote that Agee "had rejected going into his family business, had left law school after three months, and left his wife and later his girl friend."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Quito, 1960 to 1963
|
||||
|
||||
Agee's diary entry describing the founding of the [[AIFLD|American Institute for Free Labor Development]] states that "Business leaders are front men on the Board of Directors so that large sums of [[Agency for International Development|AID]] money can be channelled to AIFLD," that the institute "is headed by [[Serafino Romualdi]], 10 Division's longtime agent," and that its directors included [[George Meany]], [[J. Peter Grace]] and [[Joseph Beirne]] of the [[Communications Workers of America]].[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The entry for Quito, July 11, 1963 records that a four-man military junta had replaced President [[Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy|Carlos Julio Arosemena]] after a banquet for the president of the [[W. R. Grace and Company|Grace Lines]], and that Agee watched the Presidential Palace from a room arranged by Jorge Andino, whom he describes as a support agent and the owner of the Hotel Majestic, while monitoring the military intelligence radio and reporting to the station, which sent progress reports to headquarters and to the military commands in [[Panama]]. The entry of July 13 states: "we've already started passing data from the Subversive Control Watch List to Major de los Reyes here in Quito and to Colonel Lugo in Guayaquil which they are using with military colleagues in the arrests campaign," and records that more than a hundred Communists and other leftists had been jailed in [[Guayaquil]] alone. The entry of July 31 records [[United States]] recognition of the junta that day and that "all along we've kept busy getting information to Major de los Reyes and Colonel Lugo."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Mexico City and resignation
|
||||
|
||||
Agee's entry on his assignment to Mexico City records a briefing on the station's operations, which he describes as "heavily weighted towards liaison (which rests on the unusually close relationship between [[Gustavo Díaz Ordaz|Gustavo Diaz Ordaz]], the President of Mexico and [[Winston Scott]], the Chief of Station) and operational support (surveillance, observation posts, travel control, postal intercepts, telephone tapping)."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The September 1978 CIA fact sheet states that "At the time of his resignation in Mexico City, Agee gave no indication of disaffection," that his resignation letter "had only praise and good wishes for the Agency and his colleagues," and that "he was asked to resign because of personal/marital problems which threatened to expose him publicly in Mexico City as a CIA officer."[^4] In January 1977 the British journalist [[Anthony Holden]] reported Agee's own account that before the 1968 Olympic Games he had told his CIA superiors in Mexico City of his intention to resign, and that he was then in a custody dispute with his former wife, who had threatened to expose him as a CIA officer to make him back down.[^9] [[Christopher Andrew]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]] wrote that he "had been forced to resign in 1968 after complaints at his heavy drinking, poor financial management and attempts to proposition wives of American diplomats."[^10] The CIA reviewer wrote: "In Mexico City his increasing dissent amounts to defection."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Writing Inside the Company, 1970 to 1972
|
||||
|
||||
Agee wrote in the book's introduction that "In order to write this book, I have spent most of the last four years in intensive research to reinforce my own recollections."[^11] A diary entry dated Mexico City, January 1971 records his decision "to name all the names and organizations connected with CIA operations" and "to seek ways of getting useful information on the CIA to revolutionary organizations that could use it to defend themselves better."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
An entry of March 1971 records a trip to [[Montreal]] to meet a publisher's representative, with whom he discussed doing the research in [[Paris]], [[Brussels]] or [[Cuba]]. Agee listed his fears about Cuba: "my past work against Cuba and communism, possible Soviet pressures, my reluctance to engage in sessions for counter-intelligence ploys, problems with the CIA afterwards," and wrote that he feared the CIA "would begin a campaign to denigrate me as a traitor." He agreed to go if the trip could be arranged and added: "Presumably the book will have to be politically acceptable to the Cubans and the research materials available."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
An entry dated Paris, August 1971 states: "In May I went to Havana to discuss the research materials needed, and they agreed to assist with what they have available, which appears to be a good deal. They also invited me to stay there to finish as much as possible, which I accepted." An entry of October 1971 is headed Havana.[^14] An entry of August 1972 states that he went to Havana again in May 1972 and that "For reasons I fail to understand there is a lack of confidence in my intentions about the book's political content," that research left pending in Cuba had not been done, and that "the Cubans wouldn't want to be embarrassed by a politically unacceptable book."[^15] In the book's acknowledgements Agee wrote that in Havana the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí and the [[Casa de las Américas]] "provided special assistance for research and helped find data available only from government documentation," and that "Representatives of the Communist Party of Cuba also gave me important encouragement at a time when I doubted that I would be able to find the additional information I needed."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
The CIA reviewer, in a review whose editor's note states that it "does not purport to examine the possibility or extent of Soviet involvement in Agee's actions, from the start or at an early stage," wrote: "One assumes that when he visited Havana he received editorial assistance from the Cubans and Soviets, but how much is, of course, not clear."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Paris, 1971 to 1972
|
||||
|
||||
Agee wrote that in late 1971 he sent a letter to the Montevideo weekly [[Marcha]] about possible CIA election operations against the [[Frente Amplio]]. According to his entry of January 1972, a few days after Christmas a former training colleague, whom he names as Keith Gardiner, appeared at his Paris hotel with a copy of the published letter and said that [[Richard Helms]] wanted to know "just what I think I am doing"; Gardiner told him that the Paris station, then headed by [[David Murphy]], had located him through the French liaison service, and suggested that he was being manipulated by the Soviets through his publisher.[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
In the entry of August 1972 Agee wrote that after returning from Cuba he recognized street surveillance in Paris, which he suspected was the French service acting at CIA request, and that he was befriended by Americans including a freelance journalist he names as Sal Ferrera and a woman he names as Leslie Donegan, who offered to finance him and read the manuscript.[^15] His June 1977 authorization letter lists his Paris mail address from May to October 1972 as care of Ferrera.[^2] The entry of October 6, 1972 states that in September the CIA's General Counsel visited his father in [[Florida]] and his former wife "to express Helms's concern over the book and my trips to Cuba," leaving copies of a recent court decision on the secrecy agreement.[^18] The entry of October 14, 1972 states that a typewriter Donegan had given him contained "an elaborate installation of transistors, batteries, circuits, wiring and antennas, also a tiny microphone for picking up voices," which he found after detecting a beeping signal on his radio and seeing a couple he took to be monitors outside the studio where he was living. An entry of October 24, 1972, written in [[London]], states that a friend in Paris had been arrested and questioned for several hours at the Ministry of the Interior about him and the book.[^19]
|
||||
|
||||
### Publication and the London campaign, 1974 to 1975
|
||||
|
||||
A memorandum written shortly before the press conference by the CIA Director of Security, [[Charles W. Kane]], asked the Deputy Director for Administration to approve a memorandum to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], at the telephoned request of the Chief of [[Latin America]] Operations, stating that "Information has been received from a usually reliable source that Philip Agee plans to return to the United States immediately after a press conference which he has scheduled in London for 3 October 1974." It cites a CIA memorandum to the FBI of August 23, 1974 "and Previous Correspondence."[^20]
|
||||
|
||||
At the London press conference Agee announced "a new campaign to fight the United States CIA wherever it is operating," with two functions: "to expose CIA officers and agents and to take the measures necessary to drive them out of the countries where they are operating" and "to seek within the United States to have the CIA abolished." He said that the list released that day "was compiled by a small group of Mexican comrades whom I trained to follow the comings and goings of CIA people before I left Mexico City."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The book carried an appendix that the CIA reviewer counted as 429 names and descriptions of "CIA Employees, Agents, Collaborators and Organizations."[^5] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that it identified approximately 250 Agency officers and agents, that it was first published in Britain "Because of legal problems in the United States," and that a review in [[The Spectator]] by [[Miles Copeland]], a former CIA station chief in [[Cairo]], called it "as complete an account of spy work as is likely to be published anywhere."[^10] The Stonehill Publishing edition was distributed in the United States by George Braziller; the CIA review cites a 1975 [[Penguin Books]] edition.[^5][^11]
|
||||
|
||||
### Counterspy and the death of Richard Welch
|
||||
|
||||
In December 1975 [[Richard Welch]], the CIA chief of station in [[Athens]], was shot dead outside his home after an English-language newspaper in Athens named him as chief of station.[^1][^21] On December 29, 1975 the [[National Public Radio]] program All Things Considered reported that CIA Director [[William Colby]] had denounced the [[Fifth Estate]], a Washington group that published the quarterly [[Counterspy]] and had named Welch in September 1975, for what he called "irresponsible and paranoid attacks" on employees of the agency. The group's spokesman [[Douglas Porter]] said that Welch had been exposed in 1967 in an East German publication, "Who's Who in the CIA," in [[British Guiana]] in 1969, and in [[Peru]], and that the group reprinted only names already published abroad.[^21] On January 5, 1976 the [[Christian Science Monitor]] reported that the [[Department of Justice]], at the request of the CIA, was examining whether to prosecute Counterspy's editors, [[Tim Butz]], Margaret Van Houten, [[Winslow Peck]] and Porter.[^22]
|
||||
|
||||
[[David Atlee Phillips]], president of the Association of Retired Intelligence Officers, wrote in a letter published in the [[Washington Star]] on January 28, 1976 that the journalist [[Norman Kempster]] had, in Phillips's summary, suggested "that the death of Richard Welch in Athens had been deftly exploited by the CIA" and that the press had "swallowed the bait" of a CIA stratagem to blame the Fifth Estate. Phillips confirmed that he had said Welch's death "became inevitable" when "a few American ex-intelligence officers joined Philip Agee in his sordid campaign of identifying American intelligence officials abroad," and added: "I certainly don't know who pulled the trigger."[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
Agee wrote in a letter to the editor published on March 1, 1976 and signed from [[Cambridge]]: "I never 'fingered' Richard Welch to Counterspy, the Athens News or to any other publication or person. However, I continue to help other journalists, and would have helped the Athens News in identifying the [CIA] people if asked." He wrote that Welch had been identified in print as a CIA officer as early as 1968.[^24] The September 1978 CIA fact sheet states that Agee "has attempted to downplay his indirect contribution to the assassination of Athens Station Chief Richard Welch."[^4] The [[New York Post]] reported on December 17, 1979 that Agee "heatedly denied any connection."[^25] Agee later sued [[Barbara Bush]] for $4 million for defamation over a passage in her autobiography linking his book to Welch's death; the Associated Press reported that she revised the book to settle the case.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Deportation from Britain, 1976 to 1977
|
||||
|
||||
Agee had lived in Britain since 1972; his June 1977 letter lists addresses in London from November 1972, in [[Cornwall]] from May 1974 to August 1975 and in Cambridge from September 1975.[^2][^26] On November 18, 1976 Home Secretary [[Merlyn Rees]] told the [[House of Commons]] that on November 15 Agee and the journalist [[Mark Hosenball]] had been informed of his decision to make deportation orders against them under section 3(5)(b) of the [[Immigration Act 1971]], as being conducive to the public good in the interests of national security. Agee was told that the Home Secretary had considered information that he "had maintained regular contacts harmful to the security of the United Kingdom with foreign intelligence officers," had been involved in disseminating information harmful to its security, and had aided and counseled others in obtaining such information for publication. There was no statutory right of appeal; an advisory panel of Sir Derek Hilton, Sir Clifford Jarrett and Sir Richard Hayward would hear representations. Rees said he was "not prepared to go into greater detail." [[Judith Hart]] asked him to read pages 567 and 570 of Agee's book; [[Winston Churchill (MP)|Winston Churchill]] asked whether there would be concern "that individuals have been maintaining contact with Cuban and Soviet bloc intelligence services."[^27]
|
||||
|
||||
On January 9, 1977 the [[Sunday Times]] published an article by Anthony Holden on what it called the Polish connection. It reported that on January 12, 1976 [[Murray Seeger]], the [[Los Angeles Times]] correspondent in [[Bonn]], had written a story from Brussels, citing "qualified western sources," that blamed Agee for the arrest of the fencer [[Jerzy Pawlowski]] and 120 other [[NATO]] agents in [[Poland]] by giving their names to the [[KGB]] in Cuba in 1971. The Los Angeles Times never printed it; its foreign editor, Bob Gibson, said it "needed further checking." Seeger told the Sunday Times his sources were "highly reliable" and would not comment on whether they had CIA connections. Pawlowski had been arrested in June 1975 and sentenced in April 1976 to 25 years. Agee described the story as a smear by his former colleagues in the CIA and argued that, had he passed the names in 1971, the ring would not have survived until 1975. Holden reported that, according to an intermediary, Rees had told a senior politician that he was deporting Agee "because he has betrayed two of our men behind the Iron Curtain."[^9] On January 10, 1977 the journalist [[Lindsay Mackie]] reported Agee's statement that he had heard, from what he called "a second-hand second-hand source," that Rees had told the Liberal leader [[David Steel]] that Agee was responsible for the deaths of two men in Poland; Agee denied it, and said that the only link between himself and Pawlowski was that both had been at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.[^28]
|
||||
|
||||
The panel hearings at 116 Pall Mall opened on January 11, 1977.[^28] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that Agee's character witnesses included [[Stan Newens]], Hart, Alex Lyon, [[Ramsey Clark]], [[Morton Halperin]] and [[Seán MacBride]], and that a KGB file noted by Mitrokhin claimed the London residency had been used "to direct action" by Labour Party, union and journalists' leaders against the decision, a claim they described as "greatly exaggerated."[^10] On February 16, 1977 Rees told the Commons that the panel's advice had not changed his decision and that he had made a deportation order against each man, served with notices requiring them to report weekly to the police.[^29] Agee left England for the Netherlands on June 3, 1977.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Justice Department investigation, 1977
|
||||
|
||||
On March 22, 1977 the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had closed its investigation of Agee and told him he was free to return without facing prosecution for disclosing CIA secrets. The decision was made the previous Friday, March 18, by the new head of the Criminal Division, [[Benjamin Civiletti|Benjamin R. Civiletti]], a day after he met Agee's attorneys; several weeks earlier Civiletti's predecessor, [[Dick Thornburgh|Richard L. Thornburgh]], had told Agee that he might be charged for disclosing classified material in the book. Civiletti said the investigation had "reached a logical end without producing ground for prosecution." A CIA spokesman said the agency was "upset," and Director [[Stansfield Turner]] said he was weighing a campaign for new laws.[^26]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Greek article, 1977
|
||||
|
||||
On June 13, 1977 [[Anne Weaver]] reported from Athens that an article by Agee, "The American factor in Greece: old and new," written in April 1976, had appeared in the left-of-center biweekly Anti, naming 64 Americans whom he said were CIA employees in Greece and 175 who he said had served there. An opposition deputy, Virginia Tsouderou, called for clarification of what they were doing and for some expulsions; a member of [[Constantine Karamanlis]]'s [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] party called the article "an open invitation to assassination."[^30] [[Newsday]] reported that the Greek government had tried to stop publication by offering the magazine full financial compensation, according to a senior staff member.[^30]
|
||||
|
||||
### Freedom of Information Act request, 1977 to 1978
|
||||
|
||||
On November 9, 1977 Wulf sent requests under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] on Agee's behalf to the CIA, the [[National Security Agency]], the FBI and the Departments of Defense, State and Justice for "all files and records of every description" relating to him. A memorandum of March 22, 1978 from [[John F. Blake]], assistant for information to the CIA's Deputy Director for Administration, records that the CIA had asked the other agencies to refer to it any document containing CIA information, that the FBI had referred four, two of them CIA documents found in FBI files, and that "Nothing has, as yet, been released to Agee or his lawyer."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Covert Action Information Bulletin and Dirty Work, 1978 to 1979
|
||||
|
||||
A CIA fact sheet delivered on September 7, 1978 to the staff of Senator [[Lloyd Bentsen]] states that at the World Youth Festival in Havana Agee announced [[Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe]], "said to contain biographies of 700 CIA and [[NSA]] personnel abroad," and the launch of the [[Covert Action Information Bulletin]], which he hoped would become "a permanent weapon in the fight against the CIA, the FBI, military intelligence, and all other instruments of U.S. imperialist oppression throughout the world," and that he intended to organize a worldwide network called "CIA Watch." The fact sheet dates his first public break to a 1971 letter to a Uruguayan newspaper.[^4] A newspaper column of August 19, 1978 states that [[William Schaap]], an attorney of the [[National Lawyers Guild]], announced from the Havana Libre Hotel a group called Counter-Watch, and quotes the bulletin's July 1978 first issue asking readers to send, "anonymously if you desire, copies of U.S. diplomatic lists." It states that Welch was killed on December 23, 1975.[^31]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 11, 1979 [[Isaiah J. Poole]] reported in the New York News World that CIA Director Turner had said that as a result of the bulletin's exposures "Nearly all major foreign intelligence services with which we have liaison relationships have undertaken review of their relations with the Agency," that Agee then lived in [[Hamburg]], and that the staff included Schaap, [[Ellen Ray]] and [[Louis Wolf]], who said "We are not out, per se, to destroy the CIA."[^32] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that KGB files claim the bulletin was founded "on the initiative of the KGB" and that the group running it, codenamed RUPOR, which first met in [[Jamaica]] early in 1978, was "put together" by the counterintelligence directorate of the KGB's First Chief Directorate; that a KGB task force under V. N. Kosterin supplied it with material; that early in 1979 [[Oleg Nechiporenko]] and A. N. Itskov met Agee in Cuba and gave him a list of CIA officers in Africa for Dirty Work II: The CIA in Africa; and that they agreed with the head of the Cuban [[Dirección General de Inteligencia|DGI]], Pedro Pupo Pérez, that it should appear during the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] summit in Havana in September 1979. They wrote that "There is no evidence in Mitrokhin's notes that any member of the RUPOR group, apart from Agee, was conscious of the role of the DGI or KGB."[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1978 damage assessment and briefing
|
||||
|
||||
The September 1978 fact sheet states that Agee's first book "exposed 170 Agency personnel and numerous agents and operations in Latin America," that the exposures "resulted in the retirement of more than 100 active foreign agents," and that as of June 1977 their monetary cost was estimated at more than $2,000,000. It states that "There are numerous cases of current and prospective clandestine agents refusing to cooperate with CIA," and that officials of American corporations had cited Agee in explaining their reluctance to cooperate.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
On August 16, 1978 the CIA briefed the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] on Agee at the request of Representative [[Bob Wilson (California politician)|Bob Wilson]], Republican of California. The briefers were [[John N. McMahon]], Deputy Director for Operations, and [[Anthony Lapham]], the General Counsel; no transcript was to be taken. The committee's questions included "What might CIA have done or what would CIA have liked to have done had the circumstances or law permitted?"[^33] Wilson had sat in 1973 on the Special Subcommittee on Intelligence of the [[House Armed Services Committee]] chaired by [[Lucien Nedzi]].[^34] On November 21, 1978 [[Reuters]] reported from Bonn that Hamburg authorities had given Agee permission to stay in [[West Germany]] until at least May 1979, and that the previous year the West German authorities had refused to let him stay.[^35]
|
||||
|
||||
### Iran and the revocation of the passport, 1979
|
||||
|
||||
According to government affidavits summarized in Haig v. Agee, after the seizure of the American embassy in [[Iran]] on November 4, 1979 Agee "made contact with the captors, urged them to demand certain CIA documents, and offered to travel to Iran to analyze the documents"; one affidavit mentioned, "but does not vouch for the accuracy of," a report that he had been invited to sit on a "Revolutionary Tribunal" to judge the hostages.[^1] The New York Post reported on December 17, 1979 that an Iranian diplomat in the United States had said that "Philip Agee is at the top of our list of candidates" for an anti-imperialist American seat on such a tribunal; Phillips told the paper: "If I were a hostage, he'd be the last guy I'd want to see."[^25] On December 19, 1979 Turner wrote to Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]]; the letter is withheld as exempt, and the New York Post clipping is filed with it.[^25]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 23, 1979 the American Consul General in Hamburg delivered to Agee a letter revoking his passport under 22 CFR 51.70(b)(4), which permits revocation when the Secretary determines that a national's activities abroad "are causing or are likely to cause serious damage to the national security or the foreign policy of the United States." The notice cited his activities in Mexico, the United Kingdom, [[Denmark]], Jamaica, Cuba and Germany. Both lower courts suggested that the immediate impetus was the Iran crisis.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Haig v. Agee
|
||||
|
||||
Agee did not use the administrative procedure and sued in the District Court for the District of Columbia. For his summary judgment motion he conceded the Secretary's factual averments; his counsel said "I would concede any charge [the Government] want[s] to make against him." The district court (Agee v. Vance, 483 F. Supp. 729) held that the regulation exceeded the Secretary's authority under the Passport Act of 1926, and the Court of Appeals (Agee v. Muskie, 629 F.2d 80), which stressed that Agee had not been indicted, affirmed.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 29, 1981 the Supreme Court reversed in an opinion by Chief Justice [[Warren Burger]]. Its footnotes record that in a separate suit to enforce his secrecy agreement the district court had found that "Agee has shown a flagrant disregard for the requirements of the Secrecy Agreement" (Agee v. Central Intelligence Agency, 500 F. Supp. 506); that in July 1980, two days after a press conference in Jamaica at which "Agee's principal collaborator" identified Richard Kinsman as CIA chief of station, Kinsman's house was strafed with automatic gunfire; and that in January 1981 two American officials of the AIFLD, an organization Agee had identified as a CIA front, were assassinated in [[El Salvador]]. The Court noted that "The Secretary does not assert that Agee has specifically incited anyone to commit murder." The Secretary told the Court that Agee had been given identification papers permitting him to return to the United States. Justice [[Harry Blackmun]] concurred; Justice [[William J. Brennan Jr.|William Brennan]], joined by Justice [[Thurgood Marshall]], dissented, writing that "bad facts make bad law."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Intelligence Identities Protection Act, 1980 to 1982
|
||||
|
||||
At a 1980 hearing of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] on S. 2216, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Deputy [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[Frank Carlucci]] testified that the problem "had its inception with faithless Government employees who went public with the names of CIA personnel, the most prominent of whom, of course, is Phillip Agee," and that when he was ambassador to [[Portugal]] Agee had published the names of embassy staff, "some accurate, some not," with telephone numbers, license plates, car makes and addresses.[^36] In a statement of May 8, 1981 to the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, Director [[William J. Casey]] cited Welch's murder, the July 1980 attack in Jamaica, and the expulsion of six Americans from [[Mozambique]] following visits by members of the Cuban intelligence service and editors of the bulletin.[^37] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that all thirteen members of the House intelligence committee sponsored the bill, "popularly known as the 'Anti-Agee Bill,'" which became law in June 1982, and that Agee afterwards traveled on passports issued by [[Maurice Bishop]]'s government in [[Grenada]] and by the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] government in [[Nicaragua]].[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Nicaragua, October 1981
|
||||
|
||||
A cable of October 13, 1981 from the American embassy in [[Managua]], signed by [[Roger Gamble|Roger R. Gamble]] and sent with immediate precedence, reported that Agee's visit coincided with a demonstration organized by the [[Sandinistas|FSLN]] and the government to close an "anti-imperialist" campaign, and that his remarks at a press conference on October 12 were "thinly veiled calls for attacks on Embassy and Embassy personnel." The embassy reported that dependents had been told to pack, that the [[United States Southern Command|Southern Command]] had been alerted to a possible evacuation, that classified traffic had been destroyed and the embassy would close at 2:30 p.m., that Foreign Minister [[Miguel d'Escoto]] was "too busy" to meet, and that junta members and comandantes [[Daniel Ortega]], [[Bayardo Arce]] and [[Jaime Wheelock]] were all "unavailable."[^38]
|
||||
|
||||
### Cuban and Soviet intelligence allegations
|
||||
|
||||
Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that in 1973 Agee approached the KGB residency in Mexico City, which turned him away as a suspected CIA plant, and quoted [[Oleg Kalugin]]: "Agee then went to the Cubans, who welcomed him with open arms... The Cubans shared Agee's information with us." They wrote that a KGB file claimed Inside the Company was "prepared by Service A, together with the Cubans," which they described as "doubtless with some exaggeration"; that "Mitrokhin's notes do not indicate exactly what the KGB and its Cuban ally, the DGI, contributed to Agee's text"; that at Service A's insistence he removed all references to CIA penetration of Latin American Communist parties; that the KGB kept contact with him in London through the [[Novosti]] correspondent Edgar Cheporov; and that the files describe him as an agent of the DGI but "do not formally list him as a KGB, as well as DGI, agent." They wrote that in May 1976 the KGB learned from Agee, codenamed PONT, that a Soviet source codenamed MAREK was an American dangle run jointly by the CIA and the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]].[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
On October 8, 2000 [[Julia Preston]] and [[Tim Weiner]] reported in the [[New York Times]] on a document carried by [[Pedro Riera Escalante]], a major of the Cuban intelligence directorate and consul in Mexico City from 1986 to 1991, who was deported from Mexico to Havana that week. Riera described an operation, "Moncada," in which he said he used Agee to try to recruit the secretary of the deputy chief of the CIA station in Mexico City; United States intelligence officials said it was a total failure and that Agee was quickly identified and rebuffed. Riera said his work with Agee began in 1973, when he was liaison between Agee and the Cuban Politburo while Agee was writing the book, that he conveyed the government's suggestions about what Agee should disclose, and that telephone numbers of CIA officials at the Mexico City embassy supplied by Agee later helped him identify station personnel. Agee did not reply to an e-mail sent to his office in Cuba.[^39] The Mexico City newspaper Reforma, which said it had seen Riera's service file, reported in a translation published by [[Cryptome]] that during "long months between 1974 and 1975, Escalante was the official in charge of correcting Agee's texts."[^40] The Associated Press reported in 2008 that Agee had been accused of receiving up to $1 million from the Cuban intelligence service, an accusation first made in a 1992 report by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence defector, and that Agee denied it.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Later years and death
|
||||
|
||||
Agee lived for years in Hamburg and later in Havana. In 2000 he opened [[Cubalinda]], an online travel agency for Americans traveling to Cuba, with European investors and a state travel agent as partners. In 2003 he distinguished his disclosures from the exposure of [[Valerie Plame]], calling the latter "purely dirty politics," and said he had named his former colleagues to "weaken the instrument for carrying out the policy of supporting military dictatorships" in [[Greece]], [[Chile]], [[Argentina]], Uruguay and [[Brazil]]. After the arrest of 75 Cuban dissidents in 2003 he wrote in Granma International that the dissidents "were funded and controlled by a hostile foreign power." He died in Havana after operations for perforated ulcers; [[Granma]] called him "a loyal friend of Cuba and fervent defender of the peoples' fight for a better world."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. 280 (1981), decided June 29, 1981: opinion of Chief Justice Burger, Part I and notes 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 15 and 16; concurrence of Justice Blackmun; dissent of Justice Brennan, joined by Justice Marshall (delivery of the revocation letter by the Consul General in Hamburg on December 23, 1979). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/453/280
|
||||
[^2]: Philip Agee to Melvin L. Wulf, June 10, 1977 (authorization letter, with consular acknowledgment, Amsterdam, June 1977); Melvin L. Wulf to the Director of Central Intelligence and other agency heads, November 9, 1977; John F. Blake, Assistant for Information, DDA, to the Acting Director of Central Intelligence, "FOIA Request on Behalf of Mr. Philip Agee," DDA 78-1204, March 22, 1978. CIA-RDP81-00142R000700040006-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81-00142r000700040006-8
|
||||
[^3]: "Former CIA agent Agee dies in Cuba at age 72," Associated Press, NBC News, January 9, 2008. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna22571961
|
||||
[^4]: CIA Office of Legislative Counsel, memorandum for the record OLC 78-2991/2, "Request by Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D., Texas) for Unclassified Information on Philip Agee," September 7, 1978 (typed September 12, 1978), with attached unclassified fact sheet delivered September 7, 1978. CIA-RDP81M00980R000600300055-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000600300055-3
|
||||
[^5]: "Intelligence in Recent Public Literature," review of Philip Agee, *Inside the Company: CIA Diary* (Penguin Books, 1975), *Studies in Intelligence*, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Historical Review Program release in full July 2, 1996, posted May 8, 2007. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Review-Inside-the-Company.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: Philip Agee, *Inside the Company: CIA Diary* (New York: Stonehill Publishing Company, distributed by George Braziller, 1975), pp. 206 to 207 (Quito entry on the founding of the AIFLD). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^7]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 250 to 253 (Quito entries of July 11, 13 and 31, 1963). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^8]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 424 to 428 (Washington entry on assignment to Mexico City). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^9]: Anthony Holden, "Why they want to deport me," The Sunday Times (London), January 9, 1977. CIA-RDP88-01315R000300560018-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300560018-2
|
||||
[^10]: Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, *The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB* (New York: Basic Books, Perseus Books Group, 1999; paperback edition with an introduction dated 2001), p. 206 (chapter 13, "The Main Adversary, Part 4") and pp. 230 to 234 (chapter 14, "Political Warfare"), with the chapter notes. Read in the full-text scan of the paperback edition at https://archive.org/details/the-sword-and-the-shield-the-mitrokhin-archive-and-the-secret-history-of-the-kgb_202605
|
||||
[^11]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, Introduction, pp. 1 to 2, and front matter (Stonehill Publishing Company, distributed by George Braziller). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^12]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 485 to 486 (Mexico City, January 1971). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^13]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 488 to 489 (Mexico City, March 1971). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^14]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 489 to 491 (Paris, August 1971; Havana, October 1971). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^15]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 495 to 497 (Paris, August 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^16]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, Acknowledgements, p. 563. https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^17]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 493 to 495 (Paris entries of late 1971 and January 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^18]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 497 to 498 (Paris, October 6, 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^19]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 498 to 501 (Paris, October 14, 1972; London, October 24, 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee
|
||||
[^20]: Director of Security (Charles W. Kane) to Deputy Director for Administration, "Philip Burnett Franklin Agee," with attached draft memorandum to the Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, referencing CIA memorandum of August 23, 1974; reading room date October 1, 1974. CIA-RDP84-00780R006100130022-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84-00780r006100130022-9
|
||||
[^21]: "Report on Richard Welch," transcript, All Things Considered, WETA Radio and NPR network, December 29, 1975, with Susan Stamberg and Jeff Stein. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100370007-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100370007-8
|
||||
[^22]: Dana Adams Schmidt, "U.S. Weighs Prosecution of Editors in Welch Case," Christian Science Monitor, January 5, 1976. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100360054-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100360054-7
|
||||
[^23]: David Atlee Phillips, letter, "The Death of Richard Welch," Washington Star, January 28, 1976. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100360023-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100360023-1
|
||||
[^24]: Philip Agee, "I never 'fingered' Richard Welch," letter to the editor, March 1, 1976, signed Cambridge, England (publication not identified on the clipping). CIA-RDP99-00498R000100040087-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000100040087-5
|
||||
[^25]: Stansfield Turner to Cyrus R. Vance, December 19, 1979 (text withheld as exempt), filed with "Philip Agee: Iranians want him as a judge," New York Post, December 17, 1979. CIA-RDP81B00401R000600050023-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81b00401r000600050023-9
|
||||
[^26]: Associated Press, "U.S. Closes Probe of CIA Critic Agee," Washington Post, March 22, 1977, p. A7. CIA-RDP99-00498R000100080006-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000100080006-0
|
||||
[^27]: Hansard, House of Commons, "Mr. Hosenball and Mr. Agee (Deportation)," November 18, 1976, vol. 919, cols. 1567 to 1572 (statement of the Home Secretary; questions of Mrs. Hart and Mr. Churchill). https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1976/nov/18/mr-hosenball-and-mr-agee-deportation
|
||||
[^28]: Lindsay Mackie, "Polish agent deaths 'behind Agee order'," newspaper article of January 10, 1977 (publication not identified on the clipping; reading room date January 10, 1977). CIA-RDP88-01315R000300560016-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300560016-4
|
||||
[^29]: Hansard, House of Commons, "Mr. Agee and Mr. Hosenball," February 16, 1977, vol. 926, cols. 495 to 496 and following. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1977/feb/16/mr-agee-and-mr-hosenball
|
||||
[^30]: Anne Weaver, "Agee names Greek CIA men," June 13, 1977 (attributed to The Guardian in the reading room title "[The Manchester Guardian, 13 June 1977]"), CIA-RDP88-01314R000300490003-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000300490003-7; "Agee on CIA in Greece," Newsday, June 14, 1977, CIA-RDP88-01314R000300490001-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000300490001-9
|
||||
[^31]: "Lives of CIA Agents Deliberately Imperiled," newspaper column, August 19, 1978 (publication and author not identified on the clipping). CIA-RDP88-01314R000100390039-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100390039-1
|
||||
[^32]: Isaiah J. Poole, "CIA goes after anti-U.S. agent magazine," New York News World, August 11, 1979. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100390017-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100390017-5
|
||||
[^33]: Assistant Legislative Counsel to Frederick P. Hitz, Legislative Counsel, "16 August 1978 Briefing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Phillip Agee," OLC 78-2991, August 15, 1978. CIA-RDP81M00980R002100030023-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r002100030023-1
|
||||
[^34]: House Committee on Armed Services, Special Subcommittee on Intelligence, *Inquiry into the Alleged Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Watergate and Ellsberg Matters*, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., October 23, 1973, membership page. CIA-RDP75B00380R000100090080-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75b00380r000100090080-8
|
||||
[^35]: Reuters dispatch from Bonn, November 21, 1978, CIA Operations Center news service. CIA-RDP81M00980R000400040002-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000400040002-2
|
||||
[^36]: *Intelligence Identities Protection Act (S. 2216)*, hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 96th Cong., 2d sess., 1980, testimony of Frank C. Carlucci, pp. 43 to 45. CIA-RDP85-00003R000200080003-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp85-00003r000200080003-5
|
||||
[^37]: William J. Casey, Director of Central Intelligence, Statement for the Record before the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, May 8, 1981, on S. 391. CIA-RDP85-00003R000200040003-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp85-00003r000200040003-9
|
||||
[^38]: American Embassy Managua to Secretary of State, Managua 4517, "Agee Visit Security Precautions," Confidential, EXDIS, NIACT Immediate, October 13, 1981 (drafted by Roger R. Gamble). CIA-RDP84B00049R001503700007-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84b00049r001503700007-4
|
||||
[^39]: Julia Preston and Tim Weiner, "A Document by Cuban Spy Talks of Acts Against C.I.A.," New York Times, October 8, 2000, as reproduced at https://cryptome.org/cuban-op-cia.htm
|
||||
[^40]: Grupo Reforma, untitled article on Pedro Riera Escalante, Reforma (Mexico City), October 2000, in the English translation by Cryptome reproduced with the New York Times article at https://cryptome.org/cuban-op-cia.htm
|
||||
178
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roelof Botha.md
Normal file
178
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roelof Botha.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,178 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Technologists"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- RoelofBotha
|
||||
- SequoiaCapital
|
||||
- VentureCapital
|
||||
- PayPalMafia
|
||||
- Square
|
||||
- SpaceX
|
||||
- TwentyThreeAndMe
|
||||
- HouseSelectCommitteeOnTheCCP
|
||||
- SouthAfrica
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- Roelof Botha
|
||||
- Roelof F. Botha
|
||||
- Botha, Roelof
|
||||
summary: "South African-born actuary and venture capitalist, PayPal chief financial officer at its 2002 offering, Sequoia Capital partner from 2003 and senior steward from 2022 to 2025, and SpaceX director from June 2026."
|
||||
location: "Menlo Park, California"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Pik Botha]]"
|
||||
role: "grandson"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[McKinsey & Company]]"
|
||||
start: 1996-08
|
||||
end: 1998-07
|
||||
role: "management consultant"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[PayPal]]"
|
||||
start: 2000-03
|
||||
role: "vice president of financial and risk management; chief financial officer from August 2001"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Sequoia Capital]]"
|
||||
start: 2003-01
|
||||
role: "partner; managing member of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC from 2007 to 2025"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Sequoia Capital]]"
|
||||
end: 2025-11-04
|
||||
role: "senior steward"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Square]]"
|
||||
start: 2011-01
|
||||
role: "director; audit and risk and compensation committees in 2015"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Xoom Corporation]]"
|
||||
role: "director"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Natera]]"
|
||||
role: "director"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[23andMe]]"
|
||||
end: 2024-09-17
|
||||
role: "director and audit committee member"
|
||||
fn: 18
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Unity Technologies]]"
|
||||
role: "chairman by October 2023; lead independent director from May 2024"
|
||||
fn: 19
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[MongoDB]]"
|
||||
role: "Class I director"
|
||||
fn: 21
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[SpaceX]]"
|
||||
start: 2026-06-16
|
||||
role: "independent director and audit committee member"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: member_of
|
||||
with: "[[Stanford University]]"
|
||||
start: 2024
|
||||
role: "member of the board of trustees"
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[House Select Committee on the CCP]]"
|
||||
start: 2023-10-17
|
||||
role: "addressee, as managing partner, of the committee's letter to Sequoia Capital"
|
||||
fn: 14
|
||||
- type: funded
|
||||
with: "[[VenturePAC]]"
|
||||
start: 2021-11-19
|
||||
end: 2022-09-15
|
||||
role: "$10,000 contributor"
|
||||
fn: 24
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### Family and education
|
||||
|
||||
Roelof Botha was born in [[Pretoria]], [[Alec Hogg]] of [[News24]] wrote in February 2017, when Botha was 43; Hogg wrote that he carried "the same name as his father, one of [[South Africa]]'s top economists and long-time advisors to PWC, and his grandfather, former SA Foreign Minister 'Pik'," [[Pik Botha]], who is a different man from [[P.W. Botha]]. Hogg wrote that Botha had recorded the highest marks in the [[University of Cape Town]]'s actuarial science examinations, had become South Africa's youngest actuary at 25, and had moved to California in 1998 to attend Stanford's business school, where he was valedictorian.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[PayPal]]'s prospectus of February 2002 gives his age as 28 and records a B.S. in actuarial science, economics and statistics from the University of Cape Town in 1994, fellowship of the [[Faculty of Actuaries]] in 1996, work as a management consultant for [[McKinsey & Company]] from August 1996 to July 1998, and an M.B.A. from the [[Stanford Graduate School of Business]] in 2000.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### PayPal
|
||||
|
||||
Botha joined PayPal in March 2000, served as vice president of financial and risk management, and became chief financial officer in August 2001.[^2] In April 2000 the company assumed a $70,000 loan at 9 percent that he owed to his former employer, and forgave it in 25 percent annual installments from June 2001. In July 2001 he took a non-recourse loan of $112,500 under an employee liquidity program in which PayPal then repurchased part of the participants' stock; [[David Sacks]] and [[Reid Hoffman]] took $450,000 and $500,000 under the same program.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The board in the prospectus included [[Michael Moritz]], a partner of [[Sequoia Capital]] since 1986 and a director since August 1999, whose appointment the prospectus describes as "a condition to the obligation of entities affiliated with Sequoia Capital to complete their investment." In August 1999 Sequoia funds had bought 15,000,000 shares of Series A preferred stock from [[Elon Musk]] for $5.0 million. Moritz sat on the audit committee with Musk and [[Shailesh Mehta]], former chief executive of [[Providian]]. Entities affiliated with Sequoia owned 9.9 percent of PayPal before the offering.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Sequoia Capital
|
||||
|
||||
Botha joined Sequoia in January 2003.[^3] A Form 8-K of [[SpaceX]] states that he was a managing member of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC from 2007 to 2025.[^4] Square's registration statement of 2015 names him among the directors and stockholders of SC US (TTGP), Ltd. who exercised voting and investment discretion over Sequoia's 2010 [[United States]] venture funds, with [[Jim Goetz]], [[Michael Goguen]], [[Doug Leone]] and Moritz.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
On January 31, 2017 Goetz wrote to Sequoia's investors that he would step aside from his leadership responsibilities, thanking "Doug and Sir Michael for the trust they placed in me." News24 printed the letter and reported that Goetz's place as one of the firm's three stewards went to Botha, alongside Leone and [[Neil Shen]], who ran the China business.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
When [[23andMe]] went public through a merger in June 2021, Botha was listed as a director and beneficial owner of 18,442,574 Class B shares, 4.54 percent, of which 17,818,438 were held by Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC; the filing named Leone and Botha as the directors of SC US (TTGP) with discretion over the Global Growth Fund II funds.[^5] A Schedule 13D for [[Maplebear]] (Instacart), filed on February 27, 2024 and signed by Botha as authorized signatory, lists [[Cayman Islands]] funds, their management partnerships, SC US (TTGP), Ltd., Leone and Botha as reporting persons, and states that "the directors and stockholders of SC US (TTGP) who exercise voting and investment discretion" are Leone and Botha. It records that Sequoia managing member [[Ravi Gupta]] had joined Maplebear's board in August 2023.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Square, Xoom and other boards
|
||||
|
||||
Botha became a director of [[Square]] in January 2011, as the designee of the Series B preferred holders.[^3] Square's Form D of September 2011 lists him with [[Jack Dorsey]], [[Jim McKelvey]], [[Vinod Khosla]], [[Larry Summers]] and [[Mary Meeker]] as directors, and [[Keith Rabois]] as an executive officer.[^7] Rabois resigned as chief operating officer in January 2013 amid an employee's allegation of sexual harassment, which he denied.[^8] In the registration statement of November 2015, Sequoia's 2010 funds held 15,728,310 shares, 5.3 percent, and Khosla Ventures III, LP held 16.9 percent; Botha sat on the audit and risk committee with [[David Viniar]] and Summers and on the compensation committee with Meeker, and also served on the boards of [[Natera]] and [[Xoom Corporation]].[^3] Rabois was a Xoom director until May 2015.[^9] At the annual meeting of the renamed Block, Inc. in June 2026, Botha was re-elected a Class II director with 869,045,360 votes for and 127,444,544 withheld, alongside [[Shawn Carter]] and McKelvey.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Senior steward
|
||||
|
||||
[[TechCrunch]] reported that Botha took the firm's highest role, senior steward, in mid-2022.[^11] On November 9, 2022 Sequoia wrote to the limited partners of its Global Growth Fund III, and posted the letter publicly, that it was marking its investment in [[FTX]] to zero: "In recent days, a liquidity crunch has created solvency risk for FTX." The letter gave a cost basis of $150 million in that fund and $63.5 million in SCGE Fund, L.P., and said: "We are in the business of taking risk."[^12] The investment had been made in FTX's Series B in July 2021, when the exchange was valued at $18 billion.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
On June 6, 2023 Botha, Neil Shen and [[Shailendra Singh]] announced that Sequoia would separate into Sequoia Capital in the United States and Europe, [[Peak XV Partners]] in India and Southeast Asia, and [[HongShan]] in China by March 2024, writing that "It has become increasingly complex to run a decentralized global investment business."[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### The House Select Committee
|
||||
|
||||
On October 17, 2023 [[Mike Gallagher]] and [[Raja Krishnamoorthi]], chairman and ranking member of the [[House Select Committee on the CCP]], wrote to Botha as managing partner and to [[Don Vieira]], partner and global chief policy officer. The letter named investments by Sequoia Capital China in EverSec, 4Paradigm, DJI and DeepGlint and support by both Sequoia entities for [[ByteDance]]. It stated the committee's understanding, from "source material on file," that roughly 20 percent of the carry from each deal had flowed to the top of the Sequoia family, that a compliance office in Menlo Park had reviewed every deal, and that 60 to 70 percent of Sequoia Capital China's limited partners had been American, falling to about half. It described an internal screening process set up in the summer of 2022 covering only Chinese quantum computing, semiconductor and aerospace investments, and asked for answers by November 1, 2023.[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The committee's report of February 8, 2024 stated that Sequoia Capital and Sequoia Capital China had invested about $1.4 billion in ByteDance from March 2014, that Shen sat on ByteDance's board and was a representative to the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]], and that Sequoia Capital China had invested about $32 million in BGI Tech, a subsidiary of the genomics company [[BGI Group]], from 2013 to November 2020; the report quotes an internal Sequoia China memo of September 2012 that touted BGI's acquisition of the American sequencer Complete Genomics. It recorded Sequoia's statement that its entry into China "coincided with expressed government policies and public positions in the US that encouraged businesses to invest in the region."[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
Vieira, according to [[Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom]], had been chief of staff of the [[National Security Division]] of the [[Department of Justice]] and counselor to the assistant attorney general for national security from 2009 to 2011, an espionage prosecutor, and deputy chief counsel of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]]. At Sequoia he founded the firm's Washington office, served as chief legal officer and represented the firm on the board of the [[National Venture Capital Association]]; he also sat on the boards of Genuity Science and [[Hakluyt & Company|Hakluyt & Co.]]. Skadden announced his return on September 9, 2025.[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### 23andMe, Unity and MongoDB
|
||||
|
||||
At 23andMe's annual meeting on August 25, 2022, Botha was re-elected a Class I director with 1,797,444,732 votes for and 16,584,769 withheld.[^17] On September 17, 2024 he and the six other independent directors, including [[Neal Mohan]], resigned together, writing to the chief executive [[Anne Wojcicki]] that "we have yet to receive from you a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal" and that "because of your concentrated voting power" they would resign "rather than have a protracted and distracting difference of view with you as to the direction of the Company." Botha was then on the audit committee.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
On October 9, 2023 Botha, as chairman of [[Unity Technologies]], accepted the resignation of its chief executive [[John Riccitiello]], who left his posts that day and was to retire on April 9, 2024; Botha's letter extended the period for exercising Riccitiello's vested equity to five years and permitted continued vesting, in exchange for a separation agreement.[^19] On May 1, 2024 Unity announced that Botha would return from chairman to lead independent director.[^20] At [[MongoDB]]'s annual meeting on June 25, 2024 he was re-elected a Class I director with 34,836,881 votes for, 22,488,981 withheld and 9,306,416 broker non-votes.[^21]
|
||||
|
||||
### Departure from leadership
|
||||
|
||||
In 2025 Sequoia partner [[Shaun Maguire]] called the New York mayoral candidate [[Zohran Mamdani]] an "Islamist" who "comes from a culture that lies about everything." In August the firm's chief operating officer, [[Sumaiya Balbale]], resigned over the decision not to discipline him. At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in October 2025 Botha said: "Internally, we celebrate a diversity of opinions, and we need spiky people inside of Sequoia." On November 4, 2025 Sequoia announced that [[Alfred Lin]] and [[Pat Grady]] would succeed him as co-stewards. [[Marina Temkin]] of TechCrunch reported that he had overseen the distribution of $50 billion to limited partners since taking over the firm's United States and European business in 2017.[^11] A profile of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] that Sequoia published on its website in September 2022 credited Lin and [[Michelle Bailhe]] with pursuing the FTX investment.[^22] Sequoia's Form ADV amendment of July 17, 2026 lists Leone, Goetz, Lin, Grady, Maguire and others as direct owners and executive officers of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC and does not list Botha.[^23]
|
||||
|
||||
### SpaceX and Stanford
|
||||
|
||||
On June 16, 2026 the board of SpaceX elected Botha an independent director to fill a vacancy and appointed him to its audit committee. The Form 8-K states that he has been a trustee of [[Stanford University]] since 2024 and that a member of his family had worked at SpaceX since January 2025 on the enterprise operations team, with 2025 compensation above the $120,000 reporting threshold, "generally commensurate with their peers' compensation." SpaceX does not pay its non-employee directors.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Political contributions
|
||||
|
||||
[[Federal Election Commission]] records show two contributions under his name, each of $5,000, to VenturePAC of the National Venture Capital Association, on November 19, 2021 and September 15, 2022, with Sequoia Capital as employer.[^24] Leone, the other director of SC US (TTGP) named in the 2024 filing, gave $2,000,000 to Never Back Down Inc. on April 19, 2023, $1,000,000 to America PAC on June 14, 2024 and $250,000 to the [[Trump 47 Committee]] on October 30, 2024.[^24]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Alec Hogg, "SA prodigy, Pik Botha's 43yo grandson, to lead Silicon Valley's top VC firm," News24, February 1, 2017, reproducing the letter of Jim Goetz to Sequoia investors. https://www.news24.com/Fin24/sa-prodigy-pik-bothas-43yo-grandson-to-lead-silicon-valleys-top-vc-firm-20170201
|
||||
[^2]: PayPal, Inc., prospectus (Form 424B4), February 2002, "Management," "Certain Relationships and Related Transactions" and "Principal Stockholders." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702006471/a2071068z424b4.htm
|
||||
[^3]: Square, Inc., Form S-1/A, filed November 16, 2015, "Management" (director biographies, board composition, committees) and "Principal Stockholders" (footnotes 4 and 8). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000119312515378578/d937622ds1a.htm
|
||||
[^4]: Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Form 8-K, filed June 17, 2026 (accession 0001628280-26-043865), Item 5.02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026043865/spaceexplorationtechnologi.htm
|
||||
[^5]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed June 21, 2021 (accession 0001193125-21-194255), security ownership table and footnotes 4 and 5. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312521194255/d187358d8k.htm
|
||||
[^6]: Sequoia Capital USV XIV Holdco, Ltd. and others, Schedule 13D re Maplebear Inc., filed February 27, 2024, cover pages, Items 2 and 4, and signatures. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1579091/000119312524048200/d799472dsc13d.htm
|
||||
[^7]: Square, Inc., Form D, filed September 30, 2011 (accession 0001512673-11-000003). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000151267311000003/primary_doc.xml
|
||||
[^8]: Edward Ngai, "Square COO, Stanford alum, resigns over sexual harassment allegations," The Stanford Daily, January 25, 2013. https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/25/square-coo-resigns-over-sexual-harassment-allegations/
|
||||
[^9]: Xoom Corporation, Form 8-K, filed March 27, 2015, Item 5.02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1315657/000155837015000406/xoom-20150325x8k.htm
|
||||
[^10]: Block, Inc., Form 8-K, event date June 16, 2026 (accession 0001193125-26-275869), Item 5.07. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000119312526275869/d55271d8k.htm
|
||||
[^11]: Marina Temkin, "Sequoia names Alfred Lin and Pat Grady as new co-stewards as Roelof Botha steps down," TechCrunch, November 4, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/04/sequoia-names-alfred-lin-and-pat-grady-as-new-co-stewards-as-roelof-botha-steps-down/
|
||||
[^12]: Connie Loizos, "Sequoia Capital marks its FTX investment down to zero dollars," TechCrunch, November 9, 2022, reproducing Sequoia's letter to Global Growth Fund III limited partners. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/09/sequoia-capital-marks-its-ftx-investment-down-to-zero-dollars/
|
||||
[^13]: Manish Singh and Rita Liao, "Sequoia splits China and India arms from US mothership to avoid 'portfolio conflict' and 'market confusion'," TechCrunch, June 6, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/06/sequoia-rebrands-china-india-and-southeast-asia-units/
|
||||
[^14]: Rep. Mike Gallagher and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, letter to Roelof Botha and Don Vieira, Sequoia Capital, October 17, 2023, Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023.10.17-letter-to-sequoia-capital.pdf
|
||||
[^15]: Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, "The CCP's Investors: How American Venture Capital Fuels the PRC Military and Human Rights Abuses," February 8, 2024, pp. 4 to 5, 7, 18 and 21. https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2024-02-08%20-%20VC%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf
|
||||
[^16]: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, "Don L. Vieira" (professional biography), https://www.skadden.com/professionals/v/vieira-donald-l ; "Skadden Welcomes Back Don Vieira as Partner in Washington, DC," September 9, 2025, https://www.skadden.com/about/news-and-rankings/news/2025/09/skadden-welcomes-back-don-vieira-as-partner-in-washington-dc
|
||||
[^17]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed September 1, 2022 (accession 0000950170-22-017988), Item 5.07. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000095017022017988/me-20220825.htm
|
||||
[^18]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed September 18, 2024 (accession 0001193125-24-221081), Item 5.02 and Exhibit 17 (resignation letter of September 17, 2024). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312524221081/d894676d8k.htm ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312524221081/d894676dex17.htm
|
||||
[^19]: Unity Software Inc., Form 8-K, filed October 10, 2023, Exhibit 10.1 (letter of Roelof Botha, Chairman, to John Riccitiello, and transition agreement, October 9, 2023). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000119312523253118/d551719dex101.htm
|
||||
[^20]: Unity Software Inc., Form 8-K, filed May 1, 2024, Exhibit 99.1 (press release). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000181080624000085/ex991pressrelease.htm
|
||||
[^21]: MongoDB, Inc., Form 8-K, filed June 28, 2024 (accession 0001441816-24-000136), Item 5.07. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1441816/000144181624000136/mdb-20240625.htm
|
||||
[^22]: Adam Fisher, "Sam Bankman-Fried Has a Savior Complex, And Maybe You Should Too," Sequoia Capital website, September 22, 2022, as archived by the Internet Archive on November 9, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221109025610/https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-spotlight/
|
||||
[^23]: Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC, Form ADV (CRD 157373, SEC file 801-122957), other-than-annual amendment of July 17, 2026, Schedule A. https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/157373/PDF/157373.pdf
|
||||
[^24]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor names "Botha, Roelof" (sub_ids 4121820211386160968 and 4111520221629334595, committee C00150367) and "Leone, Doug" and "Leone, Douglas" (sub_ids 4080120231758607105, 4103020241011643180, 4021320251172522832), queried October 1, 2026 through https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/
|
||||
119
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Buckley.md
Normal file
119
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Buckley.md
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
category: "Intelligence & Government"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Person
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
- Hostage
|
||||
- Beirut
|
||||
- IranContra
|
||||
- Hezbollah
|
||||
- Stargate
|
||||
- Lebanon
|
||||
alias:
|
||||
- William Buckley
|
||||
- William Francis Buckley
|
||||
- William F. Buckley (CIA)
|
||||
- Bill Buckley
|
||||
summary: "CIA station chief in Beirut kidnapped on March 16, 1984, whose captivity and death in 1985 figured in the arms-for-hostages dealings with Iran; his remains were returned in December 1991."
|
||||
born: 1928-05-30
|
||||
died: 1985-06-03
|
||||
location: "Medford, Massachusetts (born); Beirut, Lebanon (kidnapped)"
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
|
||||
role: "station chief, Beirut"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Islamic Jihad Organization]]"
|
||||
role: "kidnapped and held hostage"
|
||||
start: 1984-03-16
|
||||
end: 1985-06-03
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Center Lane]]"
|
||||
role: "target of remote-viewing tasking by the CIA"
|
||||
start: 1984-03-21
|
||||
end: 1984-04-20
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
- type: participant_in
|
||||
with: "[[Iran-Contra Affair]]"
|
||||
role: "hostage whose release was sought"
|
||||
fn: 7
|
||||
created: 2026-10-01
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-01
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
William Francis Buckley (May 30, 1928, to June 3, 1985) was a lieutenant colonel of the [[United States Army]] and an officer of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] who was serving as station chief in [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]], when he was kidnapped on March 16, 1984. The [[United States]] District Court for the District of Columbia found that he was held for 444 days and died in captivity on June 3, 1985. His remains were returned to the United States in December 1991.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Army and CIA career
|
||||
|
||||
Buckley was born in Medford, Massachusetts, graduated from high school in 1947 and entered the Army. According to a memorial page of the Special Forces Association chapter that bears his name, he served as a company commander with the 1st Cavalry Division in the [[Korean War]], graduated from [[Boston University]] in political science, worked as a librarian in the public libraries of Concord, Winchester and Lexington, attended the Special Forces qualification course in 1960, served with the Military Assistance Command in the [[Vietnam War]], was promoted to lieutenant colonel in May 1969, and was employed by the CIA from 1955 to 1957 and again from 1965, with assignments in Vietnam, [[Zaire]], Cambodia, [[Egypt]] and [[Pakistan]].[^3] The CIA states that elements of his career remain classified, that he was awarded the Silver Star for capturing a North Korean machine-gun nest, that in the late 1970s he helped develop the Incident Response Team and the Counterterrorism Group, and that he volunteered to be Station Chief in Lebanon after the 1983 bombing of the [[United States Embassy in Beirut]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The court's findings of fact state that as the highest-ranking CIA official in Beirut his position was "an open secret" within the Lebanese government and among the violent religious factions of the city. The retired CIA officer [[Chip Beck]] testified that two weeks before the kidnapping Buckley said to him, "I'd rather die in a botched rescue attempt than waste away or die like Tucker did in Vietnam. Try as hard as you can to push the bureaucracy to get me out of here." The court identified Tucker Gougelmann as Buckley's old mentor, tortured in Vietnam.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Kidnapping and the Planning Group meeting
|
||||
|
||||
Buckley was seized in the underground garage of his apartment building in Beirut on March 16, 1984. The group that claimed responsibility used the name [[Islamic Jihad Organization]], which the court described as an alias of [[Hezbollah]].[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
A bulletin of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service dated March 29, 1984, reported that a Kuwaiti newspaper described Buckley as the third secretary of the American embassy, said that he was close to Lebanese President [[Amine Gemayel]] and was known to the president's entourage, and attributed the kidnapping to a Soviet intelligence network operating in Syria. The bulletin was placed at Tab L, "Mid-East Press Reports of Buckley's CIA Relationship," of the briefing binder prepared for the [[Director of Central Intelligence]], [[William J. Casey]], for a meeting of the [[National Security Planning Group]] on March 30, 1984, from 11:00 to 12:00 in the [[White House]] Situation Room. A cover memorandum described attendance as limited to principals and the subjects as "the Iran-Iraq war and the Buckley abduction." The binder's other tabs concerned the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi use of chemical weapons, the oil supply and a memorandum by [[Graham Fuller]] arguing for earlier support to Iraq.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Remote viewing sessions
|
||||
|
||||
From March 21 to April 20, 1984, the Army's INSCOM [[Center Lane|CENTER LANE]] project conducted 11 remote-viewing interviews at the request of the CIA concerning Buckley. On March 20 the CIA supplied three essential elements of information: the location of Buckley, his physical and mental condition, and the identity of his captors; on April 10 a fourth was added, who the CIA should contact to arrange his release. A photograph of Buckley taken before the kidnapping cued the first interviews, and later ones were cued with his name, date and place of birth and a photograph "allegedly taken by his captors" that the CIA supplied. The summary states that information from the project "was 'on the streets' in Lebanon hours after being passed to the CIA," that much of it was later verified by other CIA sources, and that no further interviews were conducted after April 20 because the project had exhausted its leads. A memorandum of the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations dated May 1, 1984, stated that the Agency's relationship with CENTER LANE "has been that of a customer," that "we have no Agency people or funds assigned," that its sources "have often 'made contact' far beyond what might be expected by probabilities and coincidence" with "a less than hoped for signal-to-noise ratio and a less than photographic resolution, as well as some outright misses," and that "we would like to continue to call upon CENTER LANE." Lieutenant Colonel [[Brian Buzby]] attached both documents to an overview of May 4, 1984, recommending that the project continue within INSCOM.[^5] The project is also described on the [[Stargate Project]] page.
|
||||
|
||||
### Ransom proposals
|
||||
|
||||
According to the report of Independent Counsel [[Lawrence Walsh]] on the [[Iran-Contra Affair]], [[Michael Ledeen]] said that in 1985 the former CIA official [[Ted Shackley]] told him of a meeting Shackley had in late 1984 with the Iranian [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], who said it might be possible to ransom Buckley; that Shackley in April or May 1985 asked him to relay to the Administration a memorandum on the plan, which the [[State Department]] had already rejected in December 1984; and that he gave the memorandum to [[Oliver North]]. A footnote cites a memorandum from Shackley to General [[Vernon Walters]] of November 22, 1984.[^6] The [[Tower Commission]] report records that Shackley and Ledeen separately told the board that Shackley sent his report to Walters, that in May 1985 Shackley told Ledeen he had no response from Walters, and that in June 1985 Shackley gave Ledeen the report with an update, which Ledeen passed to North, without reading it, with the message that Shackley "had had a contact with an Iranian who had said he thought he could ransom Buckley."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
In the Walsh report the Israeli talks of 1985 among [[Adolph Schwimmer]], [[Yaakov Nimrodi]] and Ghorbanifar included a proposal that Israel sell Iran 100 TOW missiles, in return for which Ghorbanifar, "as a sign of the power of his contacts in Iran," would obtain the release of Buckley.[^6] On June 7, 1985, North submitted to [[Robert McFarlane]] two plans for the release of the Americans held in Lebanon, both approved by McFarlane; the second was the private ransoming of two hostages, including Buckley, for $2 million, an operation that would take "considerable time (contacts inside Lebanon, financial transactions, and rental of yacht/safehouse)."[^7] Walsh reported that in the spring of 1985 reports reached the CIA that Buckley was being tortured and that, according to Attorney General [[Edwin Meese]], Buckley's fate was of special concern to Casey; that in early September 1985 North asked [[Charles Allen]], the national intelligence officer for counterterrorism, to collect intelligence about Ghorbanifar, his Iranian contact and their contacts in Lebanon, saying the request related to a possible release of Buckley; and that after the delivery of 408 TOW missiles on September 14, 1985, led to the release of the Reverend [[Benjamin Weir]] and not Buckley, "the fact that Buckley had not been released was of special concern, because Administration officials had sought his return first."[^6][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
A report to the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] by Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]] on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] states that during the trial of the arms dealer Michael Aspin in London, Leslie Aspin testified that a TOW missile sale of 1985 was a legitimate sale authorized by the United States government as part of a 1984 to 1985 effort to ransom Buckley, with the weapons to move from Portugal to Iran, and that in a sworn statement of May 1, 1987, Aspin (the report does not say which of the two) attested that he and North had opened three joint accounts at BCCI in Paris into which North deposited $5 million on November 15, 1984. The subcommittee stated that North denied maintaining such an account, that it had confirmed other accounts in London and Monte Carlo but had no access to the Paris accounts, and that Aspin and the dealer [[Ben Banerjee]] were dead; it adds that a BCCI Paris manager learned in 1988 of an account named Devon Island and was told that it existed but had not been used.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Islamic Jihad announcement and accounts of the death
|
||||
|
||||
On October 1, 1985, Israeli aircraft bombed the headquarters of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in Tunis. On October 4 Islamic Jihad announced that it had executed Buckley in retaliation, and on October 12 it issued a further statement, published in Beirut, repeating that it had executed "the American spy" and offering to turn the body over to the [[United Nations]] Secretary-General, [[Javier Perez de Cuellar]], 24 hours before the release of 100 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.[^7][^10] The Tower Commission report states in a footnote that in October 1985 the United States obtained reliable evidence that Buckley had died the preceding June, and that the announcement of October 4 was false according to the [[National Security Council|NSC]] staff chronologies, to Iranians who met CIA and NSC personnel, and to the released hostages Jenco and Jacobsen, who reported that Buckley probably died on June 3, 1985, of "pneumonia-like symptoms."[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
A memorandum dated December 5, 1985, apparently by North, stated: "We are relatively confident of information that former Beirut Chief of Station, Bill Buckley, is dead."[^7] On December 13, 1985, [[Jack Anderson]] and [[Dale Van Atta]] wrote in the *[[Washington Post]]* that the CIA had highly sensitive intelligence leaving no doubt of Buckley's death, while the State Department's official position was that "we assume that he is alive." They wrote that Buckley was taken from the Bekaa Valley to Tehran in early March 1985 disguised as an injured Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldier on a Syrian army helicopter to Damascus and an Iran Air flight, held in a house on Fereshteh Street, interrogated in the basement of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, moved to a Revolutionary Guard camp near Qom after an Iraqi bomb landed near the house, and that he suffered a heart attack induced by torture, probably between April 10 and 15, and died soon after in a Tehran hospital.[^11] In a later column Anderson and Van Atta wrote that the CIA denied their story, that President [[Ronald Reagan]] told them off the record in February 1986 that Buckley was dead, and that the death was publicly acknowledged a year after their report.[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The *Washington Post* reported in late November 1986 that Buckley had been the CIA's station chief in Beirut and that he had disclosed information under torture; his sister said she retained hope that he was alive and called the reports that he confessed before dying "absurd."[^13] On December 2, 1986, the former hostage [[David Jacobsen]] said on NBC News that he believed Buckley died on the evening of June 3, 1985, recalling that Buckley had been delirious and running a high fever and that guards asked him as a hospital director what they could do and then said "We can't do that" when he told them to get Buckley to a hospital.[^13] On January 20, 1987, Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]] said that an American "in terrorist hands is tortured and, in the case of William Buckley, killed."[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
### The interrogation transcript
|
||||
|
||||
A memorandum from North to [[John Poindexter]] of September 25, 1986, reporting meetings in Washington with an Iranian "Second Channel," stated that the Iranians possessed a 400-page transcript of the torture and debriefing of Buckley; Walsh recorded that [[Clair George]] had been "extremely emotionally involved" in the Buckley matter.[^15] At the Frankfurt meetings of October 5 to 7, 1986, North laid out a seven-step proposal in which the Iranians would use their influence to secure the release of the remaining hostages, the body of Buckley and "a debrief by his captors."[^7] In 1988 Anderson and Van Atta wrote that they had seen a suppressed transcript of the September 1986 meeting, in which an Iranian envoy, [[Ali Hashemi]], a nephew of [[Hashemi Rafsanjani]], said that "Buckley revealed 200 to 300 sensitive names of people and over 400 pages of debriefing," and that Hashemi said Hezbollah passed the information to the Iranians.[^12] Poindexter's plan for the Tehran mission of McFarlane in May 1986 provided that after the delivery of HAWK parts and the release of hostages "the remains of Buckley would be turned over."[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The *New York Daily News* reported on December 9, 1986, that testimony of Casey and McFarlane had convinced senators that the real motive for the arms sales was to free American hostages, and quoted a source who had heard most of the testimony to the Senate intelligence panel as saying that the primary focus was to free Buckley. Senator [[Frank Murkowski]] was quoted as saying, "It is clear to me that the humanitarian motive to win the freedom of the hostages was the paramount motive."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Remains and burial
|
||||
|
||||
On August 21, 1987, a CIA routing sheet from the Information and Privacy Coordinator asked C/NE for concurrence "as to the extent of disclosure concerning Mr. Buckley"; the reading room indexes the document as "Memorial Service for William F. Buckley" and the following page is withheld.[^17] The CIA held a memorial service in 1985, awarded him a star on its Memorial Wall and the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, and in 1988 laid him symbolically to rest at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 27, 1991, police found a body near the airport highway in Beirut before dawn after an anonymous telephone call, wrapped in cotton and bandages, in a blanket and a plastic bag, as the remains of Lieutenant Colonel [[William Richard Higgins]] had been found the previous weekend. Coroner-General Dr. Ahmed Harati identified the remains as Buckley's. A caller who said he spoke for Islamic Jihad said the body had been released.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
### Surette v. Islamic Republic of Iran
|
||||
|
||||
His companion of more than twenty years, as administrator of his estate, sued the Islamic Republic of Iran, the [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]] and the [[Ministry of Intelligence and Security|Ministry of Information and Security]] in the District of Columbia in 2001. Service was made through diplomatic channels on September 24, 2001; the clerk entered default on December 5, 2001; and Judge [[Paul L. Friedman]] heard evidence on September 3 and 4, 2002. Witnesses included Chip Beck, Jacobsen by videotape, Dr. [[Patrick Clawson]], Dr. Bruce Tefft, Norman Gardner, the medical examiner Dr. Richard Froede by videotape, and the accountant John Devlin.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
In its opinion of November 1, 2002, the court found that Buckley had been held captive for 444 days, interrogated, tortured and denied medical care, and had died on June 3, 1985. It credited Jacobsen's testimony that Buckley, held behind plywood partitions, was delirious with fever on his last day, that the captors did not act on suggestions of water, antibiotics and cooling, that Jacobsen heard "death rattles" and then a "tap" he understood to be a silenced gun, and that he later saw a bullet hole in the wall 12 to 24 inches above the floor. It stated that Buckley's remains, recovered years later, were too decomposed to reveal much about his treatment but were found with a catheter and a set of intravenous tubes with a butterfly valve, which Froede and Tefft testified could have been used to cause extreme pain. Norman Gardner testified that videotapes of Buckley in captivity released to the United States came from Iran, and Jacobsen testified that a man called Ali, who had "absolute authority" over the guards, was the Iranian representative to the kidnapping group.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The court held Iran, the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security liable under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and entered judgment for $1,021,284 for the estate's lost income, $5,440,000 for the estate's pain and suffering ($10,000 for each of 444 days plus $1,000,000 for the period of facing death alone), $10,000,000 in solatium for his companion and $2,500,000 for his sister, and $300,000,000 in punitive damages against the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry jointly and severally.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: "William F. Buckley," Central Intelligence Agency, Honoring Our Heroes. https://cia.gov/legacy/honoring-heroes/heroes/william-f-buckley
|
||||
[^2]: *Surette v. Islamic Republic of Iran*, 231 F. Supp. 2d 260 (D.D.C. 2002) (Friedman, J.), Civil Action No. 01-0570 (PLF), decided November 1, 2002, findings of fact I.A and I.B, conclusions of law and judgment, pp. 261 to 275. Reporter text at https://thecjf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/final-opinion-Surette.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: "In Memory of LTC William Buckley," Special Forces Association Chapter 54 memorial page. https://sfob54.org/LTC-William-Buckley.html (secondary source; the CIA states that parts of his career remain classified).
|
||||
[^4]: "NSPG Meeting on Iran-Iraq War/Buckley Kidnapping, 30 March 1984," contents page, cover memorandum of March 29, 1984, SA/DCI/IA to Director of Central Intelligence, and Tab L (FBIS unnumbered item of March 29, 1984, citing a Kuwaiti newspaper through the Middle East News Agency; the scanned text is partly garbled), CIA-RDP86B00420R000200450001-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86b00420r000200450001-0
|
||||
[^5]: "Summary of Investigation, Subject: William F. Buckley, 84-04," CIA-RDP96-00788R001600510002-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00788r001600510002-8; Buzby, Brian, Lieutenant Colonel, "Purpose: To Provide an Overview of Center Lane," May 4, 1984, with attached summary and CIA memorandum "Comments on Recent CENTER LANE Experience," May 1, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220003-8, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220003-8
|
||||
[^6]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, 1993, chapter 1 ("United States v. Robert C. McFarlane"), text and notes 73, 76 to 78, 82, 101 to 102 and 143. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm
|
||||
[^7]: *Report of the President's Special Review Board* (Tower Commission), February 1987, declassified copy in CIA-RDP89G00643R001300120001-9, text of Part III on the Iranian initiative, footnotes 7 and 20, and Appendix B (Ledeen and Shackley accounts, page B-4). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89g00643r001300120001-9
|
||||
[^8]: Walsh, *Final Report*, chapter 15 ("William J. Casey"), text and notes 35 and 43. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_15.htm
|
||||
[^9]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate*, December 1992, chapter 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence," section "Other Iranian Arms Dealers and BCCI," notes 85 to 89. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
|
||||
[^10]: "Text of statement on Buckley," Associated Press, *Boston Globe*, October 13, 1985, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200063-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000100200063-2
|
||||
[^11]: Anderson, Jack, and Dale Van Atta. "Buckley Is Dead, and Iran Is Responsible," *Washington Post*, December 13, 1985, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200043-4. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200043-4
|
||||
[^12]: Anderson, Jack, and Dale Van Atta. "CIA Official Tortured to Death, Gave Secrets," Deseret News, September 28, 1988. https://www.deseret.com/1988/9/28/18779491/cia-official-tortured-to-death-gave-secrets/ See also the transcript of the interview of Dale Van Atta on "Nightwatch," CBS, December 27, 1985, CIA-RDP88G01116R001001550002-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88g01116r001001550002-8
|
||||
[^13]: "Buckley Sister Retains Hope," Associated Press, *Washington Post*, November 28, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200023-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000100200023-6; "David Jacobsen Comments on Death of William Buckley," NBC Nightly News transcript, December 2, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200048-9, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200048-9; "Ex-Hostage Disputes Date of Buckley Death," Associated Press, *Washington Post*, December 3, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200049-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000100200049-8
|
||||
[^14]: Gertz, Bill. "Vice President confirms Buckley was tortured and killed," *Washington Times*, January 21, 1987, CIA-RDP90-00965R000302310058-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302310058-3
|
||||
[^15]: Walsh, *Final Report*, chapter 17 ("United States v. Clair E. George"), text and notes 64 to 68, citing North to Poindexter memorandum of September 25, 1986 (AKW 7291 to 7308) and George's deposition of April 24, 1987. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_17.htm
|
||||
[^16]: "Buckley key to deal, freeing hostages the motive, senators hear," *New York Daily News*, December 9, 1986, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605350007-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605350007-9
|
||||
[^17]: Routing and record sheet, Information and Privacy Coordinator, August 21, 1987, "Official Disclosure," CIA-RDP89G00643R001000080034-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89g00643r001000080034-1
|
||||
[^18]: Abu-Nasr, Donna. "Hostage Crisis Is Finally Over for America: William Buckley's Remains Found on Beirut Highway," Associated Press, *The Seattle Times*, December 27, 1991. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19911227/1325252/hostage-crisis-is-finally-over-for-america----william-buckleys-remains-found-on-beirut-highway
|
||||
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