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City Beat
Philly lawyer, representing cop who found Foster’s body, says independent counsel will rule no foul play in Clinton aide’s death.
Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr will, like other investigators, rule that the death of White House aide Vince Foster was a suicide, according to sources close to the case.
“Every indication is that Starr is going to release a report in the next 30 days that says Vince Foster committed suicide at the park at Fort Marcy in McClean, Virginia,” says Phil Stinson, the Philadelphia-based lawyer for Kevin Fornshill, the U.S. Park Police officer who found Foster’s body in the park two years ago.
Stinson says he was informed of Starr’s decision “by sources close to Starr.”
Mark Tuohey, the deputy independent counsel in charge of the investigation, says Stinson, a lawyer with Bochetto and Lentz, is inaccurate. Starr, says Tuohey, has not decided to issue a report in 30 days ruling Foster’s death a suicide.
“We are considering making an interim report when we are done,” says Tuohey. “But we are not finished with the investigation. I talked to Stinson, but I did not indicate to him what our findings would be.”
Stinson stands by his claim.
Starr’s finding would be just the latest in a series of investigations to find that Foster killed himself. The FBI found no reason to believe Foster was murdered. Neither did Independent Counsel Robert Fiske Jr., nor the Senate Banking Committee.
Starr was named to reinvestigate the case after pressure from Republicans who want to dish dirt on the Clintons by connecting Foster’s death to the Whitewater investigation. Conspiracy theorists claim that Foster was killed because he obtained information about the Whitewater case.
Stinson is representing Fornshill, an old college classmate, in a number of civil and criminal cases surrounding the discovery of Foster’s body. Fornshill testified at the original investigation into the case, at the Senate Banking Committee’s investigation and at Starr’s investigation. Fornshill also testified about the matter at a libel suit he filed against a freelance reporter who claims that Fornshill moved Foster’s body to cover up some nefarious connection between Foster and the investigation into the First Couple’s financial dealings.
Stinson says he was interviewed about the Foster case by Mike Wallace for an upcoming episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes. Wallace, says Stinson, “will concentrate on two broad areas. He talked to Fornshill about what he saw at the death scene and he talked to me about all of the inaccuracies” in the reporting of Foster’s death.
Stinson says the episode will air on September 17, shortly after Starr releases his finding that Foster committed suicide.
— Howard Altman
