Bill Federer: Tom, it’s good to be with you.

Fitton: I get outraged talking about Bill and Hillary Clinton and then I realize that Dick Gephardt, whom you ran against for Congress twice, was conducting the same types of smear and destroy operations that Bill and Hillary were effecting in Arkansas. Am I correct in that analysis?

Federer: You’re exactly correct, and we were so thrilled with Larry Klayman being in St. Louis just last week, exactly six months after I won my case against Gephardt in the County Court. Larry filed the case against Gephardt in the state court, and then also argued before the federal court. He certainly was busy when he was here.

Fitton: We’re persistent here at Judicial Watch.

Federer: When Larry went before three Federal judges in the new Eagleton Court Building, he pulled out a law that said if you intimidate or use any acts to discourage your opponent from running for office or voting, it’s a crime. Well, the attorney for Gephardt got up and said, “Your Honor, that law Larry Klayman cited was an 1871 law with regard to the Democrats starting the Ku-Klux-Klan to intimidate and to discourage Negro Republican voters from voting.” And Larry got back up and said, “Your Honor, I’d like to point out what my opposing attorney has just pointed out that it was the Democrats that used Ku-Klux-Klan tactics against the Republican opponent to discourage and intimidate. That’s exactly what Dick Gephardt did.”

Fitton: You ran against Gephardt in 1998, and nearly beat him. And the next time around in 2000 he was so nervous that he put his machine into action in a way that, frankly, nearly put you in jail.

Federer: When I ran in 1998, it was the sixth most expensive race in America. Gephardt spent $3.3 million against me. We gave him the lowest re-election margin of his career. Strange things happened in that campaign. For example, my name was left off the ballot in five wards in the City of St. Louis.

Fitton: Accidentally on purpose, right?

Federer: Right. People went in to vote for me and my name wasn’t there. And so Gephardt’s response was to leave the polls open until 10 o’clock and send out the message to tell everybody to come back and vote again, which was just a bogus joke. Anyway, in 2000, I ran again. That time, we had top members of Congress come in and we raised $3 million. It was a serious race. Gephardt drained his Democrat leaders’ victory fund, which was illegal – or at least unethical. The fund consisted of $2 million of unregulated funds that was supposed to help other candidates. Gephardt funneled it into his own personal campaign fund to spend. He spent a total of $6 million -- the third most expensive race in America. Gephardt’s campaign also accused us of an SEC violation. It made all the headlines. The SEC didn’t look into it until a year after the election. I received a letter saying the case was closed and that I was innocent.

Fitton: Talk about what happened during what was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill campaign event. You appeared at a parade, presumably to shake hands and kiss babies, and something unexpected happened.

Federer: Well, I was walking down the parade and someone shoved a camera in my face. I was a little flustered, but I continued down the parade route. Anyway this person happened to have been an employee of Gephardt’s Congressional office, which is a big deal because he was getting direct-deposited checks from the United States Treasury. This is the same exact infraction that put James Traficant in jail, using federal funds for campaigning purposes. Anyway, this cameraman took the videotape to the police department and filed an assault charge against me. Now I was the victim, but they filed it against me.

Fitton: How were they able to push the case forward, given that you were clearly the victim?

Federer: Well, they got into a Democrat-controlled County government, with a Democrat appointed judge, and Democrat County Counselors. They spent two and a half years trying to pin an assault charge on me. It’s amazing what they did when they chose the jurors to hear the case. They had 30 people in the room, and they had to whittle the group down to 12 for the trial. The first question they asked was, “Are there any Republicans in here?” People who raised their hand were kicked out. Then they said, “Are there any pro-life people in here?” Again, those who raised their hands were kicked out. During the trial, they only wanted to show 9 seconds of this guy’s videotape. We insisted on reviewing all 14 minutes of the tape, which showed nothing more than the cameraman standing in my path over and over again, zooming in on me in a crowd. We actually slowed the tape down on a DVD, frame by frame, and you could see the guy actually hitting me. When all of this came up on the television screen, the Democrat attorney jumped up and said, “I object!” The Democrat appointed judge got down, looked at the television, turned to the jury and said, “Forget that you saw that.” Anyway, it only took the jury 20 minutes to decide that I was innocent. They figured out in 20 minutes what the Democrat government in St. Louis County couldn’t figure out in two and a half years.

Fitton: Well, while the jury did the right thing and acquitted you in 20 minutes, you were facing significant jail time if you had been found guilty. This represented an outrageous abuse of the judicial process. Judicial Watch, even before the trial, had sued in Federal Court, not only for the conspiracy and the assault and the battery and the basic crimes, but also for the civil rights related crimes. They tried to keep you from exercising your rights. Just like the Ku Klux Klan. Bill, thanks again for joining us on the program. Do you have a website where members of our audience can access your work?

Federer: Yes. It’s amerisearch.net. Thanks, Tom, for having me.