“What We Were Prevented From Investigating”
From Barrett’s press release regarding the release of his final report:
This has been a long and difficult investigation. It is my hope that people will read the entire Report and draw their own conclusions. An accurate title for the Report could be, “WHAT WE WERE PREVENTED FROM INVESTIGATING.”
After a thorough reading of the Report it would not be unreasonable to conclude as I have that there was a coverup at high levels of our government and, it appears to have been substantial and coordinated. The question is why? And that question regrettably will go unanswered. Unlike some other coverups, this one succeeded.
I recommend that people begin by reading the memorandum of Mr. John Filan, Chief of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division in the South Texas District (Appendix no. 16).
Mr. John Filan’s memorandum can be read by clicking here.
Filan was concerned that Barry Finkelstein (the government’s Assistant Chief Counsel overseeing Criminal Tax) had a “cozy” relationship with the Cisneros’ defense. A second concern Filan has was that Cisneros’ case “was pulled from the field with the apparent intent to ‘kill’ it, regardless of the evidence” and that there were improper disclosures with the Tax division of the Department of Justice in further attempts to stop the case.
After the Office of the Independent Counsel (OIC) resumed its obstruction investigation following Cisneros’ 1999 guilty plea, it met with considerable resistance. Several witnesses could not be questioned because of their repeated use of their 5th amendment right not to incriminate themselves. Only after being granted immunity did these witnesses testify in front of a grand jury.
When the OIC realized that attempts to subpoena the Department of Justice for documents related to the obstruction investigation would become meaningless because of the statue of limitations, the OIC closed down obstruction investigations to devote time solely to the release of the Final Report.
If not for the attempts of the Clintons to redact from the report incriminating information related to the roles they played in helping Cisneros and obstructing Barrett’s investigation, the American people would have a much clearer picture as to what actually happened during this period of time in the Clinton administration.
