Webster Hubbell

Webster L. Hubbell was a partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vince Foster in the Rose Law Firm of Little Rock and became associate attorney general of the United States in the Department of Justice in January 1993.¹

Park On Meter

Hubbell was the former secretary and corporate lawyer of Park On Meter Inc., a small manufacturer of parking meters in Russellville, Arkansas, and the brother-in-law of the company's owner. Former Air Force intelligence officer Terry Reed claimed that Park On Meter was secretly manufacturing parts for M-16 rifles as a subcontractor on a CIA weapons project to supply the Contras. Hubbell admitted to a Time magazine reporter that POM was also making rocket launchers.²

The Casolaro Inquiry

In early 1994 Hubbell, as associate attorney general, ordered "a nationwide investigation" into the suspicious death of investigative reporter Danny Casolaro, who had been investigating connections between the Cabazon Indian tribe, Wackenhut International, and weapons manufacturing for the Contras.²

He resigned that March. What resulted from the Casolaro investigation, or even whether it ever went forward, has not been made public.²

Resignation

"Shortly after their former partner Webster L. Hubbell became Associate Attorney General," the independent counsel reported, "Rose Law Firm members in Little Rock found irregularities in Hubbell's billings for 1989-92." He announced his resignation on March 14, 1994. The day before, a meeting at the White House attended by the president, the first lady, and the chief of staff had discussed his difficulties. "Afterwards, one or more individuals suggested that efforts should be made to help Hubbell find work," and the chief of staff, Mack McLarty, told Mrs. Clinton: "We're going to be supportive of Webb."¹

The Consulting Contracts

McLarty and his staff director, William Burton, "telephoned Hubbell about once a week, telling him he still had friends in the White House." McLarty, Erskine Bowles of the Small Business Administration, Truman Arnold, and Vernon Jordan "made calls on Hubbell's behalf." "As a result, seventeen people and companies who were supporters of the President hired Hubbell to do consulting work, paying him in excess of $500,000 over a period of less than a year." He reported 376,075 dollars of it on his tax return for 1994 and paid no tax on it.¹

One of the seventeen was the Lippo Group. On June 23, 1994, James Riady had breakfast with Hubbell at the Hay-Adams Hotel, met President Clinton at ten with John Huang, and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of Hong Kong China Limited, a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to Jakarta and Bali for Hubbell and his wife. Before the committee Hubbell invoked the Fifth Amendment. He wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money."³

Plea

On December 6, 1994, he pleaded guilty in the federal court at Little Rock to one count of mail fraud and one of tax evasion, "admitting that he defrauded his former partners and clients out of at least $394,000." His lawyer later agreed that he had obtained 482,410 dollars and 83 cents. On June 28, 1995, Judge George Howard sentenced him to twenty-one months.¹