he got to Washington. In January 1993, Zoe E. Baird was forced to withdraw her nomination as attorney general because she had failed to pay taxes for a nanny; fresh from his inauguration, President Clinton was hit with charges of elitism and corner-cutting and incompetent screening. Foster blamed himself – the Fiske report shows him constantly shouldering blame for mistakes made in the chaotic White House – and the night of the Baird debacle Foster was literally sick from a panic attack. The embarrassment was even greater when seven employees of the White House travel office were summarily fired amid hints of financial shenanigans, because it turned out the investigation had been slapdash, the firings hasty, and the odor of cronyism hung over the whole affair. The “Travelgate”fallout singed Foster and burned his friend and protege, William Kennedy, also of the counsel’s office. Kennedy drew an official reprimand.

Distraught at the prospect of facing a Congressional hearing, Foster developed insomnia and went deeper and deeper into depression. On 19 July 1993, his doctor prescribed an anti-depressant, which Foster began taking. On 20 July, he left his office after lunch, drove to Fort Marcy Park in Virginia, and shot himself once in the mouth.

Despite conspiracy theories that swirled at the time (and continue, obviously, to make the rounds to this day), five separate investigations over time have concluded that Foster’s death was a suicide.

Conclusion

Each of the two cases under discussion has its own timeline of events, neither of which intersects in any significant way with the other.