Crooked Claims About Clinton

Last fall, a video attacking Hillary Clinton began attracting attention on the Internet. A lot of attention, in fact – it garnered more than 1.4 million views in its first month, and is up to more than 3.4 million at this writing.

Clocking in at about 13 minutes, the piece is a preview of a longer movie that makes various charges against the Clintons stemming from a Hollywood fundraiser in 2000, when Hillary Clinton was running for the Senate. That DVD is for sale. We analyzed only the preview, because it is readily available on the Internet and has drawn such a large audience; we viewed the longer film to make sure we weren't misunderstanding Paul's charges.

The video reminds us of various "documentaries" that proliferated in the early years of Bill Clinton's presidency. "The Mena Coverup," "The Clinton Chronicles" and others accused Clinton of a range of illegal and unethical acts. Like many – we daresay most – of those, this video contains a lot of false, unproven and misleading material. And what it leaves out is often more important than what it tells us.
The Main Event

The video begins with shots of a glitzy Hollywood fundraiser, billed as a tribute to President Clinton, on Aug. 12, 2000. Cher, Diana Ross and Sugar Ray performed. The glitterati glittered madly. If you were in L.A. for the Democratic National Convention, opening two days later, this party was the A-list place to be. The Clintons appear to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Sitting with them is the narrator of the video, Peter Paul, a cohost and executive producer of the event.

hill.billPaul was a thrice-convicted felon at the time, a fact that wasn't known to the Clintons or aides who were working to set up the gala, according to a lawyer for the Clintons. ("It was missed" by vetters for the campaign, he told us.) In the late 1970s, Paul was convicted of conspiring to defraud the Cuban government of $8.75 million by selling it a nonexistent shipload of coffee beans, and of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He served about 40 months in prison. (Paul claims that he was part of a covert government operation when he was arrested for these crimes.) In the 1980s, he again served time when he violated parole by lying to a Customs officer (again, he claims to have been secretly working with the government.) He chalked up his fourth conviction with a 2005 guilty plea in a securities fraud case ... but we'll get to that shortly.

Paul begins his story with the startling declaration that he decided to help Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party as a way to cozy up to Bill Clinton, whom he hoped to persuade to be a rainmaker for the company he cofounded, Stan Lee Media, after Clinton left the White House. Rarely does a contributor so directly and so publicly state that he opened up his wallet in order to try to get something of value from a politician.