Author of Anti-Clinton Book Seeks Legal Funds

The letter from Gary Aldrich, retired FBI special agent and best-selling author, was sent to hundreds of thousands of people across the country. It also was printed in a number of publications, including a far-right extremist tabloid, gun magazines and police journals.

He was asking for money.

“My wife, Nina, and I and our three young children could lose everything,” he wrote. “That’s right, everything. I can’t believe the horror story I’ve been living.”

Aldrich retired after 30 years with the FBI. Last assigned to the White House security detail, he left in disgust and dashed off a book cataloging the misbehavior he said he encountered in the presidential mansion. He alleged such goings-on as Clinton aides being involved in drugs, sexual promiscuity in the White House, even late-night mysterious disappearances by the president himself.

The book, “Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House,” was released last June and sold far beyond expectations, gracing the New York Times bestseller list for more than a third of the year in 1996. But now it is the Clinton administration that may be writing the last chapter.

Acting on a recommendation from the FBI’s legal department, the Justice Department is reviewing whether to file suit alleging that Aldrich violated federal guidelines governing what former officials may divulge from their access to privileged information. If it concludes the book went too far, the department will ask that the government be awarded all of the proceeds from the book’s sales.

With almost half a million copies sold, that would be no small amount of money. Aldrich estimates that he could stand to lose “plus or minus” seven figures in royalties.

Top officials at the Justice Department and the FBI deny they want vengeance on a career FBI agent who has embarrassed the White House. They say they simply believe that Aldrich violated the rules by not obtaining full clearance for his manuscript.

But Aldrich thinks otherwise. He said the FBI delayed its review of his book so long that he almost missed his publication deadline. He ultimately submitted the book without the required final FBI approval for two key sections--a meeting he said he had with White House aide Vincent Foster shortly before Foster’s death and allegations that some White House staffers had histories of drug use.

Aldrich also maintains that Howard Shapiro, the FBI’s general counsel, shared the manuscript with the White House in order to give the Clinton administration time to rebut the charges.

Shapiro did not return telephone calls seeking comment this week. But in a deposition last summer, he said he gave then-White House counsel Jack Quinn a copy, only to be told that “they did not want to have anything to do with the review process.”

Aldrich says the process reeked of politics. “The White House had no reason to see that manuscript,” he said in an interview this week at his home in suburban Washington. “That was my property.”

And he complained that his royalties, due to kick in this March, are being “held hostage” because he cannot spend the money if it ultimately will have to be turned over to the government. He said he is being punished merely for exercising his 1st Amendment rights.

“From the day I became an FBI agent, I had a keen sense of the Constitution,” he said. “It was always my guide. I always tried to not abuse that power. But having worked in the federal government for so long, I can see how easy it is to abuse citizens.”

There is also, of course, the money factor.

Jennifer Azar, marketing director for Regnery Publishing Inc., said the book is now in its 12th printing, with 425,000 copies sold so far.

Although the book’s allegations were scoffed at by much of official Washington, and the rumors Aldrich recounted about secret nocturnal outings by the president were widely discredited, it was nonetheless taken seriously by the buying public.

And Republicans used its tantalizing anecdotes as campaign fodder to attack Clinton during last year’s presidential campaign.

But Aldrich said his $100,000 advance has already been spent on legal fees. And he turned to the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a self-styled conservative counterpart to the ACLU, to provide him with legal help in the event of a Justice Department lawsuit.

Matthew J. Glavin, president of the Atlanta-based foundation, purchased mailing lists from conservative groups and sent out 360,000 copies of Aldrich’s letter. Send him $29 “right away” and he will mail you a copy of the book. Send him $79 or more and you get an autographed copy.

Said Glavin: “Money is urgently needed for attorney’s fees, legal briefs, legal research, telephones, copying, paralegals . . . all of the things that go into fighting a major legal battle against the powers in Washington.”

Clayton R. Douglas, publisher of the anti-government tabloid, the Free American, got a copy of the letter and reprinted it in his January issue.

Douglas said he feels a certain kinship with Aldrich, now the target of the government he once served. “This should be a lesson to other law enforcement officers,” Douglas said.

In his letter, Aldrich portrays himself as one man against the powers in Washington.

“The Clintons and the rest of their administration have launched a political vendetta against me because I told the truth about what was going on in their White House.

“And they have the immense power of the federal government on their side.”

In the interview in his living room, he added a caveat: “It’s not just about money. It’s about the protection of my 1st Amendment rights. It’s about paving the way for other people to step forward and speak out in the future.”