The Clinton Chronicles

The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton
Directed by	Patrick Matrisciana
Produced by	Patrick Matrisciana
Release date(s)	1994
Running time	85 minutes

The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton is a 1994 film created by Patrick Matrisciana. This video explored the deaths of Vincent Foster and an alleged cocaine-smuggling operation purportedly involving BCCI, Dan Lasater and then Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton.^[1][2] Deaths were part a conspiracy theory known as the "Clinton Body Count", which started and grew around the time of the documentary, as connections to Clinton were added with varying degrees of allegedly suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths.^[3] Some of the names in the Clinton Body Count are referenced in the documentary. The deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry spawned two other documentaries listed below.

Backing and promotion

The film was produced by Citizens for Honest Government, a project of a Westminster, California organization named Creative Ministries Inc, which also spawned Jeremiah Films, Matrisciana's production company.^[4] Some of the funding for the film came from long-time Clinton opponent Larry Nichols..^[5] Over 300,000 copies of the film were put into circulation.^[6]

Other Jeremiah Films productions concern apologetics, history, Christian inspirational, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, occult, politics, Prophecy, Seventh-day Adventists, social issues and terrorism.

VHS copies of the film were promoted and distributed via television infomercials by Moral Majority leader Rev. Jerry Falwell, who also appears in the film.^[2] Falwell's infomercial for the 80-minute tape included footage of Falwell interviewing a silhouetted journalist who was afraid for his life. The journalist accused Clinton of orchestrating the deaths of several reporters and personal confidants who had gotten too close to his illegalities. However, it was subsequently revealed that the silhouetted journalist was, in fact, Patrick Matrisciana, the producer of the video and president of Citizens for Honest Government. "Obviously, I'm not an investigative reporter," Matrisciana admitted (to investigative journalist Murray Waas), "and I doubt our lives were actually ever in any real danger. That was Jerry's idea to do that ... He thought that would be dramatic."^[2] In a 2005 interview for The Hunting of the President Falwell admitted, "To this day I do not know the accuracy of the claims made in The Clinton Chronicles."^{[citation needed]}

Controversy and criticism

The deaths listed in the film have largely been discredited and debunked as containing deliberate bias, circumstantial evidence, and coincidence. Snopes.com classifies the "Clinton Body Count" conspiracy theory connecting Clinton to the deaths as an urban legend.^[3]

In a 1994 letter to congressional leaders, William Dannemeyer listed 24 people with some connection to Clinton who had died "under other than natural circumstances" and called for hearings on the matter. His list was largely taken from a longer list compiled by Linda Thompson.^[3]

One of the troopers who appeared in the movie, Larry Patterson, alleging he arranged sexual appoints for Clinton, was convicted of making false statements to the FBI about an unrelated incident in March 2005.^[7]

Obstruction of Justice: The Mena Connection

Pat Matrisciana, and Creative Ministries also released a 1996 video titled Obstruction of Justice: The Mena Connection. This film claimed that, amongst others (namely Don Harmon, Richard Garrett, Jim Steed, and Danny Allen), Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane, both law enforcement officers, were connected to the murder of two teenage boys, Don Henry and Kevin Ives. Supposedly these two officers killed the teenagers when they came across a cocaine smuggling ring in Mena, Arkansas, to which Clinton was allegedly tied. The two officers filed suit against the claims. A judgment in their favor was reversed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in an in-depth 26 page decision by a group of several judges.^[8]

The decision states that "the record does not refute... a list [of] 'suspects implicated in the Ives/Henry murders and cover-ups'" (pg. 11), that "[Campbell and Lane] failed to prove the falsity of even the most damning interpretation" of the evidence (pg. 11), that "law enforcement records... revealed that purported eyewitnesses implicated law enforcement officers in the deaths of the Ives and Henry boys, including the appellees, either by name and/or, more tenuously, by description" (pp. 11–12), that "statements and rumors corroborating... implicating them as suspects emanate, in varying degrees of detail, from multiple sources" (pg. 21), and that "given the corroboration by multiple sources, we do not see obvious reasons to doubt the accuracy of the various reports" (pg. 23).

The decision also stated that Campbell and Lane failed to prove the falsity of the allegations and that "[e]ven if we assume Campbell and Lane satisfied their burden of falsity, we find their claims still fail" because "a public-figure plaintiff must do more than prove falsity to prevail in a defamation claim... [but] must also prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with actual malice." (pg. 13)

At some point, Jon Brown, "an investigator for the Saline County Sheriff's Department from 1992 to 1994" (pg. 7) that arrived at conclusions similar to those of Matrisciana, also testified that... when he first became involved with this investigation, as an employee of the Saline County Sheriff, he found the file had been 'totally destroyed' and 'a lot of documents were missing' [,] ... [that] Ives' [mother's] collection of documents was the most comprehensive and he acquired the most pertinent documents from her[,] and that Ives and Duffey (a former deputy prosecuting attorney and director of a drug task force (pg. 6) that investigated the case and arrived at conclusions very similar to those of Matrisciana) had more thoroughly reviewed the documents." (pg. 17)

The judges agreed that the case was riddled with intrigue and allegations of corruption when it said, amongst other things: "The record indicates [Dan] Harmon... who was [originally] appointed special prosecutor on the case" (pg. 3), and who Mrs. Ives and others believed was aiding in the cover-up, "... had credibility problems because he was either implicated in the deaths himself or because he was trying to subvert [Campbell and Lane's] investigation of one of his associates for drug offenses." (pp 19–20) In regards to Dan Harmon, the judges noted that "Harmon had credibility problems in that he was being investigated for involvement in drug offenses, Sharline Wilson had placed him at the scene of the deaths, and, he had been convicted of various crimes." They also made note of the statements by Campbell and Lane that "[they believed that Harmon made rumors about them] detract attention... from his illicit drug activities." (pg. 22)

In defense of Campbell and Lane, the decision stated that "because of First Amendment considerations, the burdens we have placed on Lieutenants Campbell and Lane are great. That they 'cannot surmount these obstacles implies no condemnation of [them]' [and] should not undermine their accomplishments." (pg. 26) The judges also showed some sympathy to Matrisciana and his affiliates: "[W]e suppose that if Matrisciana's assertions were true, there would be 'inherent difficulties in verifying or refuting' [evidence], given the alleged pervasive involvement of law enforcement in his theory." (pp. 25–26)

See also

• The Arkansas Project
• Jerry Falwell
• Troopergate
• "Vast right-wing conspiracy"
• Vince Foster
• Whitewater controversy

Sources

1. ^ New Questions About Roger Clinton's Slippery Schemes, Time, 2001-06-30
2. ^ ^{a b c} The Falwell connection by Murray Waas Salon.com
3. ^ ^{a b c} The Clinton Body Count Snopes.com January 2001 Barbara Mikkelson
4. ^ Fred Clarkson. The Clinton Chronicles Video
5. ^ Lois Romano (1998-03-02). "A Core Collection of Clinton Enemies". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/enemies030298.htm. 
6. ^ Philip Weiss (1997-02-23). "Clinton Crazy". The New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C14FD395A0C708EDDAB0894DF494D81. 
7. ^ Linda Satter, "Ex-Arkansas State Trooper Larry Patterson sentenced for lying to FBI agent," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 12, 2005
8. ^ http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/01/07/001411P.pdf

External links

• Jeremiah Films
• The Clinton Chronicles at the Internet Movie Database
• The Clinton Chronicles DVD DVD produced by Pat Matrisciana
• Clinton Body Count