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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, MARCH 11, 1998 | A conservative political organization with ties to the Rev. Jerry Falwell covertly paid more than $200,000 to individuals who made damaging allegations about President Clinton's personal conduct, reports Murray Waas in a major investigative piece appearing in Salon Magazine on Wednesday, March 11.

Those paid by the organization, Citizens for Honest Government, include the two Arkansas troopers whose allegations about Clinton's alleged extramarital affairs led to Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton. The troopers provided tainted testimony about the death of White House counsel Vincent Foster under oath to independent counsel Kenneth Starr. Sources in Starr's office told Salon they were unaware that the witnesses had been paid. "We simply never thought to ask the question," said an investigator. "Looking back on it, I guess the only thing we have to say is, 'Duh.'"

Falwell, who co-financed and distributed a notorious and discredited anti-Clinton video, "The Clinton Chronicles," helped publicize it with an infomercial on which Falwell interviewed a silhouetted individual whom he identified only as an "investigative reporter" and who claimed that his life was in danger from Clinton forces. In the course of reporting the story, Salon's correspondent realized that the "investigative reporter's" voice sounded strangely similar to that of the president of Citizens for Honest Government, Patrick Matrisciana. Asked about this, Matrisciana admitted that he had been the man in the video. "Obviously, I'm not an investigative reporter," said Matrisciana, "and I doubt our lives were actually ever in danger. That was Jerry's idea to do that...He thought that would be dramatic."

Citizens for Honest Government, based in Orange County, Calif., also covertly paid money to individuals to provide dirt on Clinton to media organizations such as the Wall Street Journal and the American Spectator, which named them as sources.

Click here for the complete story.

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