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Vince Foster

A White House lawyer’s death and thirty years of murder theories

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What the investigations found

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Suicide, again and again, including by the Clintons’ chief pursuer.

Vince Foster, deputy White House counsel and Hillary Clinton’s former law partner, died in July 1993. Five investigations, two by law enforcement, two by Congress and one led by Kenneth Starr, concluded he died by suicide. Starr’s report came out in October 1997. The National Archives holds the investigative and forensic files. [1][2][4]

Doubters pointed to the original investigation’s failure to say outright that the gun in Foster’s hand was his. Starr noted that Foster’s widow recalled two guns in a bedroom closet, one of which was missing after his death. [3]

In 2016 Donald Trump called the death “very fishy” while saying, “I don’t know enough to really discuss it.” [4]

What we can’t tell you. Some witnesses disputed details, and critics still reject the reports.

The sources

  1. Independent Counsel’s 1997 Foster death report (transcript mirror) ↗

    Primary report transcript on a third-party host, with underlying records cataloged separately at National Archives; no graphic material reproduced.

  2. National Archives: Starr investigative records, including Foster reports, forensic files and drafts ↗

    Contemporaneous or historical source; conclusions are limited to the investigation, proceeding or statements identified in its title.

  3. Contemporaneous account of Starr’s final Foster report, October 10, 1997 ↗

    Contemporary reporting of the report’s release and conclusion; the underlying report remains the source for its reasoning.

  4. FactCheck.org: Clinton death-list claims and their political amplification (2020) ↗

    Historical fact-check of political amplification of the death-list theory. Used with the specific investigation records, rather than treating a list as collective evidence.

How the murder story grew

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From a newspaper column to a mail-order video.

By early 1994 Christopher Ruddy, then at the New York Post, was challenging the Foster investigation. A March 1994 Congressional Record republication shows the claims moving into Congress. A clipping in Starr’s files describes a growing market for Foster books and videos, including The Clinton Chronicles. [1][2]

That is how one death became the anchor of the “Clinton body count” lists. See the body-count file for how those lists are built.

The sources

  1. March 9, 1994 Congressional Record, reproducing Christopher Ruddy’s New York Post coverage ↗

    A congressional republication of press allegations documents their circulation; insertion into the Congressional Record does not authenticate the allegations.

  2. Contemporaneous article on Foster conspiracy publications, retained in Starr files at National Archives ↗

    An archived press clipping, not an FBI or prosecutorial finding. Its value is the contemporaneous record of how videos and publications circulated.

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