Last week’s story about former Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti’s 1998 battle with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr is far from a complete account. I’ve been developing a more comprehensive narrative that includes what was going on inside the Office of Independent Counsel at the time. In preparing the story I studied “The Referral by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr”; “The Report...

In the 1998 battle between Independent Counsel Ken Starr and the Secret Service, Director Merletti receives help from the Department of Justice in fighting a motion to compel agents on the President’s Protective Detail to testify about what they may have seen or heard concerning President Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky. After losing their case in U.S. District Court as...

In 1998, at the height of Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s investigation into President Clinton, Starr wanted to compel Secret Service agents on the President’s Protective Detail to testify about what they may have seen or heard regarding the president’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti argued that having agents talk about anything other than criminal acts would...

In the twenty-one years I have been writing and speaking on ethics, I have not encountered a more compelling story of integrity than that of former Director of the United States Secret Service Lewis Merletti – a story largely unknown to most Americans. In John F. Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage,” U.S. Representative George Norris fittingly points out: “History asks, ‘Did...

One week ago, President Obama closed the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington with these words: “This afternoon’s session turns the focus on the terrorist networks themselves. It tells us the possible consequences of terrorists obtaining and using a weapon of mass destruction. Fortunately, as I said this morning, no terrorist group has yet succeeded in getting their hands on a nuclear device. Our...

According to supporters, part of the rise of Donald Trump is due to his compulsion to “tell it like it is.” While a large part of his rhetoric is insulting, Trump rationalizes that he does so to wake us all up to the fact that “America isn’t great” anymore. Whether you agree with that last statement or not is a...

Lately, a few readers have asked why I spend so much time writing about Donald Trump. It can be summed up in one word. Actually, Jon Stewart told us when he signed off for the final time on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show; a show that began seventeen years earlier as a comedy riff on the news of the day,...

Here are the comments I sent to CNN earlier this week: Dear CNN News Producers: (I know you won’t pay attention to this, but I’ll say it anyway.) Please, please, PLEASE STOP all coverage of Donald Trump “controversies.” We know his M.O. We’ve seen enough of his supporters drunk on his Kool-Aid defend him… to the death.  » Read more about:...

Paul Ryan missed his moment, a seminal moment, a “come-to-Jesus” moment. It could’ve been a Reagan moment: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” As the leader of the House and his party, Ryan should’ve called Trump out, by name, as a misogynist, bully, bigot, demagogue, inciter of violence. Instead, the man whose name was raised as a possible presidential candidate...

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said, “Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.” When it comes to considering President Obama’s selection of Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans are opting for their right over what is right. Congress has a long history of not...