Scaife's Money Aids Judicial Watch
By Brooks Jackson/CNN
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 10) -- Larry Klayman, leader of the group Judicial Watch, calls himself a conservative watchdog. He denies he is in it for the money and says he is just after the truth about the Clinton Administration.
"I take it to heart when I see the government not telling the truth, not doing the right thing and covering up," Klayman says.
Klayman subpoenaed Clinton fund-raiser John Huang in 1996. This year he forced former Clinton aide Harold Ickes to testify and got Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon to admit under oath he leaked damaging information about Clinton accuser Linda Tripp.
Tax records show Klayman's tax-exempt group, Judicial Watch, was just a shoestring operation in 1996, with total revenues of less than $68,000.
But now it comes out that Judicial Watch received $550,000 in 1997 from the Carthage Foundation, funded by Pittsburgh billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.
Scaife is intensely conservative and intensely anti-Clinton. He gave $2.6 million to American Spectator magazine to dig up Clinton dirt, then cut off the money when it published a story he didn't like.
But Klayman says Scaife's money comes with no strings attached, and Scaife isn't paying them to beat up on President Bill Clinton.
"Absolutely not," Klayman said. "Our cases were filed long before we received any support from the Carthage Foundation."
Klayman has sued the Commerce Department, the Justice Department, the White House, the FBI and even Hillary Rodham Clinton.
He is a frequent guest and dependable Clinton-basher on CNN and other networks, including a network linked to the conservative Free Congress Foundation. Scaife gave it nearly $1.7 million last year.
Clinton allies were silent about the news that Scaife is financing Klayman. Some said they saw nothing wrong. Others suggested they want to avoid any more Klayman subpoenas.
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