Grin and Barrett

Remember Henry Cisneros? Of course; he was the once-rising Democratic star who became Bill Clinton’s first secretary of housing and urban development. Here’s a tougher one: Remember Linda Medlar? In case you’ve forgotten, she was Cisneros’s mistress—the woman at the center of the scandal that brought him down.

Now the bonus question. Remember David Barrett? Unless you follow such things very, very closely, you probably won’t be able to recall that he was the independent counsel appointed to investigate the Cisneros case. Barrett was sworn in on May 24, 1995, to investigate allegations that Cisneros lied to the FBI about payments he had made to Medlar. The Barrett investigation reached its peak over four years later, on September 7, 1999, when Cisneros pled guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay a $10,000 fine.

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

Remember Henry Cisneros? Of course; he was the once-rising Democratic star who became Bill Clinton’s first secretary of housing and urban development. Here’s a tougher one: Remember Linda Medlar? In case you’ve forgotten, she was Cisneros’s mistress—the woman at the center of the scandal that brought him down.

Now the bonus question. Remember David Barrett? Unless you follow such things very, very closely, you probably won’t be able to recall that he was the independent counsel appointed to investigate the Cisneros case. Barrett was sworn in on May 24, 1995, to investigate allegations that Cisneros lied to the FBI about payments he had made to Medlar. The Barrett investigation reached its peak over four years later, on September 7, 1999, when Cisneros pled guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay a $10,000 fine.