The sister of Vince Foster, Sheila Foster, has never spoken out publicly about her brother’s death. On Friday, after recent comments made by Republican nominee Donald Trump, she decided to write an op-ed in the Washington Post. Here are excerpts:
It is beyond contempt that a politician would use a family tragedy to further his candidacy, but such is the character of Donald Trump displayed in his recent comments to The Washington Post. In this interview, Trump cynically, crassly and recklessly insinuated that my brother, Vincent W. Foster Jr., may have been murdered because “he had intimate knowledge of what was going on” and that Hillary Clinton may have somehow played a role in Vince’s death.
Trump, in a calculated statement said there were “people” who continue to question Vince Foster’s death and these “people” think it’s absolutely a murder. He adds, “I know nothing about Vince Foster's death.” (You know; like the way he knew “nothing about David Duke” and the KKK.) Some call this “selective memory.” In Trump’s case we’ll called this selective bullshit. Trump added in Rush Limbaugh style that “he’s not the one” raising questions, but called Vince’s death “very fishy” and the theories about possible foul play “very serious.”
Ms. Foster called Trump’s comments wrong, cruel and irresponsible. She adds this kind of rhetoric is “scurrilous enough coming from right-wing conspiracy theorists who have use Vince’s death for their agenda for over 20 years.” She seemed surprised that the same could be coming from the Republican nominee for president.
Five investigations, including by independent counsels Robert B. Fiske Jr. and Kenneth Starr, all concluded her brother suffered from severe depression, which eventually caused him to take his own life. A little over four years older than Vince, Shelia Foster states she knows this to be true because they were very close siblings and Vince lived with her for a time while in Washington serving as deputy counsel to the president.
Vince called me at my office in the Justice Department a few days before he died. He told me he was battling depression and knew he needed help. But he was worried that such an admission would adversely affect his top-level security clearance and prevent him from doing his job.
Ms. Foster said she found the names of some psychiatrist who might help her brother and maintain his privacy. The list of numbers was found in wallet after he died. She said although she did not see the suicide coming, when she heard he died she knew he killed himself.
I think Vince felt he was a failure, this brilliant man who had so many talents, had achieved so many honors and was so well-respected by his peers. He must have felt that he couldn’t stay in his job at the White House, and he couldn’t go back to Little Rock. He was so ill, he couldn’t see a way out.
A few months later her brother’s death, Ms. Foster said she began to see countless alarming news articles and conspiracy theories, which began appearing in newspapers across the country, which also appeared to be written by a single source. Distortions were “spun by those who claimed that the Clintons had Vince murdered because he knew something about Whitewater, the real estate transaction that became the subject of the Fiske and Starr investigations.” Sheila Foster adds if you “repeat something enough times and in enough venues, I guess, and people begin to question their own good sense.”
She said the “outrageous suggestions that caused the family untold pain went on for years.” Ms. Foster said their heartbroken mother was constantly harassed by reporters, and the family even had to wage a fight, in court, to prevent the release of Vince’s dead body.
In her conclusion, Shelia Foster said it was for the sake of her family’s privacy that she decided to write the WaPo op-ed. She added that she has donated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but has not had contact with anyone at the campaign about her decision to go public.