Director Scott and Noble conveyed guarded assurances that the members of La Fratellanza might not be at great risk if they cooperated fully with the investigation.
Previously, the director had decided that Noble would conduct the first two interviews. He felt the group might feel less intimidated, having had a relationship with Noble in the past. Noble also had firsthand information based on Paolo’s confession.
Naturally, the director would continue to assert his authority as necessary.
Noble started with Seymour, only to discover most of what they had already surmised was true. They did, however, learn the names of the two 527 organizations, ChangeNotHope.org and ActionForward.org, and how he manipulated their messages. He reluctantly explained that each Web site presented sound bites and dozens of photos of the family, Baari at law school, and traveling abroad. He admitted he cropped many of the photos, but the sound bites were real, or at least as real as he needed to make them.
“ActionForward.org was designed to support Baari, and all the political ads highlighted his indisputable accomplishments, thanks to Simon’s handiwork,” he confessed.
Alternatively, Seymour said he designed ChangeNotHope.org to be extremely over-the-top negative. He explained how he produced small, embarrassing film clips that aired on the Web site, presumably exposing the senator as having questionable ties to terrorist organizations, along with holding other radical beliefs.
“The clips I produced were confected to be so outrageous they swayed the fence-sitters, the Independents, and moderate Democrats to vote for Senator Baari,” bragged Seymour. He noted that he timed the ads to flood the airwaves in October, a month before the election, both as televised ads and on the Internet. Seymour’s experience taught him time was of the essence. “With Hank’s special talents, we were able to prove his theory of locating the tipping point of negative campaigning he had conjured up at Harvard.”
Hank, incredulous at Seymour for including him in the plot so casually, sniped, “It was actually another one of Simon’s theories.”
“I have not yet called on you, so please remain silent,” the director cautioned.
Letting Hank stew for a while, Noble turned to Paolo.
Paolo clarified how he had been able to predict public sentiment with unusual accuracy, permitting him to write many of the president’s speeches far in advance of their actual delivery. He then used many of those speeches as teaching aids for Baari while he was grooming him for the race for the senate and then for the presidency. He added that, in many cases, Baari’s speeches were so well memorized they became rote.
“Of course, that wasn’t necessary because Simon required Hank to force Baari to use a teleprompter for fear he would go off message. The other members of the group also contributed their expertise to lessons for Baari, which Hank taught and supervised.”
The director and Noble stared Hank’s way, but he did not respond.
“In the latter half of the campaign, we all started to notice Baari becoming more and more arrogant and harder to control.” Paolo volunteered, which seemed odd to the others that he would find it worth mentioning. “Funny,” he said, “it seemed to get worse as the president settled into his role, and at times he acted as though he didn’t need me anymore, and in a way I’m thankful.”
Paolo acknowledged he didn’t have much more to add, except that he was trying to withdraw as the president’s communications director and speechwriter, but it would take some time. “I have my family to consider,” he added.
Noble thought his statement was inconsistent, since Paolo had told him earlier that the reason he became involved was that he dreamed one day of becoming the speechwriter for the president of the United States. Noble let Paolo’s more personal statements go unchallenged.
The director and Noble suspected that the roles Seymour and Paolo played were innocuous relative to the others. They believed Chase was instrumental in aiding and abetting Simon with his banking transactions, to what degree, they still didn’t know. They assumed Hank was not only the direct link to the president—but also more likely—a direct link to Simon.
The interrogation had been going on for over five hours, and everyone needed a break. Each had eventually made his way through the breakfast goodies, but by then the remaining pastries were stale and the coffee was cold. The director offered them an opportunity to stretch and take individual breaks to the men’s room, escorted by an agent.
Meanwhile, Director Scott and Noble recapped the morning’s events.
“Are you planning on giving these guys immunity for their testimony?” Noble inquired.
“I don’t know yet, it depends on what more they have to say. What I do know is I want the bigger fish—I want Simon—and I want this game to end!”
—
As they reconvened for round two, several large boxes of pizza arrived from Papa John’s, along with two six-packs of Pepsi. After granting them a few minutes to fill their plastic plates, pop the tabs on their soda cans, and settle back into their assigned seats, they continued.
The director opted to move to Chase next, and this time he chose to conduct the interview. Twisting in his chair to face Chase squarely, the director started the dialogue by asking him to explain, in full, his relationship with Simon.
To everyone’s surprise, he unhesitatingly described the time when Simon established a bank account, at his branch bank in Boston, and deposited a sizable amount of money. “As a high-net-worth client, it was my responsibility to court him, during which time we became friends.” He explained how Simon convinced him to attend Harvard, even to the point of helping him through the admissions process and lending him the tuition money.
The other three envisioned what the admissions process entailed as they smirked.
Chase paused, having noticed their expressions, looked away, and focused on the carved initials in the center of the table. Regaining his composure he continued, “Years after Harvard, when I was promoted to CFO at the National Depositors Trust Bank in New York, Simon requested I give him access to the bank’s online banking system.” This time looking straight at the director, Chase averred, “I knew no reason to distrust Simon, and I was indebted to him for the help he had given me!”
Still trying to divert his eyes from the others, he couldn’t help but notice the disappointment on their faces.
“Shortly after I granted access to the bank’s database, Simon assured me he only planned to set up several untraceable accounts to transfer the funds out of the community bank in Boston, which still retained the ‘trust fund’ money from Uncle Rob.” With genuine sincerity, he admitted, “To this day, I don’t know why I agreed to let him use my computer and password to access the system.”
The director appreciated Chase’s candor and suggested they move on to talk about his subprime theory described in his thesis. “I found it surprisingly prophetic, considering what is currently happening in the financial markets,” the director observed in a complimentary tone.
Evidently, the director hit a raw nerve, because instantly, Chase became noticeably withdrawn. He slouched in his chair, clutching his Rolex so tightly that his knuckles appeared as though they were attempting to puncture the skin. Then suddenly, he sat upright and announced with complete composure, “I engineered the financial system meltdown—but I believed it would be short-term.”
All eyes darted to Chase, wide-eyed in disbelief.
As everyone regained his composure and settled back, Chase submitted. “Simon pointed out that we were in the eleventh hour of the campaign, and we needed something to take the electorate’s focus off the war on terrorism and refocus it on the economy at home.” He reminded the others that the challenger was stronger in foreign affairs, one of Baari’s weaknesses, and was a threatening miscalculation on the part of La Fratellanza.
“Simon said we needed to foment an economic crisis, a crisis he assured me could be reversed after the election through some of his machinations. He insisted he had a p
lan in place, and was confident the current administration could manage the crisis for at least the next three months, past the upcoming election. Simon promised that once Baari was in the Oval Office, he would administer his ‘antidote,’ as he called it. I foolishly believed him because he had always delivered in the past,” he ended in a whisper.
Chase understood that Simon considered it vital to the outcome that he hype the causes of the subprime fallout and leak it to the media. “I crafted a self-serving white paper and sent it anonymously, to Bill O’Reilly at Fox News, and to the editors at Mother Jones, Politico, and The Weekly Standard, along with a few other investigative journalists. It appeared to be enough to spur the media to go full speed ahead,” he offered apologetically.
Then his remorsefulness quickly turned to defensiveness, and he began spewing some of the rationale Simon had used to prep him. He attempted to make the case that when a company goes bankrupt, and the government bails it out with the taxpayers’ dollars, it is not necessarily a financially unsound strategy. He pointed out, that in many cases, the government forces the company to restructure, and when it returns to financial stability, the company repays the government at a profit to the public.
Chase cited the situation in 1970, when Penn Central Railroad almost went bankrupt, before the government granted it $676 million of loan guarantees. It used the money to consolidate other struggling railroads, thus becoming Consolidated Railroads, or Conrail. Then in 1987, the government sold Conrail to private capital for $3.1 billion.
“Do the math,” he crowed, feeling he had regained his stride.
Citing another example he pointed out that, in 1971, the government bailed out Lockheed with $1.4 billion in loans. Then in 1977, the company was able to repay all loans, plus an additional $112 million in associated fees.
Chase finally ran out of steam and, feeling defeated, admitted, “I understand it is risky business when the government gambles with the taxpayers’ dollars, and it doesn’t always pay off.”
The director and Noble could detect from the faces of the others that they honestly thought the subprime crisis was their lucky break—the event they needed to turn the tide of the election toward their candidate.
In opposition, and in chorus, they avowed they would have never supported such a dicey proposition, even if Simon had requested it of them.
Chase once again focused on his Rolex.
Paolo was furious. “If I had known what you had done, I could have crafted responses for the president to address the issue. More important, we might have been able handle the crisis in the early stages, instead of allowing it to get out of control!” Paolo stormed.
From the look on Seymour’s face, he was even more outraged than Paolo, but chose to keep silent for the moment.
Hank, of course, had no problem speaking out. His outrage was even more vigorous, but his rage was born out of ego rather than a duty to country. He believed that Simon should have kept him more intimately involved, especially regarding his conspiracy with Chase. He considered himself not only the president’s alter ego, but Simon’s as well.
Director Scott and Noble sat back, deciding to let the verbal punches fly until nothing further was uncovered. They wanted to avoid the possibility of La Fratellanza recognizing the speed with which the entire plot was unraveling.
During the earlier testimonies, members of the group had confirmed that Hank was the person most directly connected to the president. Now waiting impatiently for his turn, and in an irate state, the director thought it an opportune time to have him speak. He interrupted their subdued free-for-all and launched into his interview with Hank.
Hank wasted no time spewing an abundance of information, mostly claiming that he was the sole creator of the president. “I picked a young radical off the streets of Florence and turned him into the most powerful man in the world.” He did give a nod to Simon, who had first encountered Hussein Tarishi in Florence, in the early nineties. “But it was I who gave the president his voice, a voice promoting a progressive socialist agenda as the new form of government.”
Finally, he stepped down from his soapbox, relaxed, and then calmly outlined the most astounding details about the actual grooming of the president.
Hours had passed, Noble had replaced the memory stick in the recorder several times, and everyone was exhausted, but something was still missing.
There was a vital piece of the puzzle they lacked.
Hank was the only link between Simon and the president, and the director believed there was something Hank wasn’t telling them.
It was time to turn up the heat.
He abruptly interrupted Hank. “Our country is in the midst of an economic crisis. Unless we find Simon, I will ensure that each of you is convicted of defrauding the United States government,” he warned. “The crime is a class E felony under the section of the penal law 195.20, and it carries with it a sentence of five to ten years in a federal prison.”
Hank, resisting the director’s threat, continued to yack as if the director were not present. Unrelenting, he returned to his soapbox and continued with his previous rant. “I created the president; I personally schooled him and prepared him to run for the Senate, and then the presidency. And you are threatening me?”
The director, unmoved, let him continue, even though he was already aware of most of what he divulged; Paolo had covered those details in his informal statement to Noble. Hank did give, however, specific information about his time with Hussein in Florence, facts which the director and Noble were not aware.
I still have a hard time grasping the fact that Simon, Baari, and I were all in Florence at the same time. The director reflected, shaking his head.
Hank persisted, but this time uncharacteristically in a measured, soft tone. He spoke as though he was slowly composing his message as the words were leaving his mouth. “Simon asked me for a seemingly innocuous favor, but now that I know Chase’s part in precipitating the financial crisis, I have additional information that might be useful.”
The others in the room could see Hank was visibly tormented by the fact he was not a complete insider with this president. Now with great curiosity they all listened, as his brothers jointly thought—What else don’t we know?
“Long before the subprime scandal was disclosed, Simon asked me to introduce a friend of his to Senator Baari,” Hank disclosed. “He was an economist Simon met at Harvard who was currently working in a low-level position in the Treasury Department. Simon said he was brilliant but wasn’t much of a self-promoter, and thought meeting the senator would give him a boost, encouraging him to aspire to a higher level.”
Now everyone was waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop.
Hank admitted he arranged the meeting, and Senator Baari believed he was a likeable, competent chap. Then the senator asked him to follow his career closely.
“I honestly thought it was quite innocent, that it would lead nowhere, until the crisis began. Then a month later Simon informed me that he had sketched out a recovery plan and had given it to his friend, the economist.” Hank then looked directly at Chase, who was now making eye contact, and said, “He called it his ‘antidote.’”
With this news, everyone became extremely uneasy, the director and Noble included.
“Please continue,” urged the director.
Hank, his speech even slower and more measured than before, continued. “Simon insisted that after the inauguration, when President Baari started to assemble his cabinet appointees, he wanted me to ensure that Baari appoint his friend secretary of the Treasury. He punctuated his support by emphasizing his candidate was best equipped to see the country through these difficult economic times.”
“And was he appointed?” the director asked.
“Yes.”
The director and Noble bolted out of their chairs and left the room, with the video still rolling.
The gang of four sat frozen in their seats, not moving or speaking, only eyeing each other furtivel
y.
—
Hamilton and Noble agreed they had a lot of explosive information, but still needed time to sort through it all. They were stunned to think the secretary of the Treasury might be involved in some way, so they needed to proceed with extreme care. In the meantime, they couldn’t afford to let any of their deliberations leak to the president, the secretary, or to Simon.
They both believed La Fratellanza had been less than altruistic, but truthful, telling all they knew. But La Fratellanza’s loyalties still ran deep, and they weren’t prepared to trust them entirely.
“Go back to my office and start sorting through what information we have collected thus far. Look for any clues that will lead us to Simon,” Hamilton ordered.
—
Director Scott returned to the interrogation room, this time without Noble. He informed La Fratellanza that he was sequestering them for the night at a safe house nearby, with a promise of comfortable quarters and proper meals. They were required to surrender their cell phones, and any outside communication was prohibited. He assured them it was for their own safety, and that he and Noble needed time to fathom Simon’s next move.
“The game is not over,” he said, reiterating Noble’s earlier remark. “Only you, along with Noble and me, know what has transpired in this room today. The agents standing by are not aware of any facet of this case, and it would be in your best interest to limit your conversations for the evening,” he cautioned. “Noble will contact you in the morning with information regarding the next steps.”
The director bade them a good night and left the room with the last of the memory sticks.
After arranging to have the table moved back to his conference room the next day, he headed to the White House.
23
THE DISCOVERY PHASE
On returning from Langley, the director arrived in his office to find papers strewn across the desk and Noble tapping furiously away at the keyboards of the two secure computers sitting in front of him.
Brotherhood Beyond the Yard (The Simon Trilogy) Page 20