Blumenthal On the Boil
Newsweek
contributed by Suzanne Smalley
Sidney Blumenthal plays hardball. A longtime confidante and adviser to the
Clintons,
he has zealously defended them through any number of scandal
investigations. Along
the way, Blumenthal has shown an affinity for the sharp counterattack.
When a group
of Arkansas state troopers in the early 1990s began leveling charges that
Bill
Clinton had strayed in his marriage, Blumenthal shot back--penning an
article in The
New Yorker accusing the troopers of a litany of their own transgressions,
including
attempted fraud, marital infidelity and drunken driving.
Now, Blumenthal himself faces charges of driving drunk. Blumenthal, an
unpaid senior
adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, was arrested in Nashua
on the eve
of the New Hamp****re primary and charged with aggravated DWI, according
two members
of the Nashua police force.
Sgt. Mike Masella, one of the arresting officers, said the movements of a
Buick
caught his eye. “I observed all his erratic driving,” Masella said. “When
I first
noticed him it was at an intersection. He abruptly stopped. That caught my
eye … He
was drifting in his lane.” Masella followed the car, a rental, for a mile
and a half,
and clocked its speed at 70mph in a 30mph zone--more than twice the legal
limit.
Masella pulled the car over at 12:30 a.m. Monday morning. Blumenthal told
the officer
he was returning to his hotel from a restaurant in Manchester. After
declining to
take a Breathalyzer, Masella says, Blumenthal failed a field sobriety
test.
Blumenthal was handcuffed, booked, had his fingerprints taken and was held
for four
hours--standard operating procedure in such arrests in New
Hamp****re--before posting
bail and being released. (He will be arraigned later this month.) Because
the car was
moving at excessive speeds, Blumenthal was given the more serious charge
of
“aggravated” DWI--which carries a mandatory sentence of at least three
days behind
bars. “He’s charged with a serious crime,” says Nashua Police Capt. Peter
Segal, who
will oversee the case as it moves toward a court date.
Ray Mello, a New Hamp****re attorney, says he is representing Blumenthal
and will
explore “all of the avenues of discovery.”
“In reality, it’s a traffic violation,” Mello said, noting that the more
serious
“aggravated” DWI charge is due to the alleged speeding, not “degree of
intoxication.”
When asked if Blumenthal was driving drunk, Mello said, “He’s going to
pursue all
legal defenses in court, and we’re going to deal with the case in court
and not in
the media.” (The Clinton campaign declined comment on the arrest and
whether it would
affect Blumenthal's status as an adviser.)
Blumenthal’s attorney could, of course, work out a plea agreement with
prosecutors
and spare his client jail time. Masella said that Blumenthal, a journalist
and author
currently working as a senior fellow for the New York University Center on
Law and
Security, was a gracious arrestee. “I asked if he was here with a
campaign. He said
he was here with Clinton," Masella said. “Other than that we certainly
suspected him
of DWI, he was a perfect gentleman."
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