Claim:  A federal judge has approved GOP Congressman Trey Gowdy’s request to exhume the body of Vince Foster to determine if Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in his death 23 years ago. 
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: The Clinton Chronicles
text: film. He cleared Clinton of involvement with Vince Foster's death in the Starr Report. Linda Ives continues to search for justice for her son's death. The film mentioned that her son's death was controversially ruled accidental by an examiner who had a history of questionable rulings. After the film aired, she had her son's body exhumed and a second autopsy performed. She successfully had the original examiner's ruling overruled and the cause of death for Kevin Ives and Don Henry was changed from accidental to homicide. In February 2018, Billy Jack Haynes, a professional wrestler with a history of making

title: Suicide of Vince Foster
text: that Foster's death may have been a homicide, possibly involving the Clintons themselves. Subsequent investigations by special prosecutor Robert Fiske and the Senate Banking Committee concluded that there was no evidence of a homicide. A final investigation, led by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, also concluded that there was no evidence to support the claim that Foster was murdered. Starr's report addressed several additional questions about physical and forensic evidence that had previously fueled speculation about the case. The report established that Foster owned the handgun used in the suicide, and confirmed that the body had not been moved from its

title: Rex Armistead
text: for R. Emmett Tyrrell, editor of the "American Spectator," who published the (unsupported) allegations just before the 1996 presidential election. On July 20, 1993 in Fort Marcy Park, Virginia, Vince Foster, a deputy White House Counsel during Clinton's first presidential term, was found with a gunshot to the head, a day after contacting his doctor to get treatment for depression. Several official investigations concluded unequivocally that the death was a suicide. However, as he was a law partner and friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton, it was alleged by a number of anti-Clinton conspiracy theorists that his knowledge of the Clintons'

title: Suicide of Vince Foster
text: So, the Jerry Falwells and the right-wing crowd get a hold of this information, and…they start making movies alleging that the Clintons were involved in this murder." In 1994, Falwell subsidized the creation of a film called "The Clinton Chronicles" that featured Ruddy's claims that the gun that killed Foster was placed in his hand after the fact, and that Foster's body was laid out to give the appearance of suicide, among others. Funding for the film was provided by "Citizens for Honest Government", an organization to which Falwell gave $200,000 in 1994 and 1995. Citizens for Honest Government covertly

title: Vince Foster
text: Vince Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was a Deputy White House Counsel during the first six months of President Bill Clinton's administration. He had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was a colleague and friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton and where, as "The Washington Post" later wrote, he rose to "the pinnacle of the Arkansas legal establishment." At the White House he was unhappy with work in politics and spiraled into depression. Five official governmental investigations ruled Foster's death by gunshot a suicide, but several conspiracy

title: Accuracy in Media
text: Mellon Scaife who paid Christopher W. Ruddy to investigate allegations that President Bill Clinton was connected to the suicide of Vince Foster. AIM contended that "Foster was murdered", which is contrary to three independent reports including one by Kenneth Starr. AIM faulted the media for not picking up on the conspiracy, and applied itself for FOIA disclosure of Foster's death-scene photographs. Its suit to compel disclosure was denied by the District Court of Columbia in a summary judgment, unanimously affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. AIM credited much of its reporting on the Foster case

title: Robert B. Fiske
text: report on June 30 that in summary concluded that President Bill Clinton and White House officials had not interfered with the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was investigating the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, a partner of the Whitewater Development Corporation. Fiske's report also concluded that Vince Foster committed suicide. On the same day that Fiske released this report, President Clinton signed the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act of 1994, effectively abolishing the position of Special Prosecutor and replacing it with the position of Independent Counsel. Under the new law, the Special Division had sole authority to select Independent Counsels. Janet

title: Mark I. Levy
text: Foster whose death, coincidentally, also was ruled a suicide. However, some persons believed that Foster's death was not a suicide. Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor who investigated Bill Clinton, argued in the Supreme Court that he was entitled to have access to the notes made by James Hamilton, Foster's personal lawyer, during an interview that occurred nine days before Foster's death. Levy filed a friend-of-the-court brief, arguing that Hamilton's notes of his discussions with Foster were protected by the attorney-client privilege even after Foster's death. The Supreme Court ruled that the privilege continued even after Foster's death, and denied Starr

title: Suicide of Vince Foster
text: paid individuals who had provided information to media outlets such as the "Wall Street Journal" editorial page and the "American Spectator" magazine;" and in 1995, made discretionary payments to two Arkansas state troopers who had spoken out in support of the idea of a conspiracy surrounding Foster's death. The two troopers, Roger Perry and Larry Patterson, had also previously given testimony supporting Paula Jones' claims of sexual misconduct and misuse of government resources against Bill Clinton (see Troopergate). Patrick Matrisciana, president of Citizens for Honest Government, produced "The Clinton Chronicles" video and appeared in its commercials as an "investigative reporter"

title: White House travel office controversy
text: that "[Hillary] Clinton, upon learning of [Vince] Foster's death, at least realized its connection to [the] Travelgate scandal, and perhaps to the Whitewater matter, and dispatched her trusted lieutenants to contain any potential embarrassment or political damage." Minority Democratic members of the Committee derided these findings as "a legislative travesty," "a witch hunt," and "a political game." The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee issued its majority report on September 18, 1996, in which it accused the Clinton administration of having obstructed the committee's efforts to investigate the Travelgate scandal. It portrayed Bill Clinton as being heavily involved in the

title: Ken Starr
text: appointed to investigate the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater real estate investments of Bill Clinton. The three-judge panel charged with administering the Independent Counsel Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous areas including suspected perjury about Bill Clinton's sexual activity with Monica Lewinsky. After several years of investigation, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Bill Clinton lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license. Starr served as the president and chancellor of

title: Vince Foster
text: meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport." His funeral mass was held at the Cathedral of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Little Rock. Bill Clinton gave a eulogy in which he recalled their boyhood times together and quoted a line from Leon Russell's "A Song for You": "I love you in a place that has no space and time." Foster was buried in Memory Gardens Cemetery in his hometown of Hope. Foster was 48 years old and was survived by his wife and three children. Five official or governmental

title: Trey Gowdy
text: the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi which was partly responsible for discovering the existence of Hillary Clinton's private email server. His investigative committee spent over two and a half years and $7.8 million investigating the events surrounding the 2012 Benghazi attack, ultimately finding no evidence of specific wrong-doing by then-Secretary of State Clinton. Gowdy pressed for the prosecution of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. Since 2017 he chairs the House Oversight Committee. On January 31, 2018, Gowdy announced he would not seek re-election in 2018 and that he intends to pursue a legal career instead of politics. Trey

title: Richard Mellon Scaife
text: the small circulation newspaper was the chief packager of editorials and news columns claiming that then United States President Bill Clinton or his wife, then First Lady Hillary Clinton were responsible for the death of Deputy White House counsel Vince Foster. Scaife paid freelancer Christopher Ruddy to write about the Foster case for the "Tribune-Review" and other right-leaning media. Special Prosecutor Ken Starr, appointed to investigate Clinton, concluded Foster had, in fact, committed suicide. In 2004, Scaife was reported to own 7.2 percent of Newsmax Media, a news-based Web site with conservative political content founded by Ruddy in 1998. In

title: Vince Foster
text: innocence of the White House staff. White House chief of staff and childhood friend Mack McLarty said that "It was a deep cut. It clearly had a tremendous impact." Nussbaum speculated that if Foster had lived, he would have helped resist the calls to appoint independent counsels and the many investigations lumped under the Whitewater umbrella that occupied the administration and Clinton for the rest of his presidency might not have happened. As it did happen, how Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Maggie Williams, in particular handled Foster's files and documents immediately after his death became an issue of much

title: Presidency of Bill Clinton
text: McDougal and Susan McDougal that quickly went bankrupt. The McDougals were later charged with fraud due to their activities connected to a savings and loan association. The July 1993 death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster raised new allegations about the Clintons' connections to the savings and loan associations, marking the start of what became known as the Whitewater controversy. To defuse allegations stemming from Foster's death, Clinton authorized Attorney General Reno to appoint a special prosecutor under the terms of the Ethics in Government Act. Later, a special three-judge panel convened and appointed Ken Starr, a former U.S.

title: Judicial Watch
text: the driving force behind the efforts to raise as much money as possible for President Clinton's reelection and the DNC. And further that, "...companies were being solicited to donate large sums of money in exchange for their selection to participate on trade missions of the Commerce Department." Judicial Watch helped promote the conspiracy theory that Vince Foster was murdered by the Clintons. August 10, 2009 Judicial Watch sent a FOIA request to the US Secret Service asking that official White House visitor logs be made public. In August 2011, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered the agency to process the

title: Vince Foster
text: investigation itself. Years later, Bill Clinton expressed his continued anger about the Foster rumors and theories, clenching a fist as he spoke: "I heard a lot of the right-wing talk show people ... and all the sleazy stuff they said. They didn't give a rip that he had killed himself or that his family was miserable or that they could break the hearts [of Foster's friends and family]. It was just another weapon to slug us with, to dehumanize us with." Foster's passing also had an effect on Rose Law Firm, as many within the firm had expected Foster to

title: Vince Foster
text: on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, who reached this conclusion in a finding published on August 12, 1994. The other was by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, wherein both the majority Democratic and minority Republican reports reached the same conclusion in reports issued on January 3, 1995. Theories of a cover-up persisted, however, some of which were promulgated by the Arkansas Project. 5. After a three-year investigation, Whitewater independent counsel Ken Starr released a report on October 10, 1997, also concluding that the death was a suicide. In response, Sheila Foster Anthony, Vince Foster's

title: Trey Gowdy
text: one of "America's Most Wanted" suspects. In February 2000, he left the United States Attorney's Office to run for 7th Circuit Solicitor. He defeated incumbent Solicitor Holman Gossett in the Republican primary. He ran unopposed in the general election. Gowdy was re-elected in 2004 and 2008, both times unopposed. During his tenure, he appeared in four episodes of the television program "Forensic Files", as well as "Dateline NBC" and SCETV. He prosecuted the full set of criminal cases, including seven death penalty cases. In the summer of 2009, Gowdy, announced that he would challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman Bob Inglis