Mary Tyler Moore? -- Surely, You're Joking, Mr. Freedman!

July 13, 1998
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW #136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

Mary Tyler Moore
510 East 86th Street
#21A
New York, NY 10028

Dear Miss Moore:

During the period March 1988 to October 1991 I was employed as a legal assistant at the Washington, DC office of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld ("Akin Gump"). Attorney managers at Akin Gump terminated my employment effective October 29, 1991 upon determining, in consultation with a psychiatrist, that a complaint of harassment I had lodged against several co-workers was attributable to a psychiatric symptom ("ideas of reference") prominent in the psychotic disorders and typically associated with a risk of violent behavior. See Freedman v. D.C. Dept. of Human Rights, D.C. Superior Court no. MPA 95-14 (final order issued June 10, 1996). In the period immediately after my job termination senior Akin Gump managers determined that it was advisable to secure the office of my direct supervisor against a possible homicidal assault, which it was feared I might commit.

I have been under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service as a potential security risk to President William J. Clinton, and was interrogated at the Washington Field Office by Special Agent Philip C. Leadroot as recently as February 1996 on a referral by high-ranking attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice.

I have also been under investigation by the Federal Protective Service (Jerry McGill, S.A.) incident to concerns, affirmed as genuine in 1996 by then District of Columbia Corporation Counsel--now White House Counsel to President Clinton--Charles F.C. Ruff, Esq., that I posed a risk of violence, including armed violence or homicide, at the law firm of Akin Gump.

Pursuant to the investigation instituted by the Federal Protective Service ("FPS") I forwarded a document to the FPS (letter dated July 18, 1994 addressed to my then treating psychiatrist, Dimitrios Georgopoulos, M.D.), that contains references to The Dick Van Dyke Show (in which you co-starred) as well as references to cardiac surgery and issues of Jewish interest.

I request that you disclose to the Washington Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service (Phillip C. Leadroot, S.A., telephone no. 202 435 5100) whether you have at any time been made aware, by any source, of the existence of this document. I enclose a copy of the first page of the document to refresh your possible recollection. I know that you will appreciate the serious nature of any concerns relating to presidential security and that any disclosure you make to the U.S. Secret Service will be full, candid, and truthful.

Background facts that prompt this inquiry are the following:

You co-starred on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the early 1960's;

Your husband Robert Levine, M.D. specializes in cardiac medicine; he is Jewish;

I believe that The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which you starred in the period late 1960's to early 1970's, was produced by Ed. Weinberger, who is a graduate of my high school in Philadelphia, Central High School;

I believe that Ed. Weinberger was associated with The Bill Cosby Show, a television show that aired in the 1980's; Bill Cosby attended Central High School in Philadelphia;

Alvin Poussaint, M.D., a nationally-prominent African-American psychiatrist, is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an expert on the psychology of racism; Dr. Poussaint served as a consultant to Dr. Cosby in the production of his television series;

The law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld is managed by, among others, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., a nationally-prominent civil rights leader and trustee of Howard University; Jordan has ties to numerous persons in the entertainment field.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman