On Doing Your Own Investigation -- President of Dartmouth College

James Oliver Freedman (September 21, 1935 – March 21, 2006) was a university president. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he served briefly as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School; as the sixteenth president of the University of Iowa from 1982 to 1987; and as the fifteenth president of Dartmouth College, from 1987 to 1998. Freedman sought to create at both Iowa and Dartmouth, as The New York Times described it, "a haven for intellectuals," with mixed results.


July 8, 1997
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

James O. Freedman
President
Dartmouth College
6016 McNutt Hall
Hanover, NH 03755

RE: Weapons Possession - Intent to Inflict Grievous Bodily Harm/Possible Intent to Commit Murder - D.C. Corporation Counsel Affirmation - Possible Concealment of State and/or Federal Weapons Law Violations

Dear President Freedman:

During the period March 1988 to October 1991 I was employed as a legal assistant in 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) (name of state court judge redacted at the implicit direction of the Justice Department).  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.

In pleadings filed in the District of Columbia Superior Court, the District of Columbia Office of Corporation Counsel (Charles F.C. Ruff, Esq.) affirmed that Akin Gump personnel had geniune concerns that I might have had plans to procure firearms for an unlawful purpose and possessed the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm or commit murder. Mr. Ruff currently serves as chief White House Counsel to President Clinton (telephone no.: 202 456 1414).

I have been under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service as a potential security risk to President

Clinton, and was interrogated at the Washington Field Office by Special Agent Philip C. Leadroot (202 435-5100) as recently as February 1996, about 16 months ago. Questioning by Mr. Leadroot centered on the issue of presidential assassination.

There is a remote possibility that Akin Gump's attorney managers may have contacted you in connection with a few creative pieces I have written, and that, if any communications did occur, you may, therefore, possess information pertinent to a criminal investigation conducted by the U.S. Secret Service during the period December 1994-February 1995 relating to the security of the President of the United States. I request that you disclose to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (David M. Bowie, Supervisory Special Agent, Washington Field Office, 202 252 7801) the content of any communications you may have had with any Akin Gump attorneys regarding me. Attorneys who may have directed inquiries to you include Earl L. Segal, Malcolm Lassman, or Laurence J. Hoffman (managing partner), among others.

Enclosed are some additional documents that provide background to the matters discussed in this letter.

Be advised: President Clinton's own lawyer, chief White House Counsel Charles F.C. Ruff, is talking real guns, real bullets, real brain tissue.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman