Mike Espy Is Still A Loser

Not guilty on all counts was the verdict in the long, involved and politically charged case of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy. Espy is from Arkansas, a longtime friend and supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Republicans went after him hard and early, after he came into the Clinton cabinet. They went after him hard and early, and they got him. That is, they got a special prosecutor appointed to investigate his case, and the special prosecutor brought criminal charges against him. A 30-count case of alleged criminal corruption.

Espy maintained from the beginning that he was innocent, that he had been targeted and was being pursued because of politics, that it was a clear case of a partisan political agenda to get the Clintons by extension, through him.

His basic defense was: "Yes, I accepted a few gifts, such as football game tickets, but I accepted the gifts out of friendship and/or social courtesy, of a kind common among Washington policy makers, including many Republicans."

Espy was, and still is, the highest ranking Clinton administration official to be tried on criminal charges. Now a jury has spoken. Not guilty on all counts. The investigation took four years. It cost nearly $20 million.

Where does it go from here for Espy? He would like to have his life back, and his reputation. But, it is in the nature of such cases, and press coverage of them, that it is difficult, if not impossible for the man to get all of his life and reputation back.

Now a jury has spoken.

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