THE O'REILLY FACTOR: JULY 1, 1999

O'REILLY: In the Unresolved Problems Segment tonight, charges that high-level politics have interfered with the Ramsey murder investigation.

How high level? Victims' rights attorney Darnay Hoffman says there is linkage to the White House.

Counselor Hoffman joins us now.

Now, at first, I thought this was crazy, when people were telling me that you were going to link -- but there is a link to the White House. I can't believe it. Tell us about it.

DARNAY HOFFMAN, VICTIMS' RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Yeah. Very simply that the defense attorney for John Ramsey is -- or at least at one time was Bill Clinton's personal income tax attorney. I discovered this myself when I looked at the Senate Whitewater Committee papers, the Al D'Amato committee.

I noticed in the so-called footnote section that, whenever they referred to President Clinton's personal income tax returns for the years in the late 1970s into the '80s, they were turned over to the committee by representatives of Hal Haddon's law firm. O'REILLY: All right. Let me stop you there. We are not indicting President Clinton. We're not -- I am not casting any aspersions on the man, that he's here, but it is -- I didn't know this. Hal Haddon representing John Ramsey to this day...

HOFFMAN: Yes.

O'REILLY: ... did President Clinton's taxes. Or at least his firm did them. So there's a -- now how does that play out in the investigation...

HOFFMAN: Well, what's very interesting is that...

O'REILLY: ... in your opinion?

HOFFMAN: What's very interesting is that about -- little -- almost a year ago, Steve Thomas, who was a detective at that time, very involved in the case, publicly resigned from office saying that he believed that the district attorney's office was compromised with respect to the case.

O'REILLY: This is in Boulder, Colorado.

HOFFMAN: This is in Boulder, Colorado. At that point, Governor Romer met with Alex Hunter and asked him basically what was going on in the case.

What was interesting is that, at this particular point, Roy Romer could have made the decision to remove Alex Hunter for a special prosecutor. In fact, some people thought that might happen.

What's interesting is that Romer never made an attempt to talk or interview the -- with the detective who made the original changes. He was never interested in the substance of what the charges were in the letter that Steve Thomas released to the newspapers at the time that he resigned.

All Romer wanted to know was was there going to be a grand jury investigation. At that point, Hunter said, yes, he would agree to it, and then Romer went out and made the announcement himself. He wouldn't let Hunter do it. He did it himself because he, quote, "needed some good news in this case," unquote.

Now what's interesting is that Roy Romer, who's supposed to sit in judgment as to whether or not Alex Hunter's doing his job, is also not only the governor -- or was the governor of Colorado. He was also the man who was head of the Democratic Party.

O'REILLY: Yeah. He was the head of the DNC.

HOFFMAN: All right. Wearing two hats. And the question becomes, wearing two hats, whether or not being the head of the Democratic Party, knowing the relationship of Hal Haddon, who's -- the defense lawyer of John Ramsey's relationship to Bill Clinton -- whether or not he made a decision not to remove Alex Hunter based on party affiliation or based on what was the best decision in a law enforcement case. Now remember Alex Hunter was also the Boulder County Democratic Party chairman.

O'REILLY: But I don't understand why Romer would care whether he removes Hunter or not.

HOFFMAN: Because he...

O'REILLY: See, Hunter's an incompetent. We all know that. He's a boob, OK. So if you want to solve the case, you remove him, right?

HOFFMAN: That's right.

O'REILLY: Anybody would do it. But they don't remove him. So are you saying that Romer doesn't want to solve the case?

HOFFMAN: Well, let's put it this way. Romer doesn't want to do what Hal Haddon doesn't want him not to do.

O'REILLY: All right. So you think Haddon is pulling Romer's strings.

HOFFMAN: Well, not directly. Just simply that Roy Romer knows what is expected of him. He knows that a powerful, politically connected attorney like Hal Haddon is to be given preference in a case like this.

O'REILLY: So he doesn't want to get Haddon angry because Haddon has Clinton's ear...

HOFFMAN: Exactly.

O'REILLY: ... and ultimately Romer is indebted to Clinton.

HOFFMAN: Exactly because...

O'REILLY: A little triangular deal here.

HOFFMAN: Well, in fact, they call it in Colorado a web of influence, and this is a very well-known -- the web of...

O'REILLY: Web of influence.

HOFFMAN: Out in Colorado...

O'REILLY: Do you really believe that these high-level political games have impacted on whether we're going to find this baby's killer?

HOFFMAN: Well, let's put it this way. It's done a lot with respect to whether or not certain decisions were made. It was a political decision that was made not to arrest and separate the parents and question them very early on in the case.

O'REILLY: Right.

HOFFMAN: That was an order that came from John Eller and, also, that was the policy of the...

O'REILLY: Who's John Eller again?

HOFFMAN: John Eller was the chief investigative detective who headed the investigation until he was relieved from his job.

O'REILLY: And he made a choice not to separate the parents, as any policeman would have done, as any investigator...

HOFFMAN: This is like Martha Moxley's (ph) case where very simply these were politically powerful, wealthy people who were treated differently than other people.

O'REILLY: Yeah, there's no question about that.

HOFFMAN: So you simply start with that decision. Then later, the FBI asked Alex Hunter whether or not he would convene a grand jury, and Hunter just screamed at them, saying...

O'REILLY: Sure.

HOFFMAN: ... the decision...

O'REILLY: He was forced to do it.

Now we only have 30 seconds left.

HOFFMAN: It was a political decision.

O'REILLY: The grand jury's on vacation now.

HOFFMAN: Yes.

O'REILLY: In your opinion, anything going to happen?

HOFFMAN: Not for a while.

O'REILLY: Not for a while?

HOFFMAN: Yes.

O'REILLY: But ultimately?

HOFFMAN: Yes, and I think, ultimately, there may be a decision not to indict.

O'REILLY: All right. Mr. Hoffman, thanks very much for coming in. I hope that's not true.

HOFFMAN: Thank you.

O'REILLY: Up next, body piercing. It's a rage among some young Americans but why?

And then, Simpson and his dream team changing the justice system forever. We'll have part four of our special series on sensational stories that changed America when we get back.