In a January 2003 television interview, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said, “So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock.” Referring to his trust, Frist said, “I have no control. It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea.”
Keep those comments in mind — particularly the part in which Frist said “it is illegal” — when you consider the latest developments in Frist’s fiasco.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was given considerable information about his stake in his family’s hospital company, according to records that are at odds with his past statements that he did not know what was in his stock holdings.
Managers of the trusts that Frist once described as “totally blind,” regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, according to the documents.
Since 2001, the trustees have written to Frist and the Senate 15 times detailing the sale of assets from or the contribution of assets to trusts of Frist and his family. The letters included notice of the addition of HCA shares worth $500,000 to $1 million in 2001 and HCA stock worth $750,000 to $1.5 million in 2002. The trust agreements require the trustees to inform Frist and the Senate whenever assets are added or sold.
Clearly, the fact that Frist ordered a sale of stock he claimed not to know of, right before a negative earnings report, raises questions about insider trading. It’s why the SEC and the Justice Department are investigating Frist now. For that matter, the fact that Frist was working directly on health care legislation in the Senate — including taking the lead in blocking Clinton’s health care Bill of Rights initiative — while maintaining a large stake in HCA, raises ethical concerns about conflicts of interest.
But at a more basic level, the repeated and consistent correspondence between Frist and his trustees strongly suggests that the senator simply lied, over and over again, about his personal and familial financial interests.
Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said she was surprised that Frist had ever claimed before this summer’s liquidation that he might have owned no HCA stock. “Did he say that? What was he thinking of?” she asked.
During a weekend trip to Iowa, Frist says the federal investigation into his finances “will affect his decision on whether he will seek the presidency in 2008.” If anything, that’s understating things a bit.