NewsMax.com
Monday, November 20, 2000

According to an Associated Press account Monday:

His wife found him unconscious in the master bedroom of their Washington home.

Patrick Marshall, a watch commander with the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police, said paramedics were unable to revive Ruff, who was pronounced dead at D.C. General Hospital.

"It appears to be from natural causes, there is no indication of foul play," Marshall said.

Ever since he was stricken with a rare tropical paralyzing disease while teaching law in Africa in the 1960s, Ruff had used a wheelchair. But there was no indication reported that this was the cause of his death.

Returning from a visit to Vietnam, Clinton issued this statement from Air Force One:

"All of us at the White House admired Chuck for the power of his advocacy, the wisdom of his judgment and the strength of his leadership.

"We loved him for his generous spirit and his keen wit, which he used to find humor in even the most challenging circumstances."

Ruff once told the New York Daily News he had no choice but to serve Clinton when the president asked him in 1997 to serve as his chief legal adviser.

"When the president of the United States asks you to do something, you don't say, 'Let me think about it.'" Ruff said. "You say, 'How can I help you, Mr. President.'"

That was when the president was being investigated by Kenneth Starr, then independent prosecutor, in the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas, where Clinton had been governor.

That probe of Clinton and the first lady, Hillary Clinton, was soon expanded to include the president's sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky while she had been a White House intern.

In turn, that investigation led to Clinton's impeachment for lying under oath about the affair and his subsequent obstruction of justice. Ruff unsuccessfully defended Clinton in the House of Representatives.

But he then conducted the president's defense during the trial in which the Senate failed to convict and remove the president from office.

During his colorful career of defending politicians in trouble with the law, Ruff had:

• Represented Anita Hill in her sexual harassment accusations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

• Represented Sens. Charles Robb and John Glenn and former White House aide Ira Magaziner when they were embroiled in scandals.

• Looked into suggestions that President Gerald Ford had improperly used campaign funds, but reported no wrongdoing.

• As an associate deputy attorney general, helped prosecute members of Congress in the Abscam bribery case.

• As a prosecutor during the Watergate investigation, helped prosecute President Nixon's chief fund-raisers for taking illegal campaign contributions and then took over as special prosecutor in 1975.

Ruff left government in 1982 to join the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling, returning to public service in 1995 as chief lawyer for the District of Columbia.

A native of Cleveland, he received his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College in 1960 and was graduated from Columbia University law school in 1963.

Surviving him are his wife, Sue; his daughters Carin and Christy, and his mother, Margaret.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Clinton Scandals

Ken Starr

Impeachment