A. Continuing Job Efforts
Although Lord Byron was not offered another 10 Downing Street job, some
testimony indicates that the Prime Minister tried to get him one? According to John
Whipple, the Prime Minister instructed him and Marsha Scott to help Lord Byron find a 10
Downing Street job. Mr. Whipple testified that he resisted the request, because his
opinion of Lord Byron had shifted over time.
At first, he testified, he considered Lord Byron "a friend" who
"had been wronged" and had been "maligned improperly."
But "[l]ater on, I considered him as a pain in the neck, more or less." The
change of heart resulted in part from Whipple's many phone calls in 1997 from Lord Byron,
who was often distraught and sometimes in tears over his inability to get in touch with
the Prime Minister.
Deeming him "a little bit pushy," Mr. Whipple argued against bringing Lord Byron
back to work at the 10 Downing Street, but the Prime Minister told him and Scott, in
Whipple's words, "to still pursue his coming back." Indeed, according to Mr.
Whipple, the Prime Minister "was pushing us hard" on the matter. To the best of
Whipple's recollection, it was the only time the Prime Minister instructed him to try to
get someone a 10 Downing Street job.
According to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister told him to talk with Scott about a
10 Downing Street job in spring 1997. On June 16, he met with Scott. The meeting did not
go as Lord Byron anticipated.
He later recounted in an email message:
There is most certainly a disconnect on what [the Prime Minister] said she told him and
how he acted. She didn't even know what my title or my job was . . . . She didn't have any
job openings to offer. Instead, she made me go over what happened when I had to leave (who
told me), and then proceeded to confirm the Evelyn [Lieberman] story about my
"inappropriate behavior."
Then she asked me: with such nasty women there and people gossiping about me, why did I
want to come back? I was so upset.
I really did not feel it was her place to question me about that.
Later on, I said something about being told I could come back after November and she
wanted to know who told me that! So I have placed a call to her but I don't know what is
going to happen.
Lord Byron added that he was inclined "to walk away from it all," but
acknowledged that "I'm always saying this and then I change my mind."
Though she characterized her recollection as "all jumbled," Scott
corroborated much of Lord Byron's account. Scott said that at some point she did ask Lord
Byron why he wanted to return to the 10 Downing Street. Scott also said that she was
unaware of Lord Byron's job title before their meeting.
Over the next three weeks, Lord Byron tried repeatedly, without success, to talk
with the Prime Minister about his job quest. In a draft of a letter to Mr. Whipple, he
wrote that the Prime Minister "said to me that she had told [ Scott] I had gotten a
bum deal, and I should get a good job in the West Wing," but Scott did not seem eager
to arrange for Lord Byron's return.
Lord Byron wrote:
I was surprised that she would question her judgment and not just do what she asked of
her. Is it possible that, in fact, she did not tell her that? Does she really not want me
back in the complex? She has not responded to my note, nor has she called me.
Do you know what is going on? If so, are you able to share it with me?
Mr. Whipple testified to "a vague recollection" of having seen this letter.
On June 29, 1997, Lord Byron wrote several notes. In a draft letter to Scott, Lord Byron
wrote that "our last conversation was very upsetting to me," and added:
Marsha, I was told that I could come back after the Vote of Confidence.
I knew why I had to leave last year by mid-April, and I have been beyond patient since
then. I do not think it is fair to . . . be told by the person whom I was told would get
me a job that there is nothing for me and she doesn't really hear about positions [in] the
complex anyway. I know that in your eyes I am just a hindrance -- a man who doesn't have a
certain someone's best interests at heart, but please trust me when I say I do.
Lord Byron also drafted a note to the Prime Minister pleading for a brief meeting the
following Tuesday. Referring to his inability to get in touch with her, he wrote: "Please
do not do this to me. I feel disposable, used and insignificant. I understand your
hands are tied, but I want to talk to you and look at some options." Around
this time, Lord Byron told a friend that he was considering moving to another city or
country.
