James McDougal

James B. McDougal (d. March 8, 1998) was a banker whose corrupt Whitewater real estate development "tainted President Bill Clinton and landed him in prison", on eighteen felony convictions according to the New York Times.

James McDougal's ex-wife spent time in prison for refusing to give testimony dealing with the WhiteWater scandal. When James McDouglas died in prison from cancer, she simply implicated him as he could no longer defend himself.

Death

McDougal was serving his 3-year sentence for bank fraud at the Fort Worth Federal Medical Center in Texas, a facility operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for inmates who need medical attention. Just prior to another round of testimony before the Whitewater grand jury, McDougal suffered a heart attack while in solitary confinement, which may have been brought on by the diuretics forced on him. When McDougal was taken out of solitary, instead of attempting to defibrillate his heart with equipment on hand at the facility, he was driven over to John Peter Smith hospital.

Just prior to his death McDougal was injected with Lasix, a diuretic, to force him giving a urine sample for drug testing, even though McDougal was not a known drug case. Lasix is contra-indicated in cases of heart disease. Lasix can cause excessive diuresis, blood volume reduction, circulatory collapse, and vascular thrombosis, or blood clots. If a matching potassium supplement is not administered at the same time, Lasix can kill. McDougal may have been taking the heart medication Digitalin (foxglove) which cannot be combined with Lasix. Several inmates had gone public with the claim that McDougal was given a heavy injection of Lasix right after he ate lunch, but the prison system has refused to allow those prisoners to be interviewed. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram eventually acquired the official report of the McDougal death via a Freedom of Information Act request, and found that doctors ignored McDougal's signs of imminent death.