Ken Starr says his 1990s Whitewater probe linked then-first lady Hillary Clinton's treatment of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and his suicide in 1993 — but chose to omit from the 1998 report sent to Congress that focused instead on President Bill Clinton's dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Hillary Clinton's humiliation of Foster in front of his peers steered him to take his own life on July 20, 1993, six months into her husband's presidency. But Starr, appointed independent counsel in 1994, "did not want to inflict further pain" on the first lady, according to author Ronald Kessler, who pressed Starr on the matter after a recent speaking appearance in Maryland, at the Annapolis Book Festival.

Circumstances of Foster's suicide have long been fodder for conspiracists, with Clinton critics contending the first couple had something to do with it in order to cover of misdeeds from Whitewater, a late 1970s Arkansas land deal in which they lost money. President Clinton and Foster had been friends since kindergarten in Arkansas.

Kessler, according to the Daily Mail, says that a week before Foster's death, Hillary Clinton berated and belittled him in front of other senior White House aides during a healthcare policy discussion, harshly ridiculing him over his small-town Arkansas background. Former FBI agents Coy Copeland and Jim Clemente said Hillary Clinton told Foster in front of his colleagues that he was not ready to be in D.C., among the highest rungs of government, according to Kessler.

"Hillary put him down really, really bad in a pretty good-size meeting," Copeland said. "She told him he didn't get the picture, and he would always be a little hick town lawyer who was obviously not ready for the big time."

Foster's struggle with depression since his move to Washington, D.C., with Bill Clinton's election to the presidency was well-known. Except for his four years in college and a brief stint enrolled at Vanderbilt University's law school, Foster spent his entire life in his native Arkansas with no experience in politics or campaigning, unlike his Washington colleagues.

His adjustment to life separated from his wife and son, still in school there, was mired with emotional instability exacerbated by the treatment he received from within the White House.

"Foster was profoundly depressed, but Hillary lambasting him was the final straw because she publicly embarrassed him in front of others," said Clemente, who, like Copeland, was speaking about the investigation for the first time.

"Hillary blamed him for failed nominations, claimed he had not vetted them properly, and said in front of his White House colleagues, 'You're not protecting us' and 'You have failed us,'" Clemente said. "That was the final blow."

Foster committed suicide in 1993 just a few miles outside of Washington, D.C. He was 48. Federal authorities launched multiple investigations into his death, all confirming that the single gunshot in the mouth was a suicide. As authorities investigated, they found a ripped-up resignation letter where Foster aired his grievances with the administration and with Washington, including blaming himself for some of the administration's hiccups with confirmations of which he was in charge.