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Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Billy's testimony was the extent to which he betrayed his deep sense of having suffered because his brother is in the White House. Because his brother's controlling interest in the Carter peanut warehouse was placed in a blind trust controlled by Atlanta Lawyer Charles Kirbo, Billy quit the business. Billy complained that Kirbo "made decisions I was unaware of and questioned every decision I made." And because Plains attracted hordes of tourists, including those who walked into his house without knocking, Billy decided to move 20 miles away to a new, $300,000 house in Buena Vista, Ga. Testified Billy: "I considered myself to be a private individual who had not been elected to public office and resented the attention of different Government agencies that I began to hear from almost as soon as Jimmy was sworn in." He has endured, he said, ten separate investigations, including several by the IRS, that have made public "most of my private and commercial business, and my private life." (The IRS apparently had some reason for its persistence; Billy has been found $130,000 in arrears on his taxes.)
Billy is also resentful of the negative publicity about his ties with Libya. He said that this made it impossible for him to continue the kind of public appearances that paid him as much as $500,000 a year in gross earnings. He told the Senators: "I was angry and bitter. My means of livelihood had vanished." As a result, he explained, "by the middle of February 1979, I began each day with four ounces of vodka. In January and February, I retained no food for 53 days."
Desperate for money, he turned to his new Libyan friends who, he said, "felt personally responsible" for his having lost his main source of income and wanted "to help me get back on my financial feet." The result was the oil negotiations on behalf of Charter. This could have involved up to 100,000 bbl. a day, for which Billy and his associates could have received as much as 55¢ per bbl. in commissions. To tide himself over until he would start receiving those fat fees, Billy asked Libya for a $500,000 loan.
Subcommittee Chairman Birch Bayh, the Indiana Democrat, inquired whether Billy had any qualms about associating with a regime that backs terrorists and is virulently anti-American. Asked the Senator: "Did you give any thought to what your presence would do in Libya, to how it would be used?" Billy made no apologies. But he did admit to having some second thoughts. Said he: "If I knew then what would happen, I'd never have made the trip [to Libya]. But hindsight ain't worth a damn."