Published: July 1, 1999
Author: Chris Ruddy
The Independent Counsel law lapsed last night at midnight. And Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
said the law should not be re-authorized. Obviously, Starr believes that, because his own investigation
was a waste of tens of millions of dollars, the Independent Counsel law should be trashed.
The truth is that the Independent Counsel law is a good law. When corruption has been rooted out in places like France and Italy, it has usually been the result of an independent magistrate�their version of our Independent Counsel.
We also know that when Independent Counsels like Donald Schmalz and Daniel Pearson did their jobs, the Clintons were in a high state of panic and used every possible means to stop them. We know that Bill Clinton has been fearful of another Independent Counsel being assigned to investigate Chinagate, allegations that he took Chinese campaign cash and gave away nuclear secrets.
The law should stay. It�s Ken Starr who must go. A weak, pathetic character, he has more responsibility than any other man in American history for the woe the Clintons have, and will wreak, on America.
The Hubbell Deal
Just how pitiful Starr�s "prosecution� has been was demonstrated this week when Webster Hubbell admitted to committing a felony by misleading federal investigators, and a misdemeanor by failing to pay taxes.
Any normal citizen would have been jailed and fined for such crimes. Not Webster Hubbell. Under Starr�s plea agreement, Hubbell will be on parole and serve no jail time. He won�t even pay any fine or restitution.
Worse, Webb Hubbell still doesn�t have to cooperate with Starr in his investigation of the Clintons. Hubbell continues to insist, "� I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing on behalf of the president or Mrs. Clinton.
Starr�s failure to seek Hubbell�s cooperation--a basic condition of granting a plea agreement--violates the most fundamental procedures followed by federal prosecutors. But flouting procedure is nothing new for Starr.
In December of 1994, when Hubbell admitted to having bilked his clients at the Rose Law Firm and evading taxes, Starr purposefully botched the plea agreement by not demanding Hubbell�s cooperation. Starr�s actions so infuriated Starr�s own trial attorney, Russell Hardin, that Hardin resigned.
Hardin was incensed that Starr planned on signing a plea agreement without debriefing Hubbell as to what he knew and how he would cooperate �-a mandatory procedure for any plea bargain.
This time around, Starr simply made no pretense he would seek Hubbell�s cooperation.
Just two weeks ago, the New York Times reported that Kenneth Starr had decided not to seek indictments against Bill and Hillary Clinton for crimes they had committed related to Whitewater or related scandals. It�s hard to get indictments if no one will talk. It�s nearly impossible to get people to talk, if the prosecutor doesn�t pressure them.
As any honest prosecutor on Starr�s staff will admit, Starr had long ago decided not to indict the Clintons, or for that matter, any White House official. Some believe Starr actually cut a deal with the Clintons soon after coming aboard.
Pet Worm
Ken Starr is Bill Clinton�s pet worm. Starr has played out a role in the greatest Mutt and Jeff, Good Cop/Bad Cop routine ever perpetrated on the American public.
Even good folks, who realize how bad the Clintons are, have fallen victim to Starr�s charade, taken in by the propaganda that Starr is the "tough, mean prosecutor� out to get the President, just like James Carville says.
That�s simply a mirage, cooked up by the White House spin machine.
What Nolanda Hill Told Me
Is it really possible that Bible-toting Ken Starr--arch Republican, shirt-sleeve Christian, and Monica prosecutor--is on the Clintons' side?
Let me answer by relating this story:
As the long-time lover and business partner of Clinton confidant Ron Brown, Nolanda Hill had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Clinton White House.
As a result of Congressional complaints, Janet Reno was forced to appoint an Independent Counsel to investigate Brown, his business dealings with Nolanda Hill, Brown�s son Michael, and several other people.
The Independent Counsel in this case was Daniel Pearson from Miami. Unlike Starr, Pearson and his deputy were no one�s patsies. Instead of using Starr�s delaying tactics, Pearson had, within months, built a strong case against Brown, Brown�s son, and Hill. Nolanda Hill told me they were going to be indicted.
Then Brown made a desperate bid to save himself. Just weeks before his death on April 6, 1996 Brown met with Clinton at the White House and made it clear he was not going to take the fall for an administration rampant with corruption. Brown wanted Clinton to handle Pearson the same way the White House had handled Starr.
Handled Starr?
Hill explained. Starr was appointed Independent Counsel in August of 1994, after the three-judge panel decided not to appoint Robert Fiske. The Clinton White House publicly expressed outrage that Starr, a "partisan� Republican, had been selected as Independent Counsel.
That�s the way the Clintons wanted the world to see it.
In fact, Hill told me, "when Starr was appointed, they were opening champagne bottles in the White House, they were celebrating.� According to Hill, Starr has actually been on Janet Reno�s short list for the post of Special Counsel at the time she picked Robert Fiske.
"They would never had put him on the short list if they were worried about him,� she said.
In his meeting with Clinton, Brown knew that Starr was under the White House�s thumb. He pleaded with Clinton to do the same with Pearson by having Reno interfere in Pearson�s probe, and by ordering Justice Department attorneys on Pearson�s staff to back off.
Brown also asked Clinton to have the FBI obstruct the Pearson probe by withholding critical information. Brown, Hill said, was well aware that FBI agents were not working for Ken Starr in his Whitewater probe but for Reno and the White House, giving the Clinton Administration de facto control over the Starr investigations.
According to Hill, Clinton told Brown not to worry. "I�ll take care of it,� Clinton said.
Just weeks later, Brown�s plane mysteriously crashed into the side of a mountain in Yugoslavia and the Pearson probe was closed.
Starr Betrayed the Country
Starr�s inquiry has continued. This August will mark Starr�s fifth anniversary as Independent Counsel. During his five years on the job, the public has received more than enough information to evaluate his performance.
There are dozens of examples of how Starr has betrayed the American people and his oath as an independent counsel. To cite a few:
During the time Starr was investigating the Clintons, Starr was working for a company wholly owned by China�s Peoples Liberation Army and notorious arms dealer Wang Jun.
Starr hired Mark Tuohey as his Washington deputy. Tuohey is a liberal Democrat close to the Clinton White House who even threw a party at his home for Janet Reno. (It came as no surprise that when Tuohey left Starr�s office, he joined Vinson & Elkins, the law firm representing the Rose Law Firm before Starr�s office.)
Starr trashed a fundamental principle of American jurisprudence: equality before the law. Starr created a new and bizarre standard for deciding when to issue indictments. Under Starr�s new formulation, ordinary citizens and lower-level officials needed little evidence of wrongdoing to warrant an indictment. But Starr raised the bar absurdly high for White House officials. Thus Starr�s office could indict a banker in Arkansas, but Hillary Clinton would not be indicted for the exact same offenses. This is nothing less than a grant of titles and nobility for government officials, which is expressly prohibited by the Constitution and a major reason why we fought the Revolutionary War.
Miquel Rodriguez, Starr�s lead prosecutor in the case of Vincent Foster, resigned rather than be part of a cover-up. Starr�s out-and-out cover-up of Vince Foster�s death began with his wholehearted acceptance of the report issued by Robert Fiske. Key witnesses, such as several Arkansas troopers who said they knew of Foster�s death hours before the White House did, were never put before a grand jury.
Starr�s prosecution of the Lewinsky case was a wild goose chase. He had no original jurisdiction to investigate this matter, and only did so at Janet Reno�s request. Starr waited nearly eight months to sign a plea agreement with Monica. In essence, she never really cooperated against the Clintons at all, claiming to this day that Clinton "never told me to lie; no one offered me a job �� Still, some Starr fanatics argue that Starr did pursue the Lewinsky matter and seek Clinton�s impeachment. I ask: So what?
When the Lewinsky scandal broke, I accurately illustrated, in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, what would happen. Starr would delay his scathing report on Lewinsky, which would be so damaging to Clinton that it might even call for his impeachment.
And Starr�s report was delayed and issued at the end of the year, pushing the impeachment vote until after the elections and saving Clinton again. Throughout the Lewinsky matter it became clear that Starr was creating a diversion for Clinton�s real crimes; Clinton would never be removed from office over a sex scandal.
Most egregious of all was Starr�s mishandling of key Whitewater witnesses David Hale and Jim McDougal. Hale spent some 18 months in prison and was punished with huge restitution demands � even though he was the chief cooperating witness. McDougal, who also cooperated, was sent to federal prison and was apparently murdered when prison officials purposefully withheld life-sustaining medications.
But convicted criminals like Webb Hubbell and former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, who both stubbornly refused to cooperate, got off easy. Tucker never served one day in prison.
If the guilty and unrepentant get off easy, what type of prosecution is this. It's not time to blame the Independent Counsel Law; blame the prosecutor who wouldn't do his job. Because of Kenneth W. Starr�s complicity, the most corrupt administration in the history of the country continues with no end in sight. God save us all. -
