(19 Nov 1998) English/Nat
As the third presidential impeachment inquiry in U-S history continues, Independent Prosecutor Kenneth Starr is on the defensive.
Starr is the opening witness in preliminary hearings by the House Judiciary Committee to decide if there is sufficient evidence to recommend a parliamentary vote to impeach U-S President Bill Clinton.
Thursday morning in Washington D-C, Starr gave a 2-hour speech outlining his arguments in favour of such action.
But after a lunch break, he faced tough questioning by the chief investigator for the panel’s minority Democrats, who charged him with pursuing a campaign to bring down the President.
After a midday break, the questioning of Kenneth Starr began.
The first to take on the independent counsel was the investigator for the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
Abbe Lowell suggested Starr had gone out of his was to use inflammatory language in his report and had drawn conclusions about Clinton’s conduct.
Starr, who had sat emotionless throughout much of the questioning, objected.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
“But this reflects, just so the committee knows, the views of some of the most experienced prosecutors in the country. I stand behind it because it is mine. I stand behind each word of it. It is my ultimate judgement. But this is a professional product, it is not the product of one single person.”
SUPER CAPTION: Kenneth Starr, Independent Counsel
Waving his report, Starr said if the committee didn’t like it, the panel had the power to throw it out.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
“But obviously this body is entirely at liberty to reject this referral as not being substantial or credible. It is entirely your judgement. And one of the points I did try to make in the opening statement is I believe — and you may disagree — that I was called upon to give you my judgement and my assessment, and I have done that. But it is the responsibility of the House of Representatives to use this to the extent that it wants, to discard it, to do whatever it thinks is necessary to come to its judgement as to whether there should be any proceeding, some sort of proceeding or not. This is a tool. This is only a tool to use as you see fit.”
SUPER CAPTION: Kenneth Starr, Independent Counsel
Starr also took exception to suggestions that his staff didn’t do enough to keep Linda Tripp, a former friend of Monica Lewinsky, from leaking information.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
“What I am trying to make as clear as I possibly can is that what we were saying to Ms. Tripp: ‘You have given us this remarkable information — allegations. They are extraordinarily explosive, that perhaps go to the president of the United States. We need backup. And she was coming to us as a witness. And this information was not, at the time that it was first coming to us, in the public domain. So we took the steps that we thought — or my colleagues, who were making these decisions on the spot, took the steps that we did. But if the suggestion is we wanted her to go public, the suggestion is absolutely wrong.”
SUPER CAPTION: Kenneth Starr, Independent Counsel
After the morning’s session, members of Congress and White House counsel stopped outside the hearing room to talk to reporters.
The White House dismissed Starr’s morning presentation as a rehash of previous allegations.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
“The process unfortunately remains bitterly partisan and in our view profoundly unfair to the president. And, there was nothing new in Mr Starr’s two hour presentation. He offered no new evidence, no new information and no new explanation for his tactics.”
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AP Archive,94493,f1b295d275b65745a1351243b33baff3,USA: STARR TESTIFIES AT CLINTON IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS (2),Ken Starr,Bill Clinton,Abbe Lowell,Monica Lewinsky,Greg Craig,Bill McCollum,United States,District of Columbia,Government and politics,General news
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