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By Root 2080 0

answers. What etched itself into Jackie Bennett’s mind, however, was the picture of the First Lady, seated calmly next to her lawyer David Kendall and White House Counsel Chuck Ruff, who was belted into his wheelchair. None of these three individuals, Bennett knew, could have possibly suspected that a locomotive was barreling down the track headed toward them. He later reflected: “I’m sitting there fully conscious that something’s going to come of all this evidence [relating to Monica Lewinsky] someday. And I’m looking at the First Lady and her lawyers … and Chuck Ruff, and they don’t have a clue about this.” Bennett was certain that at some point when the Lewinsky matter became public, they would think back on this moment and say, “Oh, Jackie Bennett was sitting there, and Ken Starr—they were sitting there smirking about this.” So he was extra careful not to allow anything resembling a smile of satisfaction to cross his lips.

That evening, Ken Starr and his team huddled in their conference room to discuss whether OIC should pursue the lead from Linda Tripp or punt it to the Justice Department. Should they urge Janet Reno to appoint a new independent counsel to investigate the blockbuster or take it themselves? Starr was well aware that he had been appointed to investigate a narrow range of subjects spelled out in his charter. His jurisdiction had been expanded by the attorney general from time to time, but he knew that this did not give him a blank check. There would be hell to pay if he overstepped the bounds of his authority on something this explosive. It was, he realized, a defining moment in his assignment as independent counsel.

It was an odd setting for such a monumental meeting. The Little Rock office was winding down; the small D.C. office was remodeling to accommodate the last remnants of OIC forces from Arkansas. Walls were being knocked down. An adjoining vacant office was being painted to handle the influx of Little Rock staffers. This dark little conference room, situated in the midst of the work zone, which was covered with plastic sheets, was now stuffed with fifteen chairs around a table and another half-dozen seats crowded against the walls to accommodate FBI agents.

Starr sat back listening pensively. Jackie Bennett occupied the head seat, presiding over the discussion.

Bennett’s preference, considering the fast-moving situation, was for OIC to “grab and preserve the evidence.” His fear was that “if we went to the Justice Department, which was managed by political appointees,” Clinton apologists in the department would silently tip off their commander in chief before the Jones deposition ever took place. If that happened, the opportunity to nail Clinton would be lost forever. In Bennett’s view, “if the president wanted to attend this deposition and tell the truth, as he was required to do, he was certainly entitled to do that.” On the flip side, “why was he entitled to learn that there was evidence” that might prove that he had committed perjury? Given the strange Vernon Jordan connection to Monica Lewinsky—which looked suspiciously like the “jobs-for-silence” deal that OIC was investigating between Jordan and Webb Hubbell—Bennett believed they already had jurisdiction under the section of the independent counsel law that allowed them to probe matters “related to” their existing investigation. If OIC acted swiftly and decisively, it could gain the element of surprise.

Mike Emmick, an easygoing assistant U.S. attorney from Los Angeles who had just joined the Starr team, voiced a different view. He told the assembled group, in words that would become famous within the office: “I think we need to run, not walk, to the Justice Department and tell them about this.” Nothing good would come, Emmick said firmly, if they did not get explicit authorization from the mothership in DOJ (the Department of Justice).

A newly hired prosecutor from the vice squad in Miami, Bruce Udolf, voiced an even deeper concern: Udolf had driven Linda Tripp home to Columbia the previous night, after her debriefing. He was thoroughly