Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [385]
An initial letter was drafted that would have forcefully directed Congress to keep the material in Starr’s report under wraps. After further debate, that letter was scrapped and a more wishy-washy request made its way onto the computer screen; it said nothing explicit about Congress keeping the report under seal. Some staffers felt OIC had no business telling Congress what to do with the report and accompanying evidence; that would trigger separation of powers problems. To a certain extent, however, Stephen Bates admitted it was “just an oversight that [the stronger language] got left out.” Anyway, he noted, “we assumed impeachment reports didn’t get published.”
Starr himself defended that omission, stating that Congress remained “on notice” that the report contained material that was “deeply, highly sensitive.” His view was, “It was entrusted to Congress. And Congress could do with it as it saw fit.”
DURING the final scramble to ready the Starr Report for Congress, another distressing development arose. The FBI reported to OIC that many of Linda Tripp’s “original” tapes had been duplicated and/or altered to some extent. Starr’s prosecutors were outraged; they felt personally betrayed by Tripp. Among other things, this discovery obliterated Tripp’s credibility as a witness, because such duplications/alterations were directly at odds with her sworn testimony about the making and handling of the tapes. Also, OIC’s draft report was laden with references to the Tripp tapes as support for the allegations against Clinton. Now the entire report had to be scrubbed. Although this secret was carefully guarded by Starr’s top deputies, virtually all references to the Tripp tapes were stricken from the footnotes and replaced with other backup sources, creating a major headache for the already stressed-out draftsmen of the huge referral. The relationship between the Starr prosecutors and Tripp, their chief informant, was ruptured forever as a result of this discovery. Now, OIC was marching toward the House of Representatives alone.
The day the Starr Report was delivered to Congress—Wednesday, September 9—was one that would remain etched in the minds of those working in the Office of Independent Counsel. As Ken Starr stood over a computer screen in Brett Kavanaugh’s office preparing to authorize the final draft so that it could be delivered to Capitol Hill, Sam Dash entered and demanded to review the final work product. Those present recalled that the ethics adviser was “extremely agitated.” A loud discussion ensued, during which Dash insisted that changes had to be made to “Ground Eleven” of the impeachment referral—the ground dealing with the president’s abuse of power—or he would quit. Dash told Starr that “the whole American Bar ought to come out against you” if the independent counsel went forward with the referral as written. The report was cleaned up, and Dash withdrew his threat to resign, remaining in OIC’s employ—for now.
Jackie Bennett had worked diligently to throw both Congress and the news media off the scent, dropping hints that a report would not be concluded for weeks. At approximately 3:45 P.M., Bennett phoned several contacts on the Hill and told them, “Okay, now is the time to deliver this. Where do you want us to take this thing?” OIC would be dropping off the report itself plus thirty-six boxes of evidentiary material—eighteen boxes for the Democrats, and an identical set for the Republicans. The House staffers instructed Bennett to deliver the material to the House sergeant at arms, who would meet them inside the Capitol grounds.
On the loading dock of the OIC building, workers hoisted cartons into the rear of a dark government van. Bob Bittman had assigned