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By Root 2082 0

the OIC memo reduced to a footnote), had produced “inconclusive” results due to “a lack of consistent, specific, and significant physiological responses.” To compound the problem, Willey had told many versions of the story to many friends. To some, she had asserted that Clinton had “kissed” her; “kissed and fooled around;" given her a “forced lengthy kiss and not just a peck;" touched her breast; and a wide variety of other permutations. According to OIC’s own summary, friends described Willey’s demeanor in describing the encounter in dramatically different ways—ranging from “shocked” to “surprised and caught off guard” to “not [particularly] upset.” In another strange twist, Willey had sent glowing letters to President Clinton after the alleged incident, which seemed “incompatible” with the grotesque sexual advance she had alleged. Worst of all, Kathleen Willey had recently admitted to “giving false information to the FBI.”

During the course of official interviews, Willey had denied engaging in sexual intercourse with a man named Shaun Docking and denied telling Docking that she was pregnant with their child—both denials, the FBI had determined, were patently false. Also, Willey’s former friend, Julie Hiatt Steele, who had originally corroborated Willey’s account in interviews with Newsweek, had now recanted under oath, insisting that “she had lied to Newsweek at the request of Ms. Willey.”

After a heated internal debate, the Starr prosecutors decided to scrap the idea of sending Congress a new referral on the Willey matter because her serious credibility problems might further tarnish OIC’s own standing, just as Starr was preparing for the most important testimony of his public career.

AS he worked endless days and nights during the late fall of 1998, Ken Starr felt as if he had sunk to the lowest point of a terribly bleak year. The ordinarily cheerful public servant was becoming insecure and wary. He sent a note defending his record to his ninety-one-year-old mother in Texas, who was recovering from a recent illness: “Dear Mom. Howdy. I don’t usually burden you with newspaper pieces, but the enclosed article caught Alice’s eye.” The dutiful son attached an article from the conservative weekly Human Events: “Kenneth Starr’s Real Crime: He Told Truth, Not Lies, About a Perjurious, Salacious President.”

In a letter to daughter Carolyn at Stanford, Starr enclosed a clipping from the Houston Chronicle about the still-distant race for the White House in 2000. The newspaper noted that Governor George W. Bush, from Starr’s home state of Texas, was “looking forward to pushing his agenda through the Legislature and making the most momentous decision of his life—whether to run for president.” Governor Bush had emphasized that he would first need to consult with his wife, Laura, and their twin sixteen-year-old daughters because this important decision affected them all. The Texas governor reminded the reporter that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had “threatened his [Bush’s] family in 1991” when his father, President George H. W. Bush, had sent troops into the Persian Gulf. This death threat had necessitated “around-the-clock Secret Service protection,” an ugly time for the whole Bush family. Ken Starr now reassured his daughter, who was dealing with uncomfortable security issues of her own at Stanford: “The comments by Governor George W. Bush … remind us that public service sometimes carries with it the (temporary) demands of intrusive measures.”

Those close to Starr could tell that he was plagued by increasing self-doubt. Sealy M. Yates, an attorney in Orange, California, who served on the Pepperdine Law School Board of Visitors with Starr, circulated a then-high-tech “E-Mail Memorandum” to family and friends around the country, alerting them that the situation for the independent counsel was worsening: “I have a friend who is going through hell right now,” Yates wrote. “My friend is also my brother in Christ. I believe that my friend and brother is in trouble with the world because he desires to represent Christ well in