Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [520]
dragged through the wringer again: Monica S. Lewinsky, Deposition, 26 Aug. 1998, Evidentiary Record, vol. 3, part 1, 1281.
OIC, in the meantime, was busy: H. Ewing to K. Starr et al., “Some reasons for length of investigation,” memo, 2 Sept. 1998, Starr personal papers, KWS Outbox, F8, Aug. 1998.
“We will transmit a narrative”: Ronald D. Rotunda to Kenneth W. Starr, 3 Sept. 1998, Starr personal papers, KWS Outbox, F9, Sept.–Oct. 1998, italics added.
“believes that Clinton”: Memo to Ken Starr, undated, Starr personal papers, KSW Outbox, F9, Sept.–Oct. 1998.
OIC returned Lewinsky’s passport: Plato Cacheris to “Monica Lewinsky file,” 26 Aug. 1998, Cacheris papers.
“a great fire hose flow”: Stephen Bates, interview by author.
Ethics adviser Sam Dash was also horrified: Sam Dash, interview by author.
Yet he was itching to pass off: Stephen Bates, interview by author.
Starr later categorically denied: Ken Starr, interview by author.
A nagging issue that continued: Paul Rosen zweig, interview by author.
In the end, Starr’s deputies agreed: Stephen Bates, interview by author.
there was no alternative but to pour: Ken Starr, interview by author.
“potential impeachment allegations”: Stephen Bates, interview by author.
“I think we could have”: Jackie Bennett, interview by author.
Leon Jaworski had written a bare-bones list: See Ken Gormley, “Impeachment and the Independent Counsel: A Dysfunctional Union,” Stanford Law Review 51 (1999): 309, 345. See also Leon Jaworski, The Right and the Power: The Prosecution of Watergate, 101–102.
“a simple document, fifty-five pages long”: James Doyle, Not Above the Law: The Battles of Watergate Prosecutors Cox and Jaworski, 290–91.
Judge Sirica himself verified: In Re: Report and Recommendation of June 5, 1972 Grand Jury Concerning Transmission of Evidence to House of Representatives, 370 F. Supp. 1219, 1226 (D.D.C. 1974) (Sirica, J.).
its own researcher was unable: Stephen Bates, interview by author.
“shall advise the House of Representatives”: 28 U.S.C. Section 595c (1994).
That language, however sparse: Jackie Bennett, interview by author; Michael Emmick, interview by author.
An initial letter: Ken Starr, interview by author.
To a certain extent: Stephen Bates, interview by author. The final letter of transmittal stated, ambiguously: “The contents of the referral may not be publicly disclosed unless and until authorized by the House of Representatives. Many of the supporting materials contain information of a personal nature that I respectfully urge the House to treat as confidential.”
Starr himself defended that omission: Ken Starr, interview by author.
Although this secret: For details concerning this little-known controversy involving the Tripp tapes, that permanently ruptured the relationship between Starr’s prosecutors and Tripp, see Starr Report, 268, n. 125 (stating that these duplications/alterations “raise questions about the accuracy” of Ms. Tripp’s testimony). See, also, Impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton, Evidentiary Record, vol. 3, part 1, 225–27 (stating that nine tapes exhibited signs of duplication and were not consistent with being recorded on Tripp’s RadioShack tape recorder; one tape exhibited signs of being produced by a recorder “that was stopped during the recording process”).
As Ken Starr stood over a computer screen: Starr had taken the precaution of getting permission from the special three-judge panel before turning over this radioactive material. Although he believed that he had authority to disgorge “6(e)” material to Congress, he did not want OIC to be “charged with a violation of law” (Ken Starr, interview by author; Robert J. Bittman, interview by author).
A loud discussion ensued: As Ken Starr recalled the confrontation, Dash felt “very strongly” that Ground Eleven of the impeachment referral “had to be strengthened,” to make even clearer that President Clinton’s conduct “in using the powers of the presidency and invoking executive privilege and the like were unlawful