Text of Starr's Testimony-6

By The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 18, 1998; 9:21 p.m. EST

Testimony of Independent Council Kenneth Starr prepared for delivery Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee:

Ms. Currie further testified that the president ran through the same basic statements with her again on January 20 or 21.

What is important with respect to these two episodes is that at the time the president made these statements, he knew that they were false. He knew he had been alone with Ms. Lewinsky. He knew Ms. Currie could not see or hear everything. The president thus could not have been trying to refresh his recollection, as he subsequently suggested. That raises the question: Is there a legitimate explanation for the president to have said those things in that manner to Ms. Currie? The circumstances suggest not. The facts suggest that the president was attempting to improperly coach Ms. Currie, at a time when he could foresee that she was not a potential witness in Jones v. Clinton.

E. The President's Actions: Jan. 21-Aug. 17

The president's next major decision came in the days immediately after Jan. 21. On the 21st, The Washington Post publicly reported the story of Ms. Lewinsky's relationship with the president. After the public disclosure of his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky and the ongoing criminal investigation, the president faced a decision. Would he admit the relationship publicly, correct his testimony in Ms. Jones' case, and ask for the indulgence of the American people? Or would he continue to deny the truth?

For this question, the president consulted others. According to Dick Morris, the president and he talked on Jan. 21. Mr. Morris suggested that the president publicly confess. The president replied ``But what about the legal thing? You know, the legal thing? You know. Starr and perjury and all.'' Mr. Morris suggested they take a poll. The president agreed. Mr. Morris called with the results. He stated that the American people were willing to forgive adultery but not perjury or obstruction of justice. The president replied, ``Well, we just have to win, then.''

Over the next several months, it became apparent that the strategy to win had many prongs. First, the president denied the truth publicly and emphatically. Second, he publicly promised to cooperate with the investigation. Third, the president deflected and diverted the investigation by telling aides false stories that were then relayed to the grand jury. Fourth, he refused invitations to testify to the grand jury for over six months. Fifth, his administration delayed the investigation through multiple privilege claims, each of which has been rejected by the federal courts. Sixth, surrogates of the president attacked the credibility and legitimacy of the grand jury investigation. Seventh, surrogates of the president attempted to convince the Congress and the American people that the matter was unimportant.

The first step was for the president to deny the truth publicly. For this, political polling led to Hollywood staging. The president's California friend and producer Harry Thomason flew to Washington and advised that the president needed to be very forceful in denying the relationship. On Monday, Jan. 26, in the Roosevelt Room, before members of Congress and other citizens, the president provided a clear and emphatic public statement denying the relationship.

The president also made false statements to his Cabinet and aides. They then spoke publicly and professed their belief in the president.

The second step was to promise cooperation. The president told the American people on several television and radio shows on Jan. 21 and 22 that ``I'm going to do my best to cooperate with the investigation.''

The third step was the president's refusal to provide testimony to the grand jury despite six invitations to do so and despite his public promise to cooperate. Refusing invitations to provide information to a grand jury in a federal criminal investigation authorized by the attorney general of the United States -- and one in which there is a high national interest in prompt completion -- was inconsistent with the president's initial January promise to cooperate and with the general statutory duty of all government officials to cooperate with federal criminal investigations.

As a fourth step, the president not only refused to testify himself, but he authorized the use of various governmental privileges to delay the testimony of many of his taxpayer-paid assistants. The extensive use of governmental privileges against grand jury and criminal investigations has, of course, been a pattern throughout the administration. Most notably, the White House cited privilege in 1993 to prevent Justice Department and Park Police officials from reviewing documents in Vincent Foster's office in the days after his death.

In the Lewinsky investigation, the president asserted two privileges, executive privilege and a government attorney-client privilege. A subordinate administration official, without objection from the president, claimed a previously unheard-of privilege that was called the protective function privilege. The privileges were asserted to prevent the full testimony of several White House aides and the full testimony of the sworn law enforcement officers of the Secret Service.

In asserting executive privilege, the president was plowing headlong into the Supreme Court's unanimous decision 24 years ago in United States v. Nixon. There, the Supreme Court ruled that executive privilege was overcome by the need for relevant evidence in criminal proceedings. And thus, it came as no surprise that Chief Judge Norma Holloway Johnson rejected President Clinton's effort to use executive privilege to prevent disclosure of relevant evidence.
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