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Report: Starr Assistant Told Court Hillary Clinton Indictable

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 18) -- A Whitewater prosecutor told an appeals court that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton could be indicted, ABC News has reported.

In the past, Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr has stopped short of saying that he had evidence sufficient to indict the first lady.

But during a closed-door session in a federal appeals court in St. Louis, a Starr deputy said an indictment was possible, according to an audio tape of the purported discussion obtained by ABC News.

"We certainly are investigating individuals, and those individuals -- including Mrs. Clinton -- could be indicted," Deputy Independent Counsel John Bates told the court.

But former White House counsel Jack Quinn says he doubts Mrs. Clinton will be indicted.

"As far as I am concerned, there is zero chance that Mrs. Clinton will be indicted," Quinn told Fox News Sunday.

"I've seen, in my observation of this matter over an extended period of time, absolutely no basis whatsoever to believe that she could be or should be," Quinn added.

Mrs. Clinton's attorney, David Kendall, said Saturday he could not comment on the contents of a sealed transcript. But he said: "To say Mrs. Clinton is the subject of investigation is obvious, but to imply there is any real basis for it is ridiculous."

ABC did not say how it obtained the tape recording, a portion of which it played in its Saturday evening newscast. Any kind of recording except by court stenographers is barred in all federal courts.

The network said Bates made the comment while in court to obtain notes involving Mrs. Clinton's Whitewater conversations with government lawyers.

Overruling Mrs. Clinton's claim that the conversations are protected by attorney-client privilege, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis ruled that the notes must be turned over to a federal grand jury.

The White House has appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.

The notes in question involve Mrs. Clinton's conversations with White House lawyers concerning her actions after the death of Vincent Foster, former deputy White House counsel, and the mysterious reappearance of her law firm billing records -- two key focuses of the Whitewater investigation.

Republicans have criticized the White House move.

"No president since John F. Kennedy has claimed privilege where there's a criminal case involved," Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, told Fox News Sunday, "with the exception of Richard Nixon, and he was forced to turn over the tapes, and then resign."

"The Congress of the United States, in our oversight capacity, has the right to subpoena and get documents relevant to an investigation like the one we're conducting," Burton said, "and for them to deny that is, simply, unjustified."

"We're going to push this all the way," Burton said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.