Judge: Starr's Whitewater Prosecution Is "Scary"
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 26) -- The federal judge presiding over Friday's preliminary hearing for former Justice Department official Webster Hubbell characterized legal reasoning by one of Independent Counsel Ken Starr's prosecutors as "scary."
Attorneys for Hubbell, a long-time friend of President Bill Clinton and former law partner of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, asked U.S. District Judge James Robertson to dismiss charges of tax evasion, conspiracy and mail fraud brought against him in April. Robertson took the request under advisement.
John Nields, Hubbell's lawyer, said the charges should be dismissed because some of the records used by Starr's prosecutors to substantiate the charges were obtained under an earlier immunity agreement between the independent prosecutor and Hubbell.
"If they compelled it under immunity, they have to hold him harmless. That's the rule," Nields said.
But prosecutor Stephen Binhak asserted that the prosecution had the right to use the records to press new charges, as long as the findings could be independently verified and the jury was not told that Hubbell had provided the documents himself.
Robertson told Binhak he found that line of reasoning "scary" and stated that Starr's office was "asserting a government power" in pressing charges on information culled from documents provided by Hubbell under the earlier agreement.
Hubbell, who appeared in court Friday morning with his wife and daughter, at first refused to turn over his business records on Fifth Amendment grounds. But he eventually turned them over when the prosecutors offered him limited immunity.
Hubbell has been a major figure in the Whitewater investigation. As Hillary Clinton's former partner at the Rose Law Firm, prosecutors suspect he has information about Mrs. Clinton's involvement in a related land deal that also involved Hubbell's father-in-law. Prosecutors also suspect that Hubbell took sensitive documents from the firm in order to protect the Clintons.
Prosecutors claim that Hubbell and his wife, who has also been indicted, tried to avoid paying taxes on money that Clinton supporters gave them, allegedly in return for silence in the Whitewater investigation. The records Hubbell turned over to the prosecution showed that he left some consulting fees off of his tax returns, evidence which the prosecutors say supports their charges.
Some of the fees in question are said to come from James Riady, the Indonesian banker with controversial ties to the Clinton administration.
Hubbell is also suspected of writing off personal expenses and hiding assets. In all, he is charged with owing $895,000 in federal and state taxes and fines.
CNN's Ted Barrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report
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