|
 |
| |||
Clinton team: Starr acting like '101st senator'
January 31, 1999 WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, January 31) -- The White House lashed out Sunday at a report that Independent Counsel Ken Starr believes he has the constitutional authority to seek an indictment of President Bill Clinton before he leaves office. "Along with reinforcing his own stereotype as an out of control prosecutor, Ken Starr is running the risk of appearing to tamper with an ongoing Senate trial," said Jim Kennedy, a spokesman for the president's lawyers. "Last week he was behaving like the 14th House manager coercing Monica Lewinsky to cooperate, and now it looks like he is the 101st senator," Kennedy said. The New York Times, quoting anonymous sources, reported Sunday that Starr has concluded he has the authority to seek a grand jury indictment of Clinton even while he is president and had been actively considering the idea. The Times reported one Starr associate as saying Starr "is persuaded by precedent and logic that a sitting president can be indicted. But he has given no hint about whether he would do it, either now or sometime down the road." Republicans and Democrats alike said it was not helpful for the report about Starr to have appeared during the Senate impeachment trial of the president, although they did not believe it would affect the Senate deliberations. "That's a little bit distracting to have that discussion going on," Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Arkansas) said on CBS' "Face the Nation." |
|
 | ||
MORE STORIES:Sunday, January 31, 1999
• Gore's approval rating right up there with Clinton's • Clinton team: Starr acting like '101st senator' • New polls show most Americans still oppose removing Clinton • Battle ahead for surplus in $1.77 trillion Clinton budget • Former Virginia Gov. Godwin dead at 84 • Conservative activist Bauer announces run for presidency • Report: Fieger to run for Senate | ||||