-Caveat Lector-
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/Aug1999/081999/starr081999.htm
Panel tells Starr to continue probe
A U.S. three-judge panel, in a routine review, voted
Wednesday to let independent counsel Kenneth Starr continue
the Whitewater investigation of President Clinton which led
to his impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky affair.
In a vote of 2 to 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals said, "We have
today issued an order declining to terminate the Office of
Independent Counsel in this matter."
Senior appellate Judge Peter Fay and U.S. Circuit Judge David
Sentelle, the two judges who voted in favor of keeping the
investigation alive, said Starr's investigation has been
"unusually productive, having resulted ... in the impeachment
of a President," 24 indictments and 16 convictions.
The dissenting judge, Judge Richard Cudahy, noted that the
president already had been impeached and acquitted.
"This is a natural and logical point for termination, since
it is not clear how additional measures against the principal
subject of the investigation could be pursued," said Cudahy.
"Nor is there any indication that the Independent Counsel
would pursue them -- whatever they might be. In addition,
there apparently are no pending prosecutions against lesser
figures."
Starr, in a later statement, said his office was working with
the Justice Department to determine "whether appropriate
matters can be referred back to the department."
He said Cudahy's dissenting opinion reflected "a fundamental
misunderstanding of the breadth of this office's work."
Starr said his office was still dealing with an appeal
involving prosecutions related to the Whitewater real estate
venture in which the Clintons were partners while Clinton was
governor of Arkansas in the 1980s.
He also cited his office's investigations into the firing of
White House Travel Office workers soon after Clinton took
office in 1993 and the alleged misuse of FBI files inside the
Clinton White House.
In the court opinion, filed soon after the judges took their
annual vote on whether to terminate the independent counsel
investigation, Cudahy said, "An endless investigation ...
can serve no possible goal of justice and imposes needless
burdens on the taxpayers."
Starr's initial probe centered on the complex Arkansas real
estate venture known as Whitewater. He later expanded it to
include, among other things, the suicide of a former White
House counsel and President Clinton's affair with Lewinsky.
The independent counsel law under which Starr was appointed
expired at the end of June, but the investigation has not
been closed.
The decision comes after a report that said Starr would leave
his post after five years and spending more than $40 million
before his office issues a final report, which is required
under the independent counsel law.
A spokesman for Starr, Elizabeth Ray, said Starr's office has
"begun drafting a final report and it will be done at the
earliest practical moment." Ray declined comment on an ABC
News Web site report that Starr plans to leave his job within
the next few months.
Starr said earlier this month that he planned to wrap up his
investigation before the election in November 2000, in which
Hillary Clinton is likely to be a candidate for a Senate seat
from New York.
Capitol Hill Blue is published daily on the web. Some
material is �The Associated Press and � Reuters NewMedia.
.
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