Fox News-May 22, 2000
For Clinton, the Scandals Keep Coming
Filegate. Whitewater. Monica. The travel office. Impeachment and
White House e-mails.
By David S. Koeppel
The list of scandals and investigations faced by President
Clinton is longer than for any other American president in
history. Yet, he remains one of the nation's most popular chief
executives ever.
President Clinton survived it all. The question now is how
Citizen Bill will fare when he walks out the door of the West
Wing eight months from now.
His legal problems are far from over. Investigations by
Congressional committees, the Justice Department and the office
of independent counsel Robert Ray will dog him. But even the
president's most virulent critics don't expect him to be
seriously punished for any of his perceived offenses.
Clinton Faces Disbarment in Arkansas
The first threat is to strip him of his legal license in
Arkansas. The Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative
organization based in Atlanta, wants the president disbarred for
lying and obstructing the legal process during the Paula Jones
sexual harassment lawsuit. In doing so, the group says, Clinton
violated the code of conduct for lawyers in the state.
The Arkansas Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Ethics
could recommend the president be temporarily disbarred, which
would prevent Clinton from practicing law for five years. The
committee could also decide to simply reprimand the president,
which carries no penalties.
"This is not about Bill Clinton but about 275 million people who
have a right to a judicial system that's fair," said Southeastern
Legal Foundation President Matthew Glavin. "We're not doing this
as a vendetta. Disbarment is in the public interest. The Arkansas
Supreme Court has ruled that truthfulness is a prerequisite to
practicing law."
In response to the disbarment effort, Clinton has said that while
his statements were misleading they didn't constitute perjury or
lying under oath.
Georgetown University Professor of Law David Luban doubts the
Arkansas committee will disbar the president. Usually, only
lawyers who commit felonies are disbarred. And even shorter
suspensions are meted out with caution, Luban said.
"They may decide it's not serious enough for disbarment or
suspension," Luban said. "I think it's minor enough that a minor
level of discipline is appropriate. It's humanly understandable
that he lied to protect himself from sexual embarrassment."
Starr Successor ....
Also pursuing the president is Robert Ray, independent counsel
Kenneth Starr's successor. He could still indict the president on
perjury and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly lying
under oath during the Paula Jones sexual harassment trial.
Ray also is zeroing in on whether White House officials tried to
obstruct investigations ranging from Whitewater to Monica
Lewinsky by not turning over certain e-mail.
Some legal experts consider Ray to be Clinton's biggest threat.
Vincent Bonventre, a professor at Albany Law School in New York,
said Ray may have a solid perjury case against the president.
"We'd be foolish to believe he was the first president to lie,"
Bonventre said. "But he lied under oath and repeatedly showed the
American public he couldn't be trusted."
But even if Clinton were indicted on perjury charges, no one can
imagine the president getting more than a suspended sentence. "I
can't see any judge putting a former president in jail,"
Bonventre said.
On the Congressional Front...
Congress is not letting the scandals rest, either.
The House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by long-time
Clinton nemesis Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., continues its ongoing
investigation into Democratic fund-raising and, more recently,
into the missing White House e-mail.
In recent months the committee has focused on the elusive e-mail
scandal, hearing testimony to determine if the White House
withheld possibly relevant e-mails from investigators looking
into administration scandals like the Monica Lewinsky case and
campaign finance.
Administration officials have testified before Congress denying
any obstruction. Former White House counsel Charles Ruff
testified that in his own "technological ignorance" he was
unaware the extent of the problem when it was brought to his
attention in June 1998. White House lawyer Beth Nolan told
congress that "until recently the counsel's office was not aware
of the scope and nature of these errors."
One official testified that four computer specialists operating
the e-mail systems had been threatened with jail if they
discussed the computer glitch that caused e-mail to get lost. The
former employees accused of making those threats denied the
charges.
"We continue to work hard to reconstruct the e-mail and produce
the relevant documents to the parties who need them," said White
House spokesman James Kennedy. "The people who have been accused
of making threats have denied it and the Justice Department is
investigating." The Justice Department did not return calls for
comment. Kennedy said reconstructing the e-mail could cost
between $8 and $ 10 million dollars and would not be completed
until late November � after the election.
Michael Corallo, the communications director for the committee,
promised the issue would not be dropped even if polls indicate
the country is tired of further investigations and experiencing
"Clinton fatigue."
But Phil Schilaro, a Democratic staffer on the committee, is
uncertain about the investigation's future, calling it somewhere
between "active and dormant." Schilaro said there is no evidence
to indicate the White House had any intent to deceive
investigators and that a process to retrieve the missing e-mails
was underway.
And even some Republicans in Congress said Clinton does not have
his fingerprints on this one. "I don't think he knew anything
about it," said one.
A final report from the committee will be available this summer.
Attempts to Humiliate a President?
So if the president ultimately will not be punished, are the
remaining investigations just further attempts to humiliate a
leader who has sustained as much public ridicule as any modern
leader?
"You get the sense the Justice Department is just trying to run
out the clock and deal with it after the elections," Corallo
said. "They're betting on polls that say Americans are sick of
the investigations. Our position is the law is the law and
everyone who works in the White House has to obey it."
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Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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