Starr testifies in Clinton impeachment hearings

Under intense questioning, the independent counsel defended his investigation of President Clinton. The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr heatedly defended his investigation under insistent questioning last night from President Clinton's private attorney in the third presidential impeachment inquiry in history. Clinton's own conduct was scarcely mentioned in the final clash between the prosecutor and the president's lawyer. ''That is false and you know it to be false,'' Starr snapped at one point in the nationally televised House Judiciary Committee hearing as attorney David Kendall accused him of prosecutorial misconduct in his dealing with Monica Lewinsky. ''I am confident that we have abided by our obligations,'' Starr said as his adversary pressed him at another point on leaks of grand jury material. For his part, Kendall sought to set the tone even before he posed his initial question. ''Let me begin with the simple but powerful truth that nothing in this overkill of investigation amounts to a justification for the impeachment of the president of the United States,'' Kendall said. The fencing between the two longtime adversaries came near the end of a long hearing in which Starr laid out his evidence against the president, material that triggered the third formal impeachment probe in the nation's history. In a two-hour recitation of his case, he alleged Clinton had carried out a ''scheme to conceal'' his relationship with Lewinsky and engaged in a ''pattern of obstruction.'' He then spent hours fending off a withering barrage from committee Democrats, one of whom, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, accused him of having ''crossed the line into obsession.'' Throughout the day, Democrats sought consistently to turn the spotlight away from Clinton's behavior and toward Starr's investigation. But by the time he had completed his testimony after 12 hours, Starr received a standing ovation from many in the room, and several Republican lawmakers lined up to shake his hand. Starr's testimony was the first the committee had taken since receiving boxes of his evidence this fall. While the full GOP-controlled House has voted for an open-ended inquiry, Republican appetite for prolonged proceedings has diminished markedly in the wake of election setbacks. Thus, it was not clear whether -- or when -- articles of impeachment would ever emerge from the panel, which is itself torn by bitter partisan bickering. Several sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.) who is in line to become House speaker in January, has said in private conversations he wants the issue resolved before he takes office. Still, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) the committee chairperson, announced to the displeasure of Democrats that the committee would vote on issuing subpoenas to additional witnesses. Among them was Robert Bennett, the lawyer who represented Clinton in Paula Jones' sexual harassment case. That case was settled last week. Starr told Kendall he wasn't present as an advocate for the report he had presented to Congress, although he referred to ''the president's perjury and obstruction of justice'' in connection with his affair with Lewinsky and long effort to conceal the truth about it. In more than an hour of questioning, Kendall did not ask Starr a single question about the evidence he found in his long and costly investigation -- a probe that resulted in a referral alleging 11 potentially impeachable offenses. Instead, the president's lawyer peppered Starr with questions -- cross-examination style -- about his own conduct, and that of the prosecutors, FBI agents and others who worked for him. Starr disclosed little that was previously unknown, although in response to a question from David Schippers, the Republican chief counsel, he said some grand jurors had laughed at Clinton as the president answered questions in a videotaped deposition last August 17. He also said the ''plain language'' of the Constitution makes clear that Clinton could be prosecuted for perjury after he leaves office, regardless of the outcome of the impeachment proceedings. ''I stand behind it because it is mine,'' Starr said of the report he submitted to the committee in September outlining grounds for possible impeachment arising from Clinton's sexual relationship with Lewinsky. Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts asked why Starr had not told the public before the fall elections that he had found no evidence of impeachable offenses in inquiries into other areas covering FBI files, the dismissal of White House Travel Office employees and the Whitewater real estate deal in Arkansas. When Starr responded that his mandate under the law was only to report on evidence of potentially impeachable offenses, Frank said: ''In other words, you don't have anything to say unless you have something bad to say.'' Questioning by Republicans was far more gentle, and several made clear their sympathy for Starr. ''I commend you for standing up to the nonsense? that you have had to put up with today,'' said Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, one of Clinton's most ardent and persistnt critics. Clinton was in Asia beginning a five-day visit when Starr stood before the committee's chairperson, Rep. Henry Hyde, raised his right hand and swore the traditional witness' oath to tell the truth. White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said Clinton did not watch any of the live coverage but saw one short clip of it on a CNN news broadcast. However, an aide did brief Clinton on Starr's prepared testimony, Lockhart said. Behind panel members were two big portraits -- one of Hyde, the Illinois Republican at the helm of the current inquiry; the other of former Rep. Peter Rodino, the Democrat who oversaw the Watergate impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon in the same room in 1974. Peppered with questions about alleged inappropriate treatment of Lewinsky, grand jury leaks, his own private law clients and other matters, Starr had made only one concession as the hearing moved into the evening. He agreed to provide a list of clients from his former law firm. At the same time, when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) asked Starr directly whether he felt he had a conflict of interest, the prosecutor replied, ''I did not.'' He stoutly turned aside all suggestions of prosecutorial misconduct, although at several points he told his questioners they might well have a different view of the law. ''Obviously this body is at liberty to reject'' the material as not being ''substantial, credible evidence'' of impeachable offenses, Starr said. Starr, himself the target of ceaseless attacks from Clinton's defenders, spoke calmly and methodically -- but unambiguously -- as he offered his first public accounting of his long investigation into the president's relationship with Lewinsky, a possible cover-up and several other matters. ''He testified that he could not recall being alone with Ms. Lewinsky. That was untrue,'' Starr said of the president. ''He testified that he could not recall ever being in the Oval Office hallway with Ms. Lewinsky, except perhaps when she was delivering pizza. That was untrue,'' he added. Four more times, on matters relating to Clinton's previous utterances, Starr firmly repeated, ''That was untrue.''