Reprinted from The Washington Times, March 5, 1998
1st Lewinsky lawyer
fights Starr subpoena
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Washington lawyer Francis Carter yesterday asked a federal judge to quash a subpoena to appear before the White House sex-and-lies grand jury, saying efforts to question him about former client Monica Lewinsky would be an "extraordinary breach" of attorney-client privilege.
Mr. Carter's attorneys, led by Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, took their case before U.S. District Judge Norma Johnson Holloway in closed-door arguments that lasted nearly two hours. Judge Johnson made no immediate decision.
"Frank Carter has done nothing wrong, and ... the only thing he can do is to protect and defend a client who hired him to represent her vigorously within the bounds of the law," Mr. Ogletree told reporters outside the courthouse.
Mr. Ogletree said there was no basis for what he called an "extraordinary breach of the attorney-client privilege" in forcing Mr. Carter to testify against his former client. He said Miss Lewinsky "continues to assert her privilege."
Mr. Carter briefly represented Miss Lewinsky and helped her prepare an affidavit in the Paula Jones sexual-misconduct lawsuit against President Clinton, in which she denied having a sexual relationship with the president.
The affidavit contradicts nearly 20 hours of secretly recorded audio tapes of Miss Lewinsky, in which she details an 18-month affair with the president and efforts by Mr. Clinton and White House confidant Vernon E. Jordan Jr. to get her to lie about it in the Jones suit.
Mr. Clinton and Mr. Jordan have denied the accusations.
The affidavit has become a centerpiece of the grand jury probe, along with a three-page summary, or "talking points," Miss Lewinsky gave to Pentagon colleague Linda R. Tripp suggesting how she could alter her testimony in the Jones suit. Mr. Ogletree denied Mr. Carter had anything to do with the summary.
Mr. Carter's representation of Miss Lewinsky was arranged by Mr. Jordan. Mr. Jordan, who returns to testify today before the grand jury after six hours on Tuesday, also helped the woman get a job in New York after she filed the affidavit Jan. 7, but has denied that he did so to further any conspiracy of silence.
Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's office was expected to argue that Mr. Carter's testimony is permitted under federal guidelines that say confidential communications between an attorney and a client can be breached if prosecutors can show the lawyer was used by others to further a criminal conspiracy.
They also were expected to tell the judge that Miss Lewinsky may already have waived the privilege by discussing the affidavit with others, including Mrs. Tripp, who recorded the former intern's comments during conversations beginning in the fall of 1997 and continuing through January.
Meanwhile, an Arkansas state trooper joined Mr. Clinton yesterday in asking a federal judge to dismiss claims by Mrs. Jones that she was sexually harassed by Mr. Clinton in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991. Trooper Danny Ferguson, a defendant in the lawsuit, said Mrs. Jones had offered no facts to support claims she was a victim of job discrimination after rejecting the suspected harassment.
His motion is based on a 450-page pleading Mr. Clinton filed earlier in the case. Mrs. Jones' attorneys have until March 13 to respond. The Jones lawsuit is scheduled go to trial May 27.
Mrs. Jones sued Mr. Clinton and Mr. Ferguson in May 1994 on accusations that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton crudely propositioned her in the Little Rock hotel room. Mr. Clinton has denied ever meeting Mrs. Jones when he was governor and she was a state employee.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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