Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- March 25, 1998
Clinton pleads ignorance on 'privilege' request for wife
By Warren P. Strobel
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
KAMPALA, Uganda
President Clinton yesterday would not discuss his reported decision to invoke executive privilege and said, in his first public comments on the matter, that he was not even aware of whether his White House has claimed his wife can be covered by the controversial legal doctrine.
While sources have said that Mr. Clinton has invoked executive privilege to shield conversations with advisers from independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, the White House has steadfastly refused to publicly confirm that.
Mr. Clinton had an additional motivation to be mute yesterday: He and his aides are trying, with success so far, to ensure the Washington scandals do not overshadow his landmark trip through Africa.
"That's a question that's being asked and answered back home by the people who are responsible to do that. I don't believe I should be discussing that here," the president replied to a reporter's question as he opened talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
Only the president can invoke executive privilege, the legal theory that some verbal and written communications between a president and his aides, or among aides, can be shielded from revelation in court.
White House Press Secretary Michael McCurry later repeated to reporters the White House's explanation for its silence on the issue. Officials are "forbidden by law" from discussing the issue because it falls under Mr. Starr's grand jury investigation and the secrecy rules that surround it, he said.
He acknowledged it is "a peculiar circumstance, but it derives from the nature of grand jury proceedings, which are secret."
Mr. McCurry, clearly irked by reporters' emphasis on the matter, also sought to justify the White House's silence by saying, "The president has asserted executive privilege in the past, and it's been under [court] seal." He apparently referred to the case involving former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.
The White House is extremely sensitive on the executive privilege issue, in part because of the historical parallels with the Watergate scandal that it conjures. President Nixon invoked it in an unsuccessful effort to withhold incriminating Oval Office tape recordings.
Clinton aides Sidney Blumenthal and Bruce Lindsey reportedly have refused to answer questions on the basis of executive privilege. Among the conversations at issue are those Mr. Blumenthal had with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Mr. Clinton's refusal to even acknowledge publicly his decision to try to use the legal shield has prompted growing criticism in Washington. The criticism intensified after reports surfaced this week that the White House was adding Mrs. Clinton to the list of those whose strategy talks with the president it wants placed off-limits.
Asked about those reports, the president expressed ignorance. "All I know is -- I saw an article about it in the papers today," he said. "I haven't discussed it with the lawyers. I don't know. You should ask someone who does."
Mr. McCurry said Mr. Clinton has not talked to White House general counsel Charles F.C. Ruff or personal attorneys David E. Kendall and Robert S. Bennett since he left Washington for Africa on Sunday.
While three of five reporters' questions at the brief photo session with Mr. Museveni dealt with his ethical travails, Mr. Clinton has looked anything but the beleaguered chief executive in the first two days of his 11-day tour of six African nations.
In Ghana and here in Uganda, he has been met by large and adoring crowds, seas of children waving American flags, welcome signs everywhere and biographical articles in local English-language newspapers that might have come right from White House public relations. Other articles dwell on his policies toward Africa, making nary a mention of Mr. Starr, White House ex-intern Monica Lewinsky or the Whitewater affair.
In Wanyange village outside Kampala yesterday, a woman presented the visiting president with her 2-day-old baby boy, whom she had named "Bill Clinton."
Mrs. Clinton, who made friends during a trip here a year ago and is widely admired in the developing world, gets the same treatment. Both Clintons were met yesterday morning with special sections in Kampala's the New Vision, an English-language daily.
In the Ghanian capital of Accra on Monday, an emcee kept a crowd of several hundred thousand entertained while they waited for Mr. Clinton by reciting long, and extremely favorable, biographies of the president and first lady.
"We didn't write the script," a White House communications official assured reporters.
True to form, Mr. Clinton yesterday dismissed suggestions he was glad to be out of Washington. "Well, I'm glad to be doing the business of the United States and the people," he said. "I've looked forward to this for years. And I think most Americans want me to do the job I was elected to do."
Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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