Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- April 3, 1998
Clinton's troubles
aren't over yet
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
President Clinton won the battle over Paula Jones' sexual misconduct lawsuit, but he could still lose the war over far more serious crimes being investigated by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.
Asked what impact dismissal of the Jones suit will have on House preparations for a possible impeachment, Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday: "I think none. Everything depends on what Judge Starr decides."
Although a civil trial over the Jones suit would have been humiliating and politically damaging to Mr. Clinton, the worst-case legal outcome would have been a ruling that the president had sexually harassed Mrs. Jones and violated her civil rights.
The stakes are much higher in Mr. Starr's criminal probe, where the worst-case scenario for Mr. Clinton is impeachment. While many believe it will not come to that, Mr. Clinton remains in grave danger from Mr. Starr, who is hinting he may be ready to wrap up his potentially explosive case against the president.
"We all must play by the rules," Mr. Starr said Thursday. "What matters, from the criminal law's perspective, is: Were crimes committed?"
Mr. Starr is expected to give Congress a report that might answer that question later this year. Anxious to blunt the impact of such a disclosure, some Democrats Thursday seized on the dismissal of the Jones suit as vindication for Mr. Clinton.
"We are at the beginning of the end of this matter," said Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, New Jersey Democrat.
Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican, disagreed.
"The jubilation on the part of the president and his cronies is somewhat premature," said Mr. Barr, a member of the House judiciary committee that would handle impeachment. "The Paula Jones case never had anything directly to do with either Mr. Starr's investigation or the impeachment investigation."
Even the Democrats have been quietly meeting behind closed doors to discuss how to handle the procedural aspects of impeachment. Such meetings, unthinkable 11 weeks ago, are testament to the damning nature of the sex-and-lies accusations swirling around Mr. Clinton.
Those accusations would not have come to light without the Jones case, regardless of whether it was allowed to go to trial. Thus, even in defeat, the Jones case lives on in the Starr investigation.
Many believe the evidence against Mr. Clinton will have to be overwhelmingly incriminating in order to prompt nervous Republicans into going through with impeachment proceedings. But such an inquiry, even if it founders, would almost certainly entail the disclosure of previously unknown evidence that would inflict further damage on an already weakened president.
Unlike the Jones case, where the central accusations have long been publicly known, the Starr probe remains largely shrouded in secrecy. Many observers believe he has unearthed bombshells that have yet to detonate.
Furthermore, the question of whether Mr. Clinton lied about an affair with Monica Lewinsky and urged others to lie is only one of numerous tentacles in the larger investigation that has collectively become known as Whitewater. Any one of these other areas of inquiry could turn out to be at least as damaging, albeit not as lurid, as details of the president's sex life.
These inquiries include:
- Whether the White House or Clinton associates arranged for payments to former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell to keep him quiet about Whitewater issues.
- Whether the White House improperly obtained FBI files on employees of the Reagan and Bush administrations.
- Whether Hillary Rodham Clinton lied about her role in the firing of White House travel office employees.
- Whether the Clinton administration hid records that turned up in the White House two years after they had been subpoenaed.
Former federal prosecutor Joseph diGenova said: "It ain't over 'til it's over. And the worst is yet to come."
Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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