Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- May 8, 1998
White House admits using tax funds for scandal lawyers
By Paul Bedard
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The White House has acknowledged using taxpayer-funded government lawyers to defend President Clinton against charges he had sex with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and then told her to lie about it.
In documents provided to Congress and obtained by The Washington Times, the White House counsel's office said the unusual legal work is permitted under federal rules because the case involves the president and a White House worker.
"The allegations in the Lewinsky matter focus on the alleged conduct of the president during his tenure in office with respect to a White House employee," said the counsel's office.
And even though the charges do not relate to the president's official duties, the office said government lawyers can be tapped because there is an "official nexus" between the president's duties and the probe.
House and Senate lawmakers probing the use of publicly funded lawyers to handle personal legal affairs for the president said they plan to expand their investigation to determine if the use of White House lawyers in the Lewinsky affair violates Justice Department rules.
The counsel's office statement came in answers to dozens of questions posed by the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee that oversees the White House budget.
The Justice Department bars government officials from using federal lawyers to defend against personal charges.
"Investigations like this consume an extraordinary amount of public, press and political attention and, therefore, place a significant burden on the president's ability to perform his constitutional and statutory duties. To allow him to strike the appropriate balance in these circumstances, the president is entitled to the most knowledgeable, candid and expert advice attainable," said the counsel's office.
In addition, the office said that despite the personal nature of the charges involving Miss Lewinsky, the use of public lawyers to help defend the president is needed because Republicans have charged that the affair has derailed Mr. Clinton's agenda.
"In the legislative area, there have been any number of comments by leaders of both houses complaining about the adverse effect that the investigation is allegedly having on the business of Congress -- comments that highlight the interplay between the Lewinsky matter and the president's official duties.
"The senior staff of the White House must advise the president on how best to manage the legislative process in these, and other, circumstances," said the office.
The documents, also provided to a Senate panel probing reports that the White House is misusing government lawyers for the president's personal legal work, revealed:
- Nearly half of the $2 million in salaries paid to some 33 White House lawyers goes to attorneys handling legal affairs related to scandals affecting the president. The White House specified 10 attorneys and paralegals, with a combined salary of $682,500, who handle scandal-related issues. That list, however, did not include chief Counsel Charles F.C. Ruff, top presidential aides Bruce Lindsey and Cheryl Mills, and a handful of other Ruff aides who have worked on scandal issues.
Mr. Ruff, Mr. Lindsey and Miss Mills combined earn $237,500 annually.- The counsel's office has borrowed 125 lawyers from other agencies since 1993
.
White House aides rejected charges of misuse of administration lawyers at a hearing Thursday of the Senate Appropriations treasury and general government subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Colorado Republican.
"There is no personal work being conducted by the White House lawyers," said Ada Posey, White House director of administration.
But, she added, "there is an official nexus, connection or link between [independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's] investigation and the constitutional, statutory and ceremonial responsibility of the president and the office of the president. ... It is obvious and undeniable."
During the hearing, C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel under President Bush, charged that Mr. Ruff lied in a letter to Mr. Campbell when he said that the current legal team of 48 lawyers, paralegals and assistants -- 33 staff aides and 15 borrowed from other agencies -- was equal to the Bush-era operation.
"That's totally fiction. It's not true. We had less than half of that," Mr. Gray said.
Mr. Gray said that his legal team, which he claimed was busier than Mr. Ruff's because of a crush of legislation and foreign operations such as the 1991 Persian Gulf war, averaged 12 lawyers, a small number of secretaries and four to six lawyers borrowed from other agencies.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy, however, cited phone books showing the larger size of the Bush legal team at the end of 1992.
Despite congressional concerns, Mr. Campbell said Congress may never get a full accounting of what every Clinton lawyer does. Mr. Ruff and White House Chief of Staff Erskine B. Bowles have refused to testify.
"It may be when it's all said and done that we won't be able to do anything. They may just continue using government lawyers for private lawsuits," he said.
But both House and Senate appropriations officials are considering legislation that would sharply cut funding for the counsel's office to punish what they say is the White House's blurring of the lines between official and private legal work on behalf of the president.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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