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“INDEPENDENT COUNSEL” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S638-S639 on Feb. 11, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INDEPENDENT COUNSEL
Mr. COATS. Madam President, over the past 3 weeks or so, Independent Counsel Ken Starr has been the subject of a sustained attack by individuals speaking on behalf of the President. Judging by some of these statements, it seems there is little that the President's surrogates are unwilling to say about Judge Starr. The objective of these comments seems clear--to undermine public confidence in the very legal processes designed to assure public integrity in the White House.
In an extraordinary televised interview, the First Lady accused the independent counsel of being ``politically motivated'' by an investigation of the Monica Lewinsky matter and part of a ``vast right-
wing conspiracy'' to bring down the President. Other Presidential advisors have also taken to the airwaves, attacking Kenneth Starr as a
``scumbag,'' and ``merchant of sleaze.'' One of these advisors went so far as to declare war on Judge Starr and the Office of the Independent Counsel.
Now these tactics bring to mind the old adage known to every trial lawyer in the country: When you have the facts, argue the facts; when you have the law, argue the law; and when you have neither the facts nor the law, go after the prosecutor, go after the witnesses, go after the accuser, attack their credibility.
Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal in an editorial entitled
``Spinning Starr,'' the editors state:
Events of recent days suggest that an analysis by Mr. Clinton's legal team has concluded that their strongest strategy is not to meet on the battlefield of facts and law, but to conduct a political offensive against the independent counsel and his staff.
No matter what opposition they've encountered--Paula Jones, Linda Tripp, Kathleen Willey, Fred Thompson, Judge Royce Lamberth--the Clinton side has always chosen the same strategy of stonewalling, smash-mouth lawyering.
Madam President, for those of us who know Ken Starr and have watched and appreciated his distinguished career, the picture painted of this man by the President's people is virtually unrecognizable.
The President's people have asked us to forget Kenneth Starr's exemplary personal character, his service as the Nation's Solicitor General, and his tenure in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The President's people have asked us to forget the reputation he has gained for fairness and balance and good judgment that he earned through working with the Justice Department.
The President's people have asked us to forget the unpopular chances he took in defending freedom of the press and freedom of religion during his tenure as a Federal judge.
And most of all, the President's people have asked us to forget that Kenneth Starr has brought to the independent counsel's office the cautious, deliberative mind of a judge and not the zeal of a prosecutor.
The President's attack machine has left us not with a caricature of Ken Starr but with a smudge: Kenneth Starr, right-wing conspirator, partisan prosecutor, Republican hack.
Madam President, there is too much hanging in the balance of this investigation to permit these attacks on Judge Starr's character and reputation to go unchallenged. The fact is that even some of Kenneth Starr's most committed ideological opponents have in earlier times painted a very different picture of the man who is now at the receiving end of so much of the Clinton fury.
Some of you may have heard of Walter Dellinger. He is a professor of law at Duke University, a liberal democrat and the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel under Attorney General Janet Reno. When Kenneth Starr was chosen as independent counsel, Professor Dellinger said, ``I have known Ken Starr since he was one of my students at Duke Law School and I have always known him to be a fair-minded person.''
An official with the American Civil Liberties Union said of Starr's appointment, ``I'd rather have him investigate me than almost anyone I could think of.''
Alan Morrison, the cofounder of Public Citizen Litigation Group told Time magazine last week that the idea of Kenneth Starr as a right-wing avenger is ``not the Ken Starr I know.''
When Democrats criticized Judge Starr's appointment as politically inspired, five former presidents of the American Bar Association refused to call for his resignation, citing their ``Utmost confidence in his integrity and his objectivity.''
Just last week, Robert Bork, one of the sternest critics of the independent counsel law, wrote that the Office of the Independent Counsel ``requires but does not always get an independent counsel of moral strength and judicial temperament. Kenneth Starr is just such a prosecutor * * * He has conducted himself professionally and without a credible hint of partisanship.''
The worlds of Kenneth Starr and the Clinton White House are completely different. The independent counsel has a reputation for integrity and fairness. He is temperate by nature and has been criticized by his own staff as being deliberative to a fault. Kenneth Starr regards justice not as a matter of winning or losing but as a search for the truth.
Madam President, if there is ever a time when we need an impartial independent search for the truth, this is that time. A great deal does hang in the balance. We have important decisions to make relative to foreign policy of this Nation and the domestic policy of this Nation. It is important that we be able to rest credibility and trust in the Office of the Presidency. It is important that we elicit the facts and the truth relative to the allegations swirling around the President and the White House at this particular time.
I can think of no fairer minded nor nonpartisan, capable individual than the current independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, and I think it would be appropriate if all of us let him do his job.
I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call.
Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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