Jim, my understanding of the taping is that regardles of whether Tripp's original tapes werre illegally made, the fact that Attorney General Reno and the panel of three federal judges they convened to authorize a wire-tap based on probable cause that a crime had been committed, makes that irrelevant at this point. Monica said the same things, alluding to an affair with Clinton, on the tape the FBI made. I would like to know, however, if it is legal to authorize a wiretap based totally on illegally made tapes, or whether they would have had to present additional corroborative evidence to the panel of judges.
Does anyone know the answer?
I also think we might be getting away from the point in these discussions about sexual morality and behavior and the president. When he testified in the Paula Jones deposition that he did not have an affair with Monica, he committed perjury if that is not actually the truth, which is a crime, not his sexual behavior. There has been a pattern in the Whitewater case of witnesses or involved parties clamming up, being offered jobs and financial support by people around the Clintons, etc. which also strongly suggest the possibility of suborning perjury and obstruction of justice. If more illegal behavior within this pattern can be shown, it certainly does connect the Whitewater case and the Paula Jones case, and that is why, I believe, Attorney General Reno agreed to let Starr proceed. |
