NEW YORK TIMES: BLUMENTHAL INVOKED EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE BEFORE STARR JURY
Monday's NEW YORK TIMES is reporting that Sidney Blumenthal, a senior White House adviser, declined last week to answer several questions before a federal grand jury citing executive privilege.
Blumenthal said that prosecutors asked him whether he had any discussions about Starr or his staff with the president and the first lady. Blumenthal declined to answer, saying such internal White House discussions were covered by executive privilege: "I can't tell you anything about discussions with the first lady or with the president," the aide told the grand jury, according to the paper.
The development appears to be at odds with public statements made by one of Blumenthal's lawyers. Outside the federal courthouse after the testimony last week, his lawyer, Jo Marsh, told reporters that her client "denied discussing Starr's office with the president or first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton," according to wire reports.
The TIMES [Broder] will report that Blumenthal became "the second senior White House official to assert that his discussions with the president are covered by the executive privilege," following aide Bruce Lindsey, before the Lewinsky grand jury.
In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon could not hide criminal behavior behind calls of executive privilege.
DRUDGE-03-01-98 1901 PST
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