Cody, I found this, about requests for Monica's handwriting samples, voice samples, etc. There was a tiny article about Hilley, and you are right--no details!!
Tuesday May 26 7:49 PM EDT
Starr steps up pressure on Lewinsky in sex probe
By Gene Gibbons
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Independent counsel Kenneth Starr has ordered Monica Lewinsky to be fingerprinted and give voice and handwriting samples, increasing pressure on her to cooperate in his investigation of the White House sex scandal, sources close to the probe said Tuesday.
Starr, who is investigating allegations that President Clinton and the former White House intern had sex and conspired to cover it up, used his authority to order the samples under a court order issued January, the sources said.
Legal experts said his action could lay the groundwork for Lewinsky to be called before the grand jury investigating the sex scandal or set the stage for her indictment, presumably on perjury or obstruction of justice charges.
It was Starr's first move against the young woman since a federal court ruled that she must testify in his investigation despite her lawyer's contention that the prosecutor had given her full immunity from prosecution.
Lewinsky, 24, is currently in Los Angeles with her father, Dr. Bernard Lewinsky, but Judy Smith, Lewinsky's spokeswoman, said she would comply with Starr's order. How and when this will occur is still being ironed out.
"Ms. Lewinsky has cooperated fully with Starr's investigation and will appear (to be fingerprinted and give voice and writing samples) pursuant to the court order. As we have said since Jan. 16, she is very anxious to tell her side of the story," Smith told Reuters.
Starr's probe of Lewinsky's relationship with Clinton was triggered by former Lewinsky co-worker Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded 20 hours of conversation in which Lewinsky reportedly spoke of White House trysts with the president.
Lewinsky is also said to have given Tripp a set of talking points which suggest that someone wanted Tripp to tailor her testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit to shield Clinton from possible embarrassment.
Although that lawsuit is now moot, having been thrown out of court on April 1 by a federal judge in Little Rock, Ark. on grounds that it was too weak to merit trial, Starr is looking into possible criminal charges arising from it. These include witness tampering, perjury and obstruction of justice.
Despite her alleged confidences to Tripp, Lewinsky said in a sworn statement she had not had sex with the president.
Starr won an important legal victory last week when a judge ruled that Clinton's Secret Service bodyguards can be compelled to testify in his investigation, rejecting arguments that this would shatter a special trust between presidents and their bodyguards essential to prevent a presidential assassination.
Although the ruling by U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson can be appealed, ABC News reported on Tuesday that four of Attorney General Janet Reno's predecessors have written her urging against an appeal.
In their letter, the four ex-attorneys general -- Democrat Griffin Bell and Republicans Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh and William Barr -- said the claim that future presidents would be endangered by Secret Service cooperation with Starr is neither historically or legally sound, the network said.
In another development, a Washington author accused Starr of orchestrating news leaks to fuel a probe of Clinton that is "political, partisan and punitive."
Dan Moldea, a freelance journalist whose new book about the 1993 suicide of White House aide Vincent Foster maintains that Clinton's enemies turned a personal tragedy into a political circus, said Starr deputy Hickman Ewing told him while he was working on the book that the disclosure of sensitive nonpublic information was directed by the independent counsel himself.
"Starr not only approves the leaks, but who gets them. That's what was made clear to me -- that Starr controls the information," Moldea told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Charles Bakaly, a spokesman for Starr, said Moldea's charge was "categorically false."
"These allegations are similar to the efforts of the White House to discredit the investigation of the president and distract attention from the facts," Bakaly said. |