JLA:
I would drop that flirter with truth and read the real thing:
<<<
Ken Starr's heavy hitter
HOW IRONIC THAT JACKIE
BENNETT IS THE INDEPENDENT
COUNSEL'S POINT MAN FOR
TALKING TO THE PRESS, SINCE
HE HAS A TRACK RECORD OF
SUBPOENAING REPORTERS AND
COMPELLING THEM TO TESTIFY.
BY MARIA RECIO
One of the key players
behind independent counsel
Kenneth Starr's vigorous
investigation of President
Clinton is his chief deputy, Jackie Bennett Jr., a
career prosecutor with a Texas-honed reputation
for bare-knuckle tactics. Until recently, Bennett,
41, had kept a low profile -- but then Starr
identified him as the source of many media leaks
from his office in his recent interview with Brill's
Content magazine.
"Jackie has been the primary person involved in
that," Starr told Steven Brill. "He has spent much
of his time talking to reporters."
There's a certain irony to Bennett's role as a
source, because he is also one of the few federal
prosecutors in the country who has successfully
subpoenaed reporters and forced them to testify.
Bennett, who was formerly with the Justice
Department's Public Integrity Division, made his
name in San Antonio in 1993 with the successful
prosecution of former Democratic Rep. Albert
Bustamante on racketeering and bribery charges. In
that case, Bennett subpoenaed two reporters from
the city's dailies, the Express-News and the Light,
to testify about their stories.
According to former Light reporter Kevin Johnson,
"Bennett wanted a recitation of what we found with
respect to Rebecca Bustamante," the former
lawmaker's wife, who was also indicted but
acquitted. "I didn't think that was the function of
reporters," Johnson continued. "The article spoke
for itself." (Johnson now works for USA Today as
part of that paper's team covering the Starr
investigation.)
"It's very aggressive," said Marty Garbus, a veteran
First Amendment attorney, of Bennett's tactic. "It
doesn't happen that often." According to the
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press,
Attorney General Janet Reno approved only 11
subpoenas to reporters in 1993, and three of those
were later withdrawn.
But Bennett is nothing if not aggressive. His work
in Texas during the early 1990s left a trail of bitter
adversaries and a federal judge who believes
Bennett pursued a "rinky-dink" case in order to
"get" somebody. The judge, Lucius Bunton, said in
an interview that Bennett typified a breed of
"overzealous prosecutors." In fact, it appears that
many of the tactics that critics complain about in
the Whitewater case were also on display in the
cases Bennett tried in San Antonio.
"He's a bully," said San Antonio attorney Gerry
Goldstein, whose client was prosecuted by Bennett
but acquitted. "I'm not sure you need to take your
office and use the full power of that office against
every potential witness no matter how large or
small.'' Lawyers and witnesses who opposed him in
San Antonio said Bennett used grand juries to
subpoena, threaten and generally bully anyone he
thought was lying. Several are still afraid to talk
about him.
"It was Bennett's successful prosecution of
Bustamante that brought him to the attention of
Justice Department superiors, earning him the
Justice Department's top honor for prosecutors, the
John Marshall Award. Bustamante, who has just
completed serving three years in an El Paso jail for
racketeering and bribery, is appealing the verdict.
"It's a scary system when they have that much
power," he said in a telephone interview.
Bennett has some key supporters, however, notably
Starr. And U.S. District Judge Edward Prado, who
presided over Bustamante's trial, credits Bennett
with being "very professional."
"He's tough but he played within the rules," said
Prado, a former U.S. attorney. Justice Department
trial attorney Mike Attanasio, who prosecuted the
Texas cases with Bennett, said, "He's an
extraordinarily gifted trial attorney. He believes very
much in justice and what justice stands for."
Before winning the conviction of Bustamante,
Bennett tried and lost a big-name case against San
Antonio businessmen Morris Jaffe and his son
Doug. Doug Jaffe, his real estate and oil and gas
company, and two employees were charged with
making nearly $20,000 in illegal campaign
contributions to Democrats.
At one point in the investigation, Morris Jaffe said,
Bennett asked Doug Jaffe to wear a recording
device to a meeting with a longtime family friend,
Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, D-Tex., apparently to get
information on campaign contributions. Bennett
made the offer in return for leniency, Morris Jaffe
said. Doug Jaffe refused.
Gonzalez, who is retiring from Congress this year
and who rarely accepted political contributions
during his 37 years in Congress, was never accused
of wrongdoing in the case. In the end, all of those
indicted were acquitted by the jury in a case that
earned the prosecutors an unusual rebuke from
Bunton, the presiding judge.
Bunton, who was asked to oversee the high-profile
trial because he did not live in San Antonio, told the
prosecutors to tell their Justice Department
superiors not to bring any more "rinky-dink" cases
and not to send them on a "witch hunt."
"This was strictly a political thing," Bunton said in
an interview. "Somebody was out to get the Jaffes
because of their politics. They brought a case that
should never have been brought."
Bennett, a big man who played offensive tackle in
college, demonstrated in early May why he is
considered Starr's most pugnacious prosecutor. He
sent a letter to President Clinton's attorney, David
Kendall, accusing him of making "reckless,
irresponsible and false" allegations in a motion
seeking to put Starr in contempt for allegedly
leaking secret grand jury testimony. Bennett
threatened to seek court sanctions against Kendall
and other White House officials who had signed the
motion.
It was vintage Bennett. On the other hand, given
Starr's recent revelations about Bennett's own role
working with the press, maybe his deputy was
simply following one version of the old football
maxim "The best defense is a good offense."
SALON | July 17, 1998
Maria Recio is a correspondent in the Washington bureau of
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covering politics and
economics. >>> |
