south china post/ASSOCIATED PRESS in Washington
Updated at 1.47pm, Saturday
Lawyers say Starr's case strongest on perjury
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report on the Lewinsky affair makes a solid case that President Bill Clinton had a sexual relationship and lied about it, but Mr Starr is on shakier ground when he alleges obstruction of justice and witness tampering, legal analysts said.
Lawyers said Mr Starr's case is strongest when detailing numerous visits, phone calls, notes and gifts Mr Clinton shared with Monica Lewinsky, or such physical evidence as the blue dress stained by what the FBI lab concluded was almost surely Mr Clinton's semen.
The case is weakest when dealing with allegations that Mr Clinton tried to get others to lie for him, lawyers said on Friday.
Mr Clinton's own admissions probably establish ''substantial and credible'' evidence of sex and lies, even before Mr Starr's voluminous documentation of where and when Mr Clinton was alone with Ms Lewinsky and the account of discrepancies in their testimony, lawyers said.
''He lied in the (Paula Jones) deposition and he lied to the grand jury,'' said Peter F. Rient, who was an assistant prosecutor in the House Watergate investigation in 1974, before reading the report.
Mr Clinton is apparently in greatest danger when his own statements are compared against one another or against the testimony of others.
When he admitted an affair in his testimony last month before a grand jury, after months of denial, ''at that point the rubber plainly hits the road,'' said Eric M. Freedman, a Hofstra University law professor.
But lawyers for Mr Clinton vigorously attacked the Starr report as one-sided and fixated on sexual details. Mr Clinton's personal attorney, David Kendall, faced reporters shortly after the report's public release to insist Mr Clinton did nothing wrong apart from engaging in and trying to conceal the affair.
''No amount of gratuitous allegations about his relationship with Ms Lewinsky, no matter how graphic, can alter the fact that the president did not commit perjury, he did not obstruct justice, he did not tamper with witnesses, and he did not abuse the power of his office,'' Mr Kendall said.
Mr Clinton is not facing criminal charges and Mr Starr's documentation of alleged perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering puts Mr Clinton in no legal peril.
Congress will decide whether Mr Starr's allegations - which are similar to a highly detailed criminal indictment - merit an impeachment case against Mr Clinton.
Mr Clinton is accused of misleading his aides, knowing they would then testify falsely to a grand jury investigating the Lewinsky case. He is also accused of trying to influence others' testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case against him that begat the Lewinsky investigation.
But Mr Starr does not nail Mr Clinton with an explicit example of Mr Clinton telling anyone to lie, lawyers pointed out. |
