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If Newt had to pay, then why shouldn't Clinton!!!
Starr: Lewinsky Probe Cost $4.4M
By JOHN SOLOMON Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton's denial in January of a sexual relationship
with Monica Lewinsky cost more than the personal embarrassment of Kenneth Starr's
report. Taxpayers will foot a bill of at least $4.4 million, The Associated Press has learned.
Starr has provided that figure as the preliminary estimate of what his independent counsel's
office spent over the past eight months investigating the Lewinsky affair and alleged
cover-up.
The figure -- which doesn't include the costs the administration bore fighting legal battles
that delayed Starr, the future costs of witness reimbursements or the other aspects of
Starr's investigation -- may become a political weapon against the president.
Some already are discussing the possibility that Congress could demand the president pay
restitution to cover some of the costs of the investigation as one form of punishment that
might also include a vote of censure.
''It's the duty of the Senate to discuss the costs that have been borne by the American
people as result of a calculated deception by the president,'' said Sen. Frank Murkowski,
R-Alaska, who requested and received the spending estimate from the independent
counsel.
''It's up to Mr. Starr to account for it,'' presidential spokesman Mike McCurry said. ''If
Mr. Starr thinks that the president should pay, then Mr. Starr should say so.''
At the senator's request, Starr's office calculated the costs its Washington office incurred
between Jan. 15, the day his office got permission to expand the Whitewater investigation
to include the Lewinsky allegations, and Aug. 31.
The figures do not include the costs its Washington office or its Arkansas office incurred
investigating other matters during the same period. The other aspects of the Whitewater
investigation already have cost about $40 million over 4 1/2 years -- a figure Democrats
have frequently used to attack Starr.
Now Republicans are prepared to turn the tables and use the cost of the Lewinsky
investigation, which included months of legal wrangling initiated by the White House, as a
weapon against the president. Clinton last month reversed seven months of denial and
acknowledged he had an improper extramarital relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.
Murkowski's office said Starr provided estimates for several categories of the
Lewinsky-related costs, including:
--$1.86 million on personnel who worked on the Lewinsky investigation. Many of the
Starr lawyers who worked far more than 40 hours a week were not allowed to file for
overtime.
--$950,000 on travel, which among other things included witnesses who came from as far
as Tokyo to testify before the grand jury.
--$884,000 on contractual and consultant services.
Starr's office declined comment.
The $4.4 million figure Starr provided does not include the costs other government
agencies -- the White House, Justice Department and Treasury Department -- incurred
waging legal battles to unsuccessfully stop presidential advisers, lawyers and Secret
Service agents from testifying before Starr's grand jury.
The White House hired an outside lawyer, Neil Eggleston, to make its case for invoking
executive privilege and attorney-client privilege to block certain aides' testimony.
Even though it already has sent Congress a report detailing 11 possible grounds for
impeaching Clinton in the Lewinsky matter, Starr's office is likely to incur significant
additional costs in the weeks ahead. It still must fight a Supreme Court battle over the
attorney-client and executive privilege issues, which the White House appealed after losing
in the lower courts.
And several figures in the independent counsel investigation can seek reimbursement under
the law for their legal bills if they are not indicted. Several officials involved in the Reagan
and Bush era independent counsel probes have received such restitution, including
President Bush, who was awarded $272,000.
With early polls showing Americans supporting a punishment less than impeachment, some
political figures are talking about the possibility Congress could censure or reprimand
Clinton and order him to pay some sort of penalty -- much like House Speaker Newt
Gingrich received to settle an ethics case against him.
''It's clear that this private matter had public costs over the last seven months,'' former
Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos said. ''So, like with Speaker Gingrich, the
president should pay a fine for prolonging the inquiry over these seven months for the
public costs and that could be the basis for a solution. And most of all, it would end this.''
AP-NY-09-15-98 1043EDT
newsday.com
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