He may get dragged into a rape trial in the Senate.
Democrats, GOP Clash Over FBI Documents
Charges Against Clinton Unproved
By Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 19, 1998; Page A35
Republican Judiciary Committee members have steered fellow GOP
lawmakers to sealed documents containing unsubstantiated allegations
against President Clinton, drawing the ire of Democrats who accused them
of trying to drum up support for impeachment based on unproven and
"misleading" information.
During a private meeting of House Republicans this week, Rep. Stephen E.
Buyer (R-Ind.) urged colleagues to inspect FBI documents that are not
included in the public material accompanying independent counsel Kenneth
W. Starr's report to Congress, according to participants in the session.
One member recalled that Buyer was "rather impassioned that all members
should go to view all the evidence that was available."
The specific documents at issue relate to a witness in the Paula Jones
lawsuit, who swore out an affidavit denying an allegation that she was
assaulted by Clinton while he was the Arkansas attorney general in the late
1970s. The woman later told FBI agents working for Starr that the
affidavit was untruthful, but the agents reported that their interview with her
was "inconclusive." The information concerning the woman was given to
the panel by Starr and remains under seal in an area for "secured"
information in the Gerald R. Ford Building.
At least a half-dozen House Republicans have looked at the secret
material, as recently as yesterday. Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.) spent
three hours viewing the sealed material, but would not say whether it
influenced his announcement Thursday that he will back impeachment.
Similarly, Rep. Michael D. Crapo (R-Idaho), an impeachment proponent,
said he looked at the documents at midday yesterday as "a matter of
thoroughness." He said he concluded that the "redacted material, or at least
the portion that I saw, [was not] directly related to the specific charges
here."
A spokeswoman for Rep. Mark E. Souder (R-Ind.), who has not said
how he will vote tomorrow, said the congressman learned of the
documents during a conversation Tuesday evening with Buyer and Rep. Ed
Pease (R-Ind.), in which he had inquired whether there was anything
further that he should read to help him make a well-grounded decision.
The pair told Souder they had just decided to make the sealed documents
available, and he spent four hours reviewing documents in the Ford
building, according to Angela Flood, Souder's press secretary. Flood said
that the new information contributed to but did not cause the
congressman's decision to begin rethinking his previously stated opposition
to impeachment.
As Republicans encouraged their colleagues to review the documents,
Democrats found themselves in an awkward spot. It gave them fresh
ammunition with which to criticize the GOP zeal to impeach Clinton. At the
same time, it drew attention to unsavory -- if unfounded -- allegations
involving the president.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee were livid yesterday over the
inspections of the sealed documents, accusing Republicans of circulating
unfounded rumors about Clinton and of failing to tell Democrats that the
sealed documents were available. "We had not allowed any Democratic
members to go over there, because we didn't know that they were
permitted to attend," said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), the committee's
ranking Democrat. Conyers termed the GOP behavior "an incredible
violation of our democratic rights."
Jim Jordan, spokesman for the panel's Democrats, said: "It's a sleazy
cheap shot that's entirely consistent with Republicans' obsessions with Bill
Clinton." Jordan added that the "The material was withheld by the
committee . . . because it's unsubstantiated, ambiguous and misleading.
Sam Stratman, a spokesman for the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry J.
Hyde (R-Ill.), said the visits to the sealed documents were proper. When
the House formally created its impeachment inquiry in October, Stratman
said, it granted every member access to all the documents accumulated by
Starr, including those not made public.
Staff writers Lorraine Adams and Charles Babington contributed to this
report. |
