Word: starrs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Starr allies counter that the notion that the independent counsel had no right to investigate the Lewinsky case because he gained jurisdiction on the basis of a false statement is absurd. At the time, they point out, there was no way of knowing the truthfulness of the statement by Monica to Tripp that she would not sign her affidavit until Jordan produced a job. And regardless of what prompts an investigation, facts discovered in the process of proving or disproving the original allegation are fair game. The argument, says a Starr ally, "fits the pattern of trying to politicize...
Helping the Democrats in their case is the fact that Starr himself put distance between himself and Tripp. When Lewinsky agreed to cooperate, he no longer needed Tripp. Her only major appearance in his report to Congress comes when the prosecutor says she is under investigation for duplicating or otherwise tampering with the tapes, something she's testified she has not done. (If that were found to be untrue, she could face perjury charges.) But she would pose a grave danger to Starr if it were proved he had encouraged her to brief the Jones team, something both Starr...
Sources in the Jones camp have told TIME they always suspected that Starr gave Tripp the go-ahead to brief them, because they believe she was too unnerved by Starr's interrogation to take such a step on her own. But they have no evidence to support their belief...
...Democrats hope people will also focus on Starr's de facto messenger in Congress, House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Attacking Gingrich is a standard Democratic ploy, but in the Lewinsky affair it had been hard to do as long as Gingrich stayed behind the curtain, venturing forth only to make high-minded statements about the need for civility at a moment of this historic magnitude. But on Wednesday he went before the microphones--without Judiciary committee chairman Henry Hyde--and trampled all over the idea of a censure deal that would pre-empt impeachment proceedings. He also ruminated in a closed...
...much-needed moment of restraint in a scandal that has been all about excess. By Friday the Democrats had heard, for the first time since Starr's report was released, conciliatory talk from a key member of the Gingrich team. Representative John Linder of Georgia, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told an audience in Washington that "if all Starr has is what we've seen, I don't think the public is ready for [impeachment]." But the glimmer faded when Linder went on to echo Gingrich's call for an open-ended impeachment inquiry. "There is no shortage...