RE: Starr-gate

["Rotunda, Ronald D." <RROTUNDA@LAW.UIUC.EDU>]

        Last February, Anthony Lewis wrote a column strongly attacking the
Independent Counsel staff or asking Sidney Blumenthal whom in the press that
he had contacted.  Last September, the House Judiciary Committee released
the relevant grand jury transcripts.  The transcripts showed that Blumenthal
had never been asked the questions that he claimed that he had been asked.
In fact, the grand jury forelady, in a later session, asked Blumenthal why
he had LIED about being asked these questions.  Blumenthal had no response.
Blumenthal made up a story so that he could issue a false complaint about
the Independent Counsel.

        Anthony Lewis, one would think, would then write a retraction.  He
never did.  Various newspapers have recently written stories of Blumenthal's
blatant lies, now that the transcripts have released.  But Mr. Lewis never
went back to this story.  When one knows about this, it is easier to
understand why someone would call him "now a shameless flack for Bill
Clinton."

        By the way, Blumenthal's lie demonstrates something else: he knew
that he could face the TV cameras last February and lie about what he was
asked in the grand jury room because he believed that the Office of
Independent Counsel would not leak the truth and discuss the grand jury
transcripts.  Blumenthal acted dishonorably because he knew that the
Independent Counsel would ask honorably.  

        This topic started because someone asked us to read a more recent
column by Mr. Lewis.  This column once again makes fantastic claims about
what went on in the grand jury room.  Once again, the Office of Independent
Counsel cannot comment on any proceedings before a grand jury, even if the
witness or her attorney lies.  We do know, however, that this grand jury
like all others, is subject to the jurisdiction of the federal judge.  We
also know that lawyers can take their claims to the federal judge.  Not
once, in four years, has any federal judge -- either in Washington, DC or in
Little Rock -- ever held that the Independent Counsel's Office has ever
violated any Rule of Court, any Department of Justice policy, any statute,
any regulations.  The charges have sometimes been made, and when they are
made, they are investigated.  But the Independent Counsel has always won.

        Today's newspapers report that the Department of Justice has also
investigated the Office of Independent Counsel, and thus far, says the
Department of Justice, it has found the allegations to be baseless.


___________________________
Ronald D. Rotunda
The Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Professor of Law
The University of Illinois College of Law
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820-6996
Home Page: http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/rrotunda
MAILTO:rrotunda@law.uiuc.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Kurt Metzmeier [mailto:kmetz1@pop.uky.edu]
Sent: Monday, November 16, 1998 8:48 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: RE: Starr-gate


This is hardly fair or accurate.  Any one who has read Lewis's columns
critical of Clinton foreign policy--to cite only one example--would hardly
consider Lewis a flack for the Clinton administration.  It is his distaste
for Starr's tactics as independent counsel that aligns him with the Clinton
(as it does the majority of Americans). 

At 02:09 PM 11/14/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Yes; it's the same Tony Lewis.  Once a thoughtful journalist and legal
>reporter, now a shameless flack for Bill Clinton.
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kurt X. Metzmeier
Coordinator of IS, UK College of Law
PH 606.257.1359  FAX 606.323.4906

http://www.uky.edu/Law/CISS



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