ANALYSTS DIVIDED OVER ALLEGATIONS; SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP ESTABLISHED; OTHER CHARGES NOT AS CLEAR-CUT.Byline: Anne Gearan Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report on the Lewinsky affair makes a solid case that President Clinton had a sexual relationship and lied about it, but Starr is on shakier ground when he alleges obstruction of justice A criminal offense that involves interference, through words or actions, with the proper operations of a court or officers of the court. The integrity of the judicial system depends on the participants' acting honestly and without fear of reprisals. and witness tampering  This article or section may deal primarily with the U.S. and may not present a worldwide view. , legal analysts said. Lawyers said Starr's case is strongest when detailing numerous visits, phone calls, notes and gifts Clinton shared with Monica Lewinsky Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman with whom the former United States President Bill Clinton admitted (after initially denying) to having had an "inappropriate relationship"[1] while Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996. , or such physical evidence as the blue dress stained by what the FBI lab concluded was almost surely Clinton's semen. The case is weakest when dealing with allegations that Clinton tried to get others to lie for him, lawyers said Friday. Clinton's own admissions probably establish ``substantial and credible'' evidence of sex and lies, even before Starr's voluminous documentation of where and when Clinton was alone with Lewinsky and the account of discrepancies in their testimony, lawyers said. ``He lied in the (Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones (born Paula Rosalee Corbin ) 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. 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 Hofstra University (hŏf`strə, hôf`–), at Hempstead, N.Y.; coeducational. Founded as a division of New York Univ. in 1935, it became independent in 1940, and its name was changed to Hofstra College. law professor. But lawyers for Clinton vigorously attacked the Starr report as one-sided and fixated fix·ate v. fix·at·ed, fix·at·ing, fix·ates v.tr. 1. To make fixed, stable, or stationary. 2. To focus one's eyes or attention on: fixate a faint object. on sexual details. Clinton's personal attorney, David Kendall, faced reporters shortly after the report's public release to insist 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 perjury (pûr`jərē), in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. ; he did not obstruct justice; he did not tamper with witnesses; and he did not abuse the power of his office,'' Kendall said. Clinton is not facing criminal charges, and Starr's documentation of alleged perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering puts Clinton in no legal peril. Congress will decide whether Starr's allegations - which are similar to a highly detailed criminal indictment - merit an impeachment impeachment, formal accusation issued by a legislature against a public official charged with crime or other serious misconduct. In a looser sense the term is sometimes applied also to the trial by the legislature that may follow. case against Clinton. ``Certainly the Starr report reads powerfully, but it's an opening salvo,'' said Mark Klugheit, who was counsel to the Senate during the 1989 Alcee Hastings impeachment trial. Hastings, a federal judge in Florida, was impeached. 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 sexual harassment, in law, verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature, aimed at a particular person or group of people, especially in the workplace or in academic or other institutional settings, that is actionable, as in tort or under equal-opportunity statutes. case against him that begat the Lewinsky investigation. But Starr does not nail Clinton with an explicit example of Clinton telling anyone to lie, lawyers pointed out. ``If I order you to lie, or agree with you that you're going to lie, that's one thing,'' Freedman said. ``If I know you have a false impression of the facts and will then lie, that's not my problem,'' Freedman said. The allegations that Clinton abused the power of his office sound weighty and carry the historical echoes of Watergate, but they are really the thinnest part of Starr's case, said Stanley Brand, former House counsel. ``To me, that is a very nice rhetorical flourish,'' Brand said. |
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