LEAKS TIED TO STARR, DEPUTIES.

Byline: Neil A. Lewis The New York Times

A federal judge has ruled that 24 news accounts about the investigation of President Clinton appear on their face to show that prosecutors in Kenneth Starr's office repeatedly and knowingly violated federal rules by leaking grand jury testimony or other secret information, according to documents released Friday.

In the ruling, made in September by U.S. District Court Judge Norma Holloway Johnson but unsealed only Friday, the judge also said that an investigator selected by her to look into the matter had the power to seize and examine the prosecutors' telephone records and logs along with their appointment calendars, memorandums and other documents to determine whether they disclosed information to the press.

Johnson kept secret the name of the investigator, known as a special master, although she did not explain why. She said that if the special master found instances of improper leaks, she could hold members of the independent counsel's office in contempt or order other sanctions. Such an action would undermine the standing of the independent counsel, but it is unlikely that even if sanctions were imposed they would affect the results of the Starr investigation.

In her ruling, Johnson also adopted a sweeping definition of the kind of information that prosecutors may not disclose in a grand jury investigation.

She said prosecutors are prohibited not only from talking publicly about actual grand jury testimony but also about more generalized matters, like the ``strategy and direction of the investigation,'' the fact that a witness has been subpoenaed to testify or even ``what is likely to occur'' before a grand jury.

Such a broad definition appears at odds with Starr's view as expressed in an interview in the magazine Brill's Content in June. In that interview, Starr acknowledged that he and his deputy had spoken with reporters about the investigation ``on background.'' But he insisted that these disclosures were not illegal because they did not involve direct testimony before a grand jury. He said his comments were permissible because they were made to protect his office from attacks that undermined public confidence in his work.

The news reports that Johnson has ruled contain evidence of violations of grand jury secrecy are from the television networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox, as well as from Newsweek, Brill's Content, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News and The Boston Globe. Johnson said that because the news accounts constituted ``prima facie'' evidence of wrongdoing, the burden was now on Starr and his fellow prosecutors to show they were not the source of the articles and broadcast accounts.

Summarized reports

In her 23-page opinion, Johnson summarized the two dozen broadcast and newspaper reports about the investigation of Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky and noted that many included attributions like ``prosecutors,'' ``sources with knowledge of the investigation,'' ``the prosecution acknowledged,'' ``law enforcement sources'' and ``Starr's deputies.''

She described the articles and broadcasts as ``serious and repetitive'' evidence that Starr and his prosecutors may have committed violations.

Some of the reports contained less direct references to prosecutors as the sources of information.

The forceful ruling was quickly welcomed by the White House, which has been pressing the notion that Starr and his deputies are committed to ousting Clinton from office to the point of abusing their power.

Gregory Craig, special counsel to Clinton, described Johnson's ruling Friday as confirming ``what we have said all along.''

Craig, who is managing the White House response to both the Starr investigation and the efforts in Congress to impeach the president, said, ``We believe that the Office of Independent Counsel has been waging a campaign of leaks against the president in an improper effort to influence public opinion and congressional opinion, and it has done so in direct violation of federal laws safeguarding the confidentiality of grand jury proceedings.''

Elizabeth Ray, a spokeswoman for Starr, declined to comment except to say that the prosecutors' office was cooperating fully with the special master named by Johnson.

White House barred

Johnson had initially ruled that Clinton's lawyers were allowed to conduct an investigation of possible leaks from the office of Starr, but an appeals court overturned that order, saying it would be improper for White House lawyers to be questioning the prosecutors who were investigating the President.

In the order released Friday, Johnson is saying in essence that if the White House is not permitted to conduct an investigation into leaks, she will have her own investigator do it.

The investigator or special master has apparently been at work for more than a month, according to Johnson's ruling. Several bureau chiefs of the news organizations whose accounts were included in the ruling said they would have no comment because the issue involved confidential sources.

At the same time, the news executives who were interviewed said that neither they nor their reporters had been contacted by the special master.