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White House Fumes Over New Lewinsky Report
A new grand jury was reported on Thursday to be probing President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, drawing a sharp condemnation from the White House as Vice President Al Gore prepared to deliver his nomination acceptance speech.
CNN and other news organisations said independent counsel Robert Ray, who has said he would consider an indictment of Clinton after the president leaves office, had formed a grand jury on July 11 to hear new evidence.
"The timing of this leak reeks to high heaven," said White House spokesman Jake Siewert. "But given the record of the office of the independent counsel, it's not surprising."
The reports came just hours before Gore, who has sought to distance himself from the taint of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, was due to accept the presidential nomination and address the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles.
Jack Quinn, former White House counsel and close Gore adviser, also denounced the timing but said it should not distract Gore.
"I don't know if this is a big deal for President Clinton or a small deal -- housekeeping details as someone said ... The timing of this just absolutely stinks .. the timing of this stinks," he said on CNN.
"But more importantly, I'm not going to be distracted by it. I'm sure Vice President Gore is not going to be distracted by it and, most importantly, the American people are not going to be distracted by it."
Grand juries are secret proceedings to hear evidence to determine whether a criminal indictment should be issued for alleged wrongdoing.
Ray's predecessor Kenneth Starr's investigation of Clinton led to the president's impeachment by the US House of Representatives in December 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from his affair with Lewinsky when she was a White House intern.
The Senate acquitted Clinton in February 1999, allowing him to serve out his term which ends in January 2000.
Ray, a top aide to Starr who replaced Starr last October, said in April he would consider seeking an indictment against Clinton after he left office for trying to hide his relationship with Lewinsky.
Lynda Flippin, spokeswoman for Ray, said: "Bob still holds that position."
Rather than winding down the independent counsel's office after Starr's departure, Ray hired new officials to replace people who had departed, including six new lawyers with significant prosecutorial experience and one investigator.
The independent counsel law was first created in 1978 after the Watergate scandal drove President Richard Nixon from office. It was designed to allow prosecutors to operate free from political constraints in investigating allegations of criminal wrongdoing by top administration officials.
In his impeachment referral to Congress, Starr said he believed there was "substantial and credible information" that Clinton lied under oath, both before the original grand jury and in his deposition in the Paula Jones civil lawsuit, and that he obstructed justice in trying to cover up his affair with Lewinsky.
Last year, a federal judge in Arkansas ordered Clinton to pay nearly $90,000 to Paula Jones' legal team for giving false testimony about his relationship with Lewinsky, marking the first time that a sitting president has been punished for contempt of court.
Jones had accused Clinton of sexual harassment while he was governor of Arkansas and she was a state employee.
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