Starr Says Defense Attorneys Should Search For Truth, Too
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AllPolitics, June 1) -- Touching on his fight with the White House, Independent Counsel Ken Starr on Monday bemoaned what he called "an apparent loss of respect for the truth" by some of today's lawyers.
"Too many of today's lawyers seem to take Mark Twain's aphorism to heart: 'Truth is the most valuable thing we have, so let's economize with it,' " Starr said in a talk to a county bar association.
Starr said defense attorneys "have a duty not to use their skills to impede the search for truth."
"A good lawyer ... must urge the client against steps that are likely to impede the quest for truth," he said.
"Imagine the disaster that would consume our profession, and indeed our society, if lawyers let down their moral guard and simply shrugged when clients declare, explicitly or implicitly, to commit perjury," Starr said.
"At what point does a lawyer's manipulation of the system become an obstruction of the truth?" the independent prosecutor asked.
Starr avoided, for the most part, direct comments about his dispute with the White House over testimony of two key White House aides, Bruce Lindsey and Sidney Blumenthal, in the Monica Lewinsky controversy. But he did cite a ruling by Judge Norma Holloway Johnson on the question of privilege for government-paid attorneys.
Sources say the White House is likely to drop an executive privilege appeal, but pursue an attorney-client privilege to block some testimony by Lindsey.
Starr suggested such an appeal was wrong because courts have already concluded that government lawyers do not have such a privilege in criminal cases involving public officials.
Some of his comments left no doubt his opinion of the White House tactics.
"Litigants often try to concoct new privileges by contending that their relationship is just as important as the attorney-client relationship or the spousal relationship or the priest-penitent relationship," Starr said. "But the problem is they're arguing in the wrong forum."
Congress is proper forum for establishing new privilege in federal grand jury proceedings, not the courts, he said.
A 'No comment' on Clinton's cooperation
Earlier Monday, Starr had no comment when asked if he is getting cooperation from Clinton in the probe.
When asked if a possible decision by the White House to drop an appeal on the question of executive privilege would affect his investigation, Starr replied, "The sooner we can get issues resolved the better. We want to move forward as quickly as we can and gather as much information as we can so we would welcome access to information."
Starr is looking into whether Clinton lied under oath about a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and urged her to do the same.
CNN's Bob Franken and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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