Judge Raises Questions About Lindsey's Conduct
By John King/CNN
MONTEREY, Calif. (June 12) -- CNN has confirmed that the judge overseeing the Monica Lewinsky investigation raised serious questions about the propriety of Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey's role in White House damage control efforts, including keeping track of the accounts of crucial witnesses.
Lindsey's conduct is at the center of the dispute over attorney-client privilege between President Bill Clinton and Independent Counsel Ken Starr. The White House is appealing a district court ruling in favor of Starr; its brief is due at the Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.
CNN has previously reported that Lindsey and other White House lawyers are involved in an aggressive effort to keep track of Starr's investigation by debriefing grand jury witnesses and their lawyers. CNN also has reported that Lindsey has declined to answer an array of Starr's questions on grounds of attorney-client privilege, including questions about his conversations with other witnesses, the president and first lady, and other senior White House aides.
Starr asserts that government-paid lawyers have no attorney-client privilege with the president and therefore must disclose the details of these conversations when called before his grand jury. Lindsey has refused to do so, and the fight over his testimony will determine if a handful of other government attorneys involved in the damage control efforts become witnesses in the Lewinsky investigation.
In her May 1 sealed ruling, Judge Norma Holloway Johnson wrote: "The court questions the propriety of the president utilizing a government attorney as his personal agent in a personal attorney-client relationship. ... In the case of the president of the United States, taxpayers should not bear the financial burden of facilitating communications between the president and his personal attorneys or of advising those attorneys on strategy."
The Los Angeles Times reported details of the ruling Friday; a lawyer familiar with the White House legal strategy confirmed the material for CNN.
Records submitted by Starr as he pressed his case to Johnson include details of Lindsey's contacts with three people with key insight into the president's relationship with Lewinsky: presidential confidant Vernon Jordan, former presidential assistant Stephen Goodin and an attorney for retired Oval Office steward Michael McGrath. Lindsey spoke at length with all three in the early days of the Lewinsky investigation before they were called before the grand jury.
The source said drafts of the White House brief to the Court of Appeals calls such conduct by attorneys routine, and asserts it should be privileged because the Lewinsky investigation was certain to become a political issue and the possible source of congressional hearings. In the White House view, this justified having lawyers who technically represent the presidency -- not any president -- involved in the president's defense.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy tells CNN:
"As we have said in the past it is entirely appropriate for attorneys in the public or private sector to speak with witnesses or their counsel both before and after they testify before any investigative body. That practice is universally recognized to be a necessary part of any lawyers effective representation of a client and has been followed by counsel to Republican and Democratic presidents. Moreover, the independent counsel, the Justice Department and committees of Congress have been fully apprised of the fact that the counsel's office speaks with witnesses and their lawyers."
In the case of McGrath, the source familiar with the White House legal strategy said Lindsey was looking into "talk at the White House" that steward Bayani Nelvis had told McGrath about an encounter between Clinton and Lewinsky in the president's study off the Oval Office. The source said McGrath's lawyer told Lindsey his client had no firsthand knowledge of such an encounter but that Nelvis told him he found towels smeared with lipstick after seeing Lewinsky leave the study. Nelvis' attorney is among a half dozen lawyers who are participating in a "joint defense" arrangement with the White House.
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