Starr Subpoenas Head Of Clinton's Security Detail
Independent counsel now pursuing plainclothes agents
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Cockell, left, guards President Clinton
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WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, July 14) -- The chief of President Bill Clinton's elite security detail is among several additional Secret Service personnel subpoenaed Tuesday by Independent Counsel Ken Starr to testify before a federal grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky investigation, sources told CNN.
The move to compel testimony from Special Agent Larry Cockell represents an escalation of Starr's attempt to interview Secret Service agents.
The sources,two lawyers and a government official, said Cockell and the
Secret Service intend to fight the subpeona.
Until Cockell's subpoena, Starr had only sought testimony from two uniformed officers and a lawyer, and had excluded plainclothes agents on the president's personal detail.
A government source said Cockell has been ordered to testify this Thursday and that others, including former agents, may appear as well.
An administration source told CNN that Justice Department attorneys may go to court as early as Wednesday to block the subpoenas.
Starr also has subpoenaed Secret Service records of various dates from the period Lewinsky worked at the White House as an intern, according to sources familiar to the case.
In addition to Cockell, attorneys involved in the case say, David Carpenter, the former head of Clinton's security detail, had previously been told that Starr wanted to talk to him.
Carpenter, a tall, gray-haired agent often mistaken for Clinton, left the Secret Service and was appointed by the president to head the State Department's security team and office of foreign missions. He is awaiting Senate confirmation to the prestigious post, which carries the rank of ambassador.
But one of the lawyers, loyal to the Secret Service, told CNN late Tuesday he was "virtually certain" that Carpenter was not among the seven or eight agents and officers who were named in subpoenas Tuesday.
This source said Starr's office had told the Justice Department it was
interested in talking to "perhaps a dozen or so" current and former agents, and
that Carpenter had been mentioned in some of these discussions.
The other lawyer, also loyal to the Secret Service and involved in the
case for some time, says the Justice Department has asked for a hearing
Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, who
oversees the Starr grand jury.
The source said the Justice Department will ask for a stay of the
subpoenas. Some of those subpoenaed have informed supervisors they plan to hire
private lawyers.
The attorneys said they were urging the Justice Department to argue that
Starr is overreaching and that he is going back on his word given to a federal
appeals court that he would not pursue agents in the president's close
protective detail.
Perhaps most dramatic, is the line of legal defense against the subpoena of
Cockell and any other plainclothes protective agents that the agency and lawyers consulting with Secret Service director Lou Merletti are pushing.
According to one of the lawyers familiar with the Secret Service position the Secret Service may argue that Starr is attempting to pierce the president's claim of attorney-client privilege in conversations with private and White House lawyers, including perhaps White House Deputy Counsel Bruce Lindsey.
Cockell, for example, was in the presidential limousine when Clinton rode with his private attorney Robert Bennett to give his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Clinton was repeatedly questioned about Lewinsky during that deposition.
The source said lawyers working with the Secret Service are expecting
Starr to argue the president effectively waived the privilege by having
conversations -- over the phone in the car -- where Cockell or other
agents were in a position to overhear.
Starr has argued in court papers that Secret Service personnel have an obligation as federal law enforcement officers to report any possible evidence of wrongdoing.
Cockell was not the lead agent in the presidential detail when Lewinsky interned or later worked at the White House. But he has been virtually right next to the president as the Lewinsky case unfolded in the past few months.
Carpenter was Clinton's lead agent for much of the 1992 presidential campaign and into the first term. Others who have held the position of lead agent are current Secret Service director Merletti and former special agent in charge Brian Stafford.
Secret Service fights subpoenas
Starr wants to talk to the agents to see if they have information relevant to his investigation into whether Clinton had an affair with Lewinsky, then urged her to lie about it under oath.
The issue, however, is not likely to be resolved soon. Tuesday, the Justice Department asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to block the three original subpoenas. The Secret Service has pressed for the appeal, claiming its employees are shielded from testifying by a "protective function privilege."
The Secret Service, which is under the Treasury Department, fears that its relationship with Clinton would be damaged if agents were required to testify. Secret Service attorneys also contend that future presidents would push a security team away and be more vulnerable to attack.
A federal judge and a three-judge appeals court panel have sided with Starr and ordered the three Secret Service employees to testify.
In it's brief filed Tuesday, the Justice Department stressed the importance of the "protective function privilege."
"This case involves a national interest of the first magnitude: the safety of the President of the United States. The Secret Service has explained clearly and unequivocally ... that the absence of a privilege will gravely impair its ability to protect the President and is likely to result in national tragedy," the Justice Department statement argued.
White House Correspondent John King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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