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Republicans and Democrats contemplate the risks involved
Updated November 18, 1998
7:47 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Court TV) — Republicans and Democrats alike have reason to be nervous going into Thursday's impeachment hearing.
Neither side is sure what the other will do once the proceedings begin. While Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde has exercised the most control over the format and scope of the hearing, even he may not be able to prevent the proceedings from spinning out of control.
Republicans fear that Democrats will try to transform Independent Counsel Ken Starr from lead witness into accused, shifting the focus away from the president's potentially impeachable offenses to the alleged improprieties committed by Starr's office in the course of its investigation.
Those concerns are not unfounded. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the committee, has led the Democrats' attacks on Starr, calling him "a runaway, overzealous prosecutor who wears his politics on his sleeve and has no respect for common decency or public opinion."
Hyde said in a letter to Conyers on Monday that he thought Conyers was attempting to "expand the inquiry to investigate the investigator" and the impeachment inquiry of the president was not the appropriate forum to investigate the independent counsel.
Hyde also sent letters to Attorney General Janet Reno and Starr, expressing concern about a request made by Conyers for certain evidence from the independent counsel's office.
Conyers also requested that four of Starr's top deputies be called to appear Thursday. Conyers also sent Starr a letter October 27 requesting "any motion, supporting materials, evidentiary materials or notes of any presentation made or submitted on or around January 17, 1998" in support of Starr's request for expanded authority to investigate the Monica Lewinsky matter.
Hyde wrote that release of the materials requested by Conyers "could affect the ongoing criminal investigation that the independent counsel is conducting."
Read the text of Hyde's letter
According to a spokesman for the Judiciary Committee, Starr sent the executive committee four boxes Tuesday containing materials related to Starr's investigation of former Justice Department official Webster Hubbell as well as evidence sent in response to Conyers' request. A spokeswoman for Starr said she could not comment on what exactly was sent.
Democrats have accused Starr of expanding his investigation to include Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky before he was granted authority to do so, discouraging Lewinsky from contacting her lawyer during initial contacts with prosecutors and violating grand jury secrecy rules by leaking information to the news media.
But Democrats face an even tougher challenge: they must respond new and newly revived aspects of Starr's investigation, including allegations involving charges involving accusations by former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey and a new indictment against Hubbell. Starr was given leeway Wednesday to reach far beyond the Monica Lewinsky matter in making his case at the current impeachment hearings.
So far, the committee plans to question Daniel Gecker, the lawyer for Clinton accuser Willey, and Nathan Landow, a Maryland Democrat who had contacts with Willey. She has accused the president of a sexual advance inside the White House.
Republicans also appear to be looking into fund-raising allegations against the president. Hyde asked the Justice Department for a prosecutor's memo that provided a detailed argument for appointing an independent counsel to take over the criminal investigation of Democratic fund-raising abuses, a committee official told The Associated Press.
The official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the Justice Department was weighing the request. Attorney General Janet Reno currently has three separate inquiries under way to determine whether an independent counsel should be named to take over the fund-raising investigation.
Republican investigators have expressed a growing interest in former Democratic fund-raiser John Huang according to committee sources. Starr gained the cooperation of Huang in an investigation of possible "hush money" payments to presidential friend Webster Hubbell.
The investigators are interested in whether President Clinton knew of payments to Hubbell by Clinton friends and supporters — and whether the money was designed to keep Hubbell from talking to prosecutors about the president.
Hyde says he is trying to be fair, arguing that the "committee has been bent over backwards in trying to maintain this theoretical bipartisanship that is going on."
For example, the committee is considering adding another round of questioning on Friday, one committee staff member said. Democrats have argued that they need more time to question lead witness Starr and such a move would give them each an extra five minutes. Hyde also agreed to have the committee's lead counsel, David Schippers for the Republicans and Abbe Lowell for the Democrats, interrogate Starr toward the beginning of the hearing, as Democrats wanted, rather than the end.
But Democrats, such as committee member Barney Frank and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, complain that Hyde makes decisions unilaterally and that he and his staff have not been forthcoming with details of the hearings, forcing Democrats to rely on media reports.
Hyde sees things differently. "We have gotten little cooperation from committee Democrats, who are hell-bent on attacking the credibility of Starr," GOP committee spokesman Sam Stratman said.
—Aldina Vazao
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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