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On
January 7, Ken Starr indicted our sister, Julie Hiatt Steele,
for allegedly obstructing the Paula Jones' lawsuit and his investigation
by telling President Clinton's lawyer, the FBI, and the grand
jury that Kathleen Willey asked her to lie about the President.
Julie told the lawyer, the FBI and the grand jury that she originally
had agreed to lie to a reporter for Willey but, realizing her
mistake, she retracted the Willey story before the reporter
printed it in August 1997.
Julie Hiatt Steele, right, with her lawyer Nancy Luque
after the ruling.
credit:
The Associated Press |
Julie
is accused of obstructing justice and making
false statements when she denied that Kathleen Willey told her
Clinton made a pass at Willey in 1993. But stranger
than the fact of the indictment of this bit player, say lawyers
with no dog in the fight, is that it's based in part on Steele's
telling her allegedly false version to the press, specifically
Newsweek and the National Enquirer--and in 1997, before Starr
had even begun this phase of his probe. Lawyers for Steele,
who denies the charges, are considering a First Amendment challenge.
Steele's attorney, Nancy Luque, blasted
the indictment as "a transparent attempt to unfairly influence
the pending impeachment proceeding." Perhaps so.
The day after, House managers met to consider Willey as a witness.
Julie
Hiatt Steele Affidavit,"Jones v. Clinton"
Judge Hilton declared a mistrial in
the case against Julie Hiatt Steele after the jury became hopelessly
deadlocked.
The
indictment charges Steele with three counts
of obstruction of justice and one count of false statements.
The false statements charge refers to both an affidavit Steele
gave Paula Jones' lawyers and subsequent testimony before two
federal grand juries. After being vilified
by Ms. Willey on "Sixty Minutes" in March of last year, Julie
defended herself in the press. Starr's indictment says that
was obstruction of justice too.
Steele's
trial was the only criminal case to grow out of the independent
counsel investigation of the presidentŐs relationship with Monica
Lewinsky. The trial was the second setback in less than a month
for Starr, who was unable to convict Whitewater figure Susan
McDougal in a case in Little Rock, Ark.
Special
Message to Washington Restaurateur's
 Since
she was indicted, Julie has received
many kind offers
of support from help with legal research, to assistance
with the trial, to financial contributions. These welcome contributions
made one think we should set up a legal defense fund so that
"David" can fight "Goliath"
- a prosecutor with unlimited funds [our
money too] , with all of her might. As many of you may know,
my sister is a single mother with a small
child, who lost her job after Ms. Willey's story appeared in
the press.
| "When
Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation ended in a lame
plea bargain last week, it was with an air of unreality
that we remembered what Mr. Starr had put this country through.
... What drove Kenneth Starr? Many tried to puzzle out this
bland figure as he carried on his crusade. As good an answer
as any, I think, emerges from Bob Woodward's new book, "Shadow."
When Mr. Starr announced in February 1997 that he was quitting
as independent counsel to go to Pepperdine University, his
Republican friends savaged him. He changed his mind -- and
from then on was determined to prove his mettle by getting
President Clinton.
Back
to a Republican System by
Anthony Lewis, New York Times, July 6, 1999
"How
can this be in America?" Julie Hiatt Steele asked. "It's
not the country I thought I lived in. . . . She has been
threatened by Starr's prosecutors and shouted at by F.B.I.
agents. She, her daughter, her brother and her former lawyer
have been called before a grand jury. Her tax returns, bank
records, credit report and telephone records have been subpoenaed."
"Is
this America"
by Anthony Lewis, New York Times, November 3, 1998
"On
the day that the Senate began its trial of President Clinton,
Kenneth Starr had a grand jury indict Julie Hiatt Steele.
She is a remote, peripheral figure in the Starr campaign
against the President, and a single mother without resources.
Yet the independent counsel, unaccountable and obsessed,
has set out to grind her to dust."
"The
Knock on the Door"
by Anthony Lewis, New York Times, January 12, 1999
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