November 14, 1998

THE INVESTIGATION

Judiciary Committee Gets Starr's Evidence on Willey

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By ERIC SCHMITT

ASHINGTON -- The independent counsel Kenneth Starr on Friday sent evidence concerning the former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey to the House Judiciary Committee, but he did not say the material constituted grounds for impeaching President Clinton.

The evidence, which was not made public, relates to Mrs. Willey's accusation that the president groped her outside the Oval Office in 1993 when she went to him seeking a full-time job. Clinton has denied the assertion under oath.

Unlike Starr's report to Congress in September, in which he said the president might have committed 11 impeachable offenses to hide his affair with Monica Lewinsky, the two boxes of witness testimony and other information sent Friday did not contain a formal accusation of wrongdoing against Clinton, said people who have reviewed the material.

A White House spokesman, James Kennedy, said: "Once again, the independent counsel has seen fit to send secret grand jury material to the House. We have not been allowed to see this material and therefore cannot comment on its contents."

House Democrats seized on Friday's developments as evidence that Starr was trying to reinvigorate an inquiry that is losing momentum, before his testimony next Thursday to the Judiciary Committee.

"This guy's on a vendetta against the president," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat on the committee. "He's just sending this up to light a fire under impeachment."

Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., said, "I have to conclude that Ken Starr does not believe the Willey information represents substantial and credible evidence of impeachment offenses."

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, declined to comment on the material, citing House rules barring disclosure before the committee votes to release the evidence from executive session.

Starr withheld the evidence concerning Mrs. Willey from his September referral, leading House investigators to conclude that he was preparing a second referral or criminal indictments.

A spokesman for Starr did not return six telephone calls Friday night.

It was unclear Friday night how the additional information would influence the direction of the House inquiry. Democratic and Republican aides were poring over the material late Friday.

"Until the materials are reviewed thoroughly by the members, it is impossible to know whether there will be any effect on the committee's schedule," said Nicole Nason, a committee spokeswoman.

Mrs. Willey's accusation is well known, but it has been contradicted by various witnesses. Mrs. Willey and several of her friends testified before Starr's grand jury. In essence, House aides said, Starr is turning over his files on Mrs. Willey and letting House investigators decide who is telling the truth.

A senior Republican committee aide said last week that if Starr were to send over information about Mrs. Willey's accusations, it could be readily "plugged in" to the investigation centering on Clinton's affair with Ms. Lewinsky.

Members of the committee's staff have boiled down Starr's original 11 accusations to three categories: lying under oath, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

Hyde and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the committee's ranking Democrat, wrote to Starr on Oct. 2, asking if he intended to submit any additional "investigative materials."

Friday's submission responds to that request and may signal that Starr has sent Congress all the material he has that is related to the impeachment inquiry, House aides said.

But in a letter faxed to the committee's Republican and Democratic investigative counsels, one of Starr's deputies, Robert Bittman, said, "Limited availability of these materials will not in our judgment jeopardize any ongoing investigation." This suggests Starr might still seek indictments in the Willey matter.

Mrs. Willey has been a focus of Starr's inquiry because he is investigating whether she received a White House job and other favored assignments from the administration in return for keeping silent about the supposed sexual encounter.

She came to Starr's attention after being deposed in Paula Jones' sexual misconduct case against the president. Mrs. Willey went public with her story in an interview on "60 Minutes" in March.

But inconsistencies in Mrs. Willey's account quickly emerged. One friend, Linda Tripp, testified to the grand jury that Mrs. Willey was trying to promote "an ongoing flirtation" with Clinton.

Another confidante, Julie Hiatt Steele, initially confirmed aspects of Mrs. Willey's story, but then disavowed it and said in an affidavit that Mrs. Willey had asked her to lie.

A third friend, Harolyn Cardozo, a former White House volunteer who is the daughter of the Democratic fund-raiser Nathan Landow, has said Mrs. Willey called her several hours after meeting with the president, sounding "excited and pleased."

Mrs. Willey has said she discussed her encounter with Landow, but has never publicly characterized those discussions. Landow has denied that he tried to influence Mrs. Willey's testimony in the Jones case.