Starr Report Rules Out Foul Play in Foster Death

Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has completed a voluminous report that, sources say, refutes claims by right-wing organizations that presidential aide Vincent Foster was the victim of a murder and that President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, tried to cover it up.

Running to more than 100 pages, the report rests on an exhaustive inquiry into the events surrounding Foster’s July 1993 death by handgun and was completed only recently, sources said.

“It is accurate and fulsome, and I believe it will be released shortly,” one source said. “It puts the lie to that bunch of nuts out there spinning conspiracy theories and talking about murder and cover-ups.”

Starr’s probe marks the third examination of Foster’s death. Earlier findings of suicide were returned by a coroner and by Robert B. Fiske Jr., Starr’s predecessor as independent counsel, but right-wing political groups have continued to allege that the president and first lady were implicated in Foster’s death.

Foster, who served as deputy White House counsel, was a close friend of both Clintons and a former law partner of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Among his other duties, he had helped prepare the tax returns of the Whitewater Development Corp., the controversial Arkansas real estate venture involving the Clintons.

Several times in the past, the independent counsel’s office had signaled that a report in the case would be forthcoming, first by the end of 1995, then the summer of 1996, then by the end of 1996.

Starr has not indicated when he might release the report.

How to deal with the Foster report is one of the first decisions facing Starr as he addresses the larger challenge of restoring confidence in his investigation after the furor that erupted last week when he announced he would step down as Whitewater counsel to take a post at Pepperdine University in Malibu, then abruptly promised to stay on when the decision provoked a torrent of criticism.

His handling of the probe into Foster’s death is especially sensitive because it is shadowed by questions of appearances of the sort that have continually dogged Starr, a former federal appeals court judge and solicitor general in the Bush administration, since he accepted the Whitewater assignment 2 1/2 years ago.

The idea that Foster’s death involved foul play and that the Clintons were implicated in the alleged crime has been heavily promoted by right-wing groups that receive financial assistance from a foundation headed by Richard Mellon Scaife, a longtime member of the Pepperdine Board of Regents. It was in order to become dean of Pepperdine’s law school that Starr originally decided to quit the Whitewater probe by this summer.

In addition to heading the law school, Starr was named dean of a newly created School of Public Policy that Scaife helped finance. Scaife’s foundation contributed $1.1 million of the $2.75 million in start-up funds raised to launch the public-policy institution.

Starr told reporters on Friday that he was aware the Scaife Foundation provided the funds, but he indicated he saw no conflict of interest, even though the foundation has financed organizations that have used mass media to promote various theories about criminal conspiracies involving the Clintons.

The same organizations, Starr said, have been “sharply critical” of his own investigation. These groups, however, have mainly criticized Starr’s investigation for failing to produce more criminal charges.

Joseph DiGenova, a former Republican U.S. attorney and later an independent counsel, said the Scaife connection “is an issue that will percolate for awhile, and unfortunately will be one more distraction from the investigation.”

Starr has also been criticized for continuing to represent the tobacco industry as a private attorney in its confrontation with the Clinton administration over new government initiatives aimed at curbing smoking by minors.

He also has links to conservative organizations that are hostile to the president and has given at least one speech to a highly partisan audience, leading critics and even some supporters to suggest that he has a tin ear when it comes to the appearance of partisanship or conflict of interest. Some even suggest that this insensitivity may hurt the investigation.

Remarking on Starr’s decision to accept a job at Pepperdine, DiGenova said, “Ken has a very strong sense of self, and he really is very independent in that sense. He didn’t count on the reaction by the press and public or the way people in his office would react.”

Starr, say sources close to him, was stunned not only by the criticism from outsiders--friends and foes alike--of his original plan to resign, but by the vehement opposition of his staff.

Pressed by reporters to say whether he had talked with his staff before making that decision, Starr said he had “inadequately consulted” with them but now understands their feelings.

Actually, said a knowledgeable source, Starr only consulted with his staff after he told Pepperdine he would resign by Aug. 1 and accept the two deanships at the Malibu school.

The staff was “furious” and felt abandoned, said DiGenova, now a prominent attorney in private practice who knows Starr and most of his staff. DiGenova said staff anger was a major reason Starr reversed himself, although other sources said the outside criticism, especially strong editorials by several newspapers and a scathing New York Times column by William Safire, were important factors.

Starr decided to reverse his earlier decision after “wrestling with concerns” expressed by people inside and outside his office, said John Bates, his deputy, who is leaving the Whitewater probe to rejoin the U.S. attorney’s office here.

“Part of what influenced him,” Bates said, “was being told that as a former federal judge and solicitor general, he was needed because he brought stature to the investigation that no one else had and it would help in several ways, including dealing with the courts.”

Starr himself said public suggestions that “I should keep my hand on the plow indefinitely” and direct the investigations and prosecutions until they are substantially completed was a key to his decision to remain.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a former prosecutor who had written Starr a letter urging him to remain at his post, said he is “delighted” that Starr has changed his plans because witnesses cooperating in the Whitewater investigation are counting on him to remain until it is completed.

While praising Starr’s decision to remain as independent counsel, some sources expressed concern that last week’s episode could unnerve some witnesses, especially those who have been offered immunity from prosecution or leniency in return for cooperation.

Democrats have accused Starr of unfairly dragging out the Whitewater investigation. Starr and his staff have blamed factors beyond their control for extending the probe. Those include reluctant or recalcitrant witnesses, defense appeals or other maneuvers designed to delay proceedings, and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s decision to expand Starr’s mandate beyond the original charge to investigate the Clintons and Arkansas businessman James B. McDougal and their relationship with three Arkansas financial entities.

The probe now includes circumstances surrounding Foster’s death, the firing of the White House travel office staff, the White House staff’s handling of sensitive FBI files and the truthfulness of testimony in the Whitewater investigation by the Clintons and their friends and associates.

However, some Republicans have called on Starr to wind up the investigation expeditiously. On Saturday, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Don Nickles of Oklahoma said he is glad Starr decided to stay but urged him to bring the probe “to closure pretty quick.”

Mark Tuohey, a Washington attorney who was Starr’s deputy for a year and stays in touch with him, applauded his former boss’ decision to remain, but added: “I hope this episode will not affect the credibility of the investigation. Too many people of goodwill and ability have been a part of this collaborative process to have its credibility questioned. Ken made a mistake, but he was strong enough to admit it and deal with it.”

Starr, in announcing he would stay on until the Whitewater investigation and any further criminal cases are “substantially completed,” said his plans to go to Pepperdine are on hold indefinitely, but the university indicated that the posts would be held for him until he is free.

Starr has been unavailable for comment since he apologized Friday for having announced he would resign as independent counsel without first completing his mission.

At Friday’s press conference, he said he and his staff are carefully reviewing evidence gathered under the original mandate to investigate allegations involving the Clintons, but said he could provide no time frame as to when he will announce whether or not the evidence warrants prosecution.

What he is basically reviewing, says a source familiar with the inquiry, is a “prosecution memo” of about 200 pages that lists options and reasons to indict or not indict.

“And he has been told by his staff that there is more evidence to come, so they don’t want him to discuss timing,” the source said.