Whitewater: Let’s Get This Investigation Finished

The investigation by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr into the business and political affairs of President and Mrs. Clinton has gone on for more than three years, but in Starr’s view much still remains to be learned. This week he asked a federal judge in Little Rock to extend for six months the term of the grand jury that is hearing testimony on the Clintons’ Whitewater real estate investment and other matters. The request was quickly granted. But the real news lies in comments made by Starr to support his request.

He told the court that the grand jury has already heard “extensive evidence” dealing with the “possible obstruction” of justice and is also looking into possible “concealment and destruction of evidence and intimidation of witnesses.”

This is potentially explosive stuff, not least against the background of the inevitable leaks and suspicions that seek to tie the Clintons directly to criminal wrongdoing.

Note, however, the use of the qualifier “possible” in the reasons Starr gave for wanting the Little Rock jury (another Whitewater-related grand jury sits in Washington) to stay on the job. One or more witnesses, perhaps including the Clintons’ old Whitewater partner James McDougal, who recently was sentenced to three years in prison and now is cooperating with Starr’s investigation, are apparently telling the jury things it hadn’t heard before. Some of this, Starr’s remarks imply, may be incriminating. Whether that adds up to a basis for future prosecutions of course remains to be seen.

Criminal investigations have to run their natural course, and any investigation that directly involves the president, conjuring up the specter of an impeachment threat, must especially not be constrained. But the Whitewater investigation has been going on since before the midpoint of Clinton’s first term. It has cost taxpayers millions of dollars and cost those who have come under investigation millions in legal fees. Powerful evidence may yet emerge that will bring down the mighty. But after the Little Rock grand jury sits for another six months, what then?

Unless the jury in that time hears convincing testimony to support Starr’s suggestions about obstruction of justice, perjury and the rest, it will be time to end that phase of the investigation. Suspicions may remain, perhaps justifiably. But suspicions alone can’t be the basis for prolonging this matter indefinitely. One way or another, the end point should be in sight.