Ruling to Give Notes to Starr, Sources Say

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the White House must turn over to Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr subpoenaed notes taken by White House lawyers when investigators questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton, sources said. In a still-sealed decision, the appeals court panel held that the White House cannot cite attorney-client privilege in the matter, overruling a federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., who had held that the president’s lawyers did not have to furnish the notes. The White House has publicly maintained that it has cooperated fully in Starr’s investigation, and its effort to keep the lawyers’ notes out of the hands of investigators was not previously known. In their argument to the appeals panel, Starr’s attorneys contended that White House lawyers were not Hillary Clinton’s attorneys and that their notes therefore are not privileged records exempt from subpoena, sources said.