Ginsburg Blasts Media and Starr

Attorney William Ginsburg told a Valley Jewish group Tuesday that the media and the independent counsel are out of control and need to be reigned in by an increasingly dissatisfied public--familiar themes for the now out-of-the-spotlight lawyer.

The attorney for former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, who was discharged after failing to win her an immunity agreement with special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, told the Jewish Federation / Valley Alliance Business & Professions Division that he was still bound by the attorney-client privilege.

That meant that he could not address any of the speculation about his former client, who has since been granted full immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony about her relationship with the president.

So the 25-year resident of the Valley was left with his stand-by topics: that his critics are those who don’t know what it’s like to fight in the big ring, that the media’s use of background and unnamed sources makes its reports suspect and that Starr is on a personal mission to take down the president.

“The temple of justice is fragile,” Ginsburg said. “Mr. Starr does not even deserve admission to the temple of justice, let alone be its high priest.”

As to whether he should have dropped out of the case earlier, in favor of the Washington lawyers who won Lewinsky her deal, Ginsburg said, “That’s so-called water under the bridge, and I don’t know what the water would look like if we backed it up.”

About 150 people attended Ginsburg’s breakfast speech, titled “The Infidel Enters the Holy City and Finds Out about the Sins of Government,” at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana.