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Starr Gets More Secret Service Secrets

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TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Secret Service employees resumed testimony Tuesday before a federal grand jury amid indications that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr was focusing on Monica S. Lewinsky’s last known visit to the White House before President Clinton denied under oath having a sexual relationship with the former intern.

A lawyer for the Secret Service officers who testified said prosecutors have asked them about Lewinsky’s visit to the White House on Dec. 28, about three weeks before the president gave his sworn statement to attorneys representing Paula Corbin Jones in her sexual harassment lawsuit.

With the grand jury scheduled to meet three days this week, rather than its customary two, Starr appears to be expediting his six-month probe of the Lewinsky matter in the wake of the Supreme Court’s refusal Friday to block prosecutors’ questioning of Secret Service personnel about their observations of Clinton’s conduct.

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The fast-track schedule could indicate that Starr is preparing to subpoena Lewinsky or seek an indictment against her on charges of perjury or obstruction of justice.

Starr is investigating the nature of Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky and whether either of them lied about it under oath or encouraged others to do so.

Meanwhile, two floors above grand jurors in the U.S. courthouse, lawyers for Clinton and Lewinsky attended a closed-door hearing before the Court of Appeals in which sources said Starr argued that he should not have to turn over documents sought by Clinton lawyer David E. Kendall or permit questioning of Starr’s staff members in a probe of news leaks.

Unhappy with a recent decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, Starr petitioned for the appellate court session. Details of Johnson’s ruling have been under seal, and the judge has denied requests by news organizations, including The Times, for her to make it public.

Attending the hearing were Kendall and Robert S. Bennett, who is Clinton’s other private attorney, and Lewinsky’s lawyers, Jacob A. Stein, Plato Cacheris and Nathaniel H. Speights III. All declined to comment upon their departure an hour later.

Kendall went to court in February with charges that Starr has illegally leaked grand jury material to members of the news media, an accusation Starr has denied.

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The controversy was renewed last month when a new magazine, Brill’s Content, quoted Starr as acknowledging that he and a top deputy, Jackie Bennett, occasionally briefed selected reporters to correct misinformation.

In the grand jury probe, Pentagon employee Linda Tripp was scheduled to return Tuesday for a seventh day of testimony, but instead Starr’s prosecutors called Secret Service witnesses. As many as four people testified, but their identities could not be learned.

A spokesman for Tripp, who secretly recorded about 20 hours of phone conversations with Lewinsky, said she is scheduled to return to the grand jury room this morning.

Michael Leibig, an attorney representing some Secret Service witnesses, said seven past or present officers have been subpoenaed to appear this week. Referring to Lewinsky’s Dec. 28 White House visit, Leibig told reporters: “Some of them were on duty . . . and know about it.”

However, Leibig has said his clients have not observed any criminal or improper conduct on Clinton’s part.

Larry Cockell, who last week asked to be relieved of duty as Clinton’s chief Secret Service agent after he was subpoenaed, is likely to testify on Thursday.

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Although Secret Service officers long have been required, as federal law enforcement agents, to report any criminal conduct they observe, Starr has sought and obtained court authority to carry that mandate a step further.

Higher courts now have ruled that a prosecutor may question Secret Service agents in the course of a criminal investigation about any observations of the president, whether criminal or not, that the prosecutor deems to be relevant.

This marks the first time in history that agents have been required to undergo such questioning.

Lewinsky’s Dec. 28 visit was the last of about three dozen trips she made to the White House after leaving as an intern in April 1996.

Times staff writer Erin Trodden contributed to this story.

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