White House Source of News Leaks, Starr Says

In newly unsealed court papers in the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr says the White House and defense lawyers--not the prosecutor’s office--were the prime suspects in a flood of leaks to the news media.

Clinton’s attorneys scoffed at the suggestion the White House was the source of the leaks, accusing the prosecutor’s office of “trying to deflect attention from itself.”

Early in the inquiry, Clinton lawyer David E. Kendall kicked off a behind-the-scenes court battle by accusing Starr’s office of leaking damaging information about the president. The result is an investigation in which an appointee of U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson is trying to determine whether Starr’s office fed grand jury information to reporters in 24 different news stories.

Kendall publicly suggested Feb. 6 that Starr’s office was the source for a newspaper story that revealed Clinton’s Jan. 18 discussion with presidential secretary Betty Currie about Lewinsky, a central piece of the perjury and obstruction charges against Clinton in his impeachment trial.

In the newly unsealed court papers, Starr asserted that “this White House previously has employed a concentrated strategy of leaking harmful material to the media at an early stage to reduce long-term damage.”

White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said that “assuming only for the present that the White House was privy to the Currie information . . . the White House had no interest in early disclosure.”