Starr’s Case Against Scandal Figure Fogs Up

Cracks are appearing in independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s case against Julie Hiatt Steele, one of the minor players in the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal, and the problems are casting doubt on Kathleen Willey’s claim that President Clinton made an unwelcome sexual advance toward her in the White House.

Since Steele was charged with perjury early this year, members of Washington’s legal community have been puzzled by the case, inasmuch as Steele was indicted for making false statements because she retracted her earlier support for Willey’s story.

Many lawyers have said they find the case curious, as Starr has chosen to believe Willey instead of Steele’s sworn retraction that questioned Willey’s truthfulness.

Now as Steele approaches her May 3 trial date, another witness has cast doubt on Willey’s 1993 claim that she was offended by Clinton’s alleged groping of her. According to legal sources, Harolyn Cardozo, like Steele an ex-friend of Willey’s, has told the FBI that Willey boasted she could become famous as a paramour of Clinton’s, comparing herself to Judith Campbell Exner, who was linked to President Kennedy.

In addition, sources close to the case report, Willey has passed one polygraph test but failed another. Steele’s lawyers refused to confirm this, but they told a recent court hearing, referring to the prosecution, “There is a substantial polygraph issue with regard to their own witnesses.”

A grant of complete immunity from prosecution, which Starr’s office gave Willey, just unsealed with court approval, also suggests that Starr was “desperate” to bolster Willey as a witness against Clinton, independent legal sources said.

Drafted less than two months after Starr began his Lewinsky investigation last year, the immunity agreement contains an unusual provision. It says Willey has done nothing illegal to warrant immunity.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a lawyer not connected to the case. “It’s an unusual endorsement of Willey’s position. It makes Starr’s office look desperate to have her testimony.”

Willey’s attorney, Dan Gecker of Richmond, Va., did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Starr’s office declined to talk about the case, citing customary grounds that it cannot make out-of-court statements about pending proceedings.

The indictment of Steele, 52, on three counts of obstructing justice and one count of making false statements, was returned on Jan. 7 as House managers were beginning Clinton’s impeachment trial. It led sources friendly to the White House to question the timing of the charges.

Starr’s theory, according to knowledgeable sources, is that Clinton supporters pressured or influenced Steele to change her account, although the indictment gives no hint of such evidence.

Clinton “emphatically” has denied accusations that he groped Willey in November 1993, as Willey alleged on national television last year and in an appearance before Starr’s grand jury.

Although Steele initially supported Willey’s account, she later retracted it, saying Willey had asked her to lie. It was unclear what evidence Starr obtained to charge that Steele’s retraction was a lie, but the indictment said Steele attempted “to influence the testimony of one or more witnesses in the grand jury investigation.”

Although two witnesses told grand jurors that Steele told them she believed Willey’s account, a source close to Steele said, “Back at that time [1997], Julie was giving out that false story to many people she knew.”

Legal sources said Cardozo, the other Willey friend, has told authorities Willey called her on a cellular phone the day she was to visit Clinton in the White House.

Instead of supporting Willey’s account that she was fearful and shaken after her White House visit, Cardozo told authorities that Willey sounded pleased and eager to be seeing the president and pictured herself in a lighthearted vein as a potential Judith Exner, these sources said.

Cardozo’s account tends to back up previously reported statements by Linda Tripp, the former White House aide and onetime Lewinsky confidant, about Willey’s demeanor after her Oval Office visit.