Starr’s Whitewater Bill Put at $52 Million

Former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr spent more than $52 million investigating President Clinton, officially making his Whitewater and Monica S. Lewinsky probes the most costly independent counsel investigation ever, according to a General Accounting Office report released Friday.

The new GAO numbers, which cover the six-month period from March 31 to Sept. 30, 1999, surpass the spending record of $47.4 million set by Lawrence E. Walsh in the 1980s Iran-Contra inquiry.

Robert W. Ray, who replaced Starr in October, is expected to conclude his inquiries within the next year. In March, Ray closed a probe into charges that the Clinton administration improperly obtained FBI files on Republican appointees, saying he had found no evidence of wrongdoing by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and senior White House staff.

Five independent counsels investigating Clinton administration officials have spent a total of $95.3 million during the last six years.

The costs of the independent counsels continue to accumulate, despite the end of the independent counsel law. There have been 20 independent counsels appointed to investigate high-level officials since the law was enacted in 1978.

Ralph Lancaster Jr., the last independent counsel appointed under the old law, opened an inquiry in May 1998 into charges of influence peddling against Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman. The GAO found that Lancaster has spent more than $3 million in that probe.