Former Starr Aide Faces Trial Next Week

A top aide to former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr is scheduled to stand trial next week on a criminal contempt-of-court charge stemming from a probe of alleged news leaks during the investigation of President Clinton.

Charles G. Bakaly III, who worked for Starr during the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation and subsequent impeachment proceedings, is to appear July 13 before Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, according to court documents made public Thursday.

Although the sparse public documents do not detail the charge lodged against Bakaly, the former Starr spokesman is not being accused of illegally leaking grand jury material. Rather, a source familiar with the matter said, Bakaly is accused of lying during the course of an investigation into purported news leaks in Starr’s office.

The filing of the contempt charge--initially brought under seal--became public because Johnson granted Bakaly’s request for a public trial.

Bakaly declined comment Thursday. Michele Roberts, one of his attorneys, did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

The trial will revisit an issue that frequently came up during Starr’s investigation of Clinton, when the president and his supporters complained repeatedly that they were caught off guard by news leaks.

Johnson has asked Robert W. Ray, Starr’s successor, the White House and Clinton to provide her with advice about what can be made public in the filings to date.

Starr himself initiated the leak probe when he was unable to discover the source of a New York Times story published on July 31, 1999, about his office’s deliberations concerning a possible indictment of Clinton. The story reported that Starr had concluded he had the constitutional authority to seek a criminal indictment of Clinton while the president was still in office.

Bakaly went on national television the day after the story appeared and said the “information did not come from our office . . . we did not leak this information . . . we do not leak grand jury information.”

While it was common knowledge that Starr would have to decide whether to seek charges against the president arising from the Lewinsky investigation, the timing of the Times story--as the Senate was considering impeachment--caused a public outcry.

During the height of the impeachment investigation, the president’s attorneys, David E. Kendall and Nicole Seligman, launched a legal assault accusing Starr and his staff of illegally leaking to the news media information covered by federal grand jury secrecy rules about the Lewinsky case.

Starr filed a response under seal and said publicly he was “deeply troubled” by the story.

Starr’s staff was forced to undergo an intense investigation directed by the court.

After the FBI questioned Bakaly and searched computer files, Starr asked his spokesman to resign.

Starr made the referral to the Justice Department after his office conducted its own inquiry and concluded Bakaly may have had some involvement in the leak, officials said.

Johnson subsequently concluded that the Times’ story revealed grand jury material, and she sought to hold both Bakaly and the office of independent counsel in contempt.

Last September, Johnson was overruled by the federal appeals court here, which said Starr’s office had wide latitude to communicate with the news media about its investigation and even about possible indictments. What prosecutors were barred from discussing was the grand jury’s investigation, the court said, and there was no such information in the Times story.

Despite the appellate court’s ruling, the investigation into Bakaly continued, shifting to whether he was truthful about his denials of being the source of the leak. The Justice Department will handle Bakaly’s prosecution at next week’s trial. Justice Department officials declined to comment Thursday, as did Starr’s successor, Ray.

Bakaly joined Starr’s staff in the middle of the Lewinsky investigation, after serving as spokesman for independent counsel Donald Smaltz, who investigated former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. He has a long history in Washington, dating to his days arranging White House media events during Reagan’s first term.

Bakaly is the second major figure in the impeachment drama to face contempt charges.

Clinton was accused of civil contempt by a federal judge for false statements in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment case and was ordered to pay a fine.