Contempt

by Ken Starr

  Some have been kind enough to suggest I would have been on the Supreme Court had I not taken on the Whitewater investigation, and especially the much-criticized Lewinsky inquiry. Maybe, but we’ll never know. While serving as solicitor general, I had already been passed over by President George H. W. Bush in favor of David Souter.

  That rejection was a bitter pill for me, with the president under whom I had faithfully served selecting an unknown judge from New Hampshire and elevating him to the highest court in the land.

  Many conservatives would later rue that appointment, as Justice Souter became a reliably liberal vote on a closely divided Court. It was a costly and unforced presidential error. Justice Souter was even heard to say, privately, “I have the Ken Starr seat.” Chief Justice Roberts has similarly been heard to say, “But for Whitewater, Ken would have my job.”

  Whether that’s true or not, my opportunity to serve on the nation’s highest court had passed me by. I would not have had another chance eight years later, as President George W. Bush wisely selected two sitting judges, Roberts and Samuel Alito, who were at least ten years younger than I. I was pleased and proud of those appointments.

  By that time, I was in my late fifties, likely too old—and much too controversial—to merit serious consideration for appointment to the High Court. Presidents want longevity in their Supreme Court nominees, as we saw in 2017 with President Trump’s choice of forty-eight-year-old Neil Gorsuch and, in 2018, Brett Kavanaugh. And presidents want Senate confirmability, which is what the choices of President Bush 43 elegantly provided.

  And so, my public service drew to a close. But I left behind a record of integrity, of trying to do my honest best. As the banner we displayed in our Little Rock trial office said: “We are honored by our friends and distinguished by our enemies.”

  As for Bill and Hillary Clinton, the citizens of the United States deserved better. Talented they were, to be sure, but deeply flawed, fundamentally dishonest, contemptuous of law and process. That was a personal tragedy, but even more, a tragedy for our nation.

  Afterword

  During the week before Christmas 2017, our daughter Cynthia was in the last month of an at-risk pregnancy. She had lost her first child due to severe pre-eclampsia and desperately wanted her family around her.

  So a large contingent of us from Texas—Alice, my daughter Carolyn and her husband, Cameron, and their four children—trooped to New York to enjoy Christmas with Cynthia and her husband, Justin.

  I love Christmas in New York—all the lights, the chilly weather, the beautiful store windows. Cynthia made arrangements for the entire family to have an early Christmas Eve dinner at the Barclay, a traditional restaurant in the West Village. Following that, we would attend worship services at Grace Church near Washington Square. I was looking forward to “Lessons and Carols” in that resplendent setting.

  Dinner had taken longer than we’d hoped, and as we left, gathering jackets and kids, I went toward the front door, worried that we were going to be late for the beginning of the church service.

  People arriving for the next seating were standing around in the foyer. As I put on my coat and hat, I spotted a familiar face—a woman with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing a coat with a fur-trimmed hood, standing with several other people waiting to be seated. She looked around and locked her eyes on mine.

  “She bears a remarkable resemblance to Monica,” I thought. In all the chaos of 1998, I had never actually met Monica Lewinsky. Then I realized it was Monica.

  I felt awkward. What do I do? I decided to step forward and greet her.

  “You?” she said, not accusatory but quizzical. Like, “What are you doing here, in my world?”

  We didn’t shake hands, but I lightly touched her arm.

  “I hope you are doing well,” I said.

  Our short exchange was pleasant and poignant. “Though I wish I had made different choices back then,” Monica said, “I wish that you and your office had made different choices, too.” There was no anger in her voice. “Let me introduce you to my family.” The introduction was very brief.

  My own family came toward the door. Monica’s family moved toward their table, and I hustled my brood to catch several taxis for the Christmas Eve service. Our two families didn’t speak to each other.

  Monica later wrote a story for the March 2018 issue of Vanity Fair describing this brief encounter, portraying me as “somewhere between avuncular and creepy.”

  Monica still blames me for the heartache she experienced twenty years ago. I get that. She was very young and vulnerable, in an extraordinary situation with a man she loved. In the article, she seemed to be trying to figure out how to place her experience in the context of the remarkable changes that have recently gone on in our culture.

  She was not trying to claim membership in either the #MeToo or the #TimesUp movement. She has always acknowledged that she had entered into a consensual relationship. But all that she experienced—Clinton’s disavowal, the ridicule from his surrogates, her depression, her parents’ fear and anxiety, the pressure from our office’s insisting that she tell the truth—would have been difficult even for someone more mature, as I had personally seen with Kathleen Willey.

  Monica seems to believe that Starr is the reason that her life irrevocably changed—not Bill Clinton, a man twice her age who took advantage of a lovely young person to meet his own needs. So be it. But it is also true that if Monica had cooperated during that first week, or even the first month, the country would not have been dragged through an eight-month ordeal.

  In early June 2018, Bill Clinton had a unique opportunity to address his egregious behavior twenty years earlier. On a book tour, he was asked if he owed Monica Lewinsky an apology. “No, I do not,” he told NBC’s Craig Melvin. “I have never talked to her. But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.” He went on to portray himself as a victim, citing the fact that he had incurred $16 million in legal fees “defending the Constitution.”

  Later that week, Clinton went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to do damage control. Even comedian Colbert was surprised at his cluelessness. “It seemed tone deaf to me because you seemed offended to be asked about this thing when, in all due respect, sir, your behavior was the most famous example of a powerful man sexually misbehaving in the workplace of my lifetime,” Colbert said. The judiciary had held him accountable; now it seemed the culture had finally caught up with Clinton.

  In her fierce but misguided loyalty, Monica allowed herself to become a tragic figure of late twentieth-century America. She carries with her forever the living reality of the Clintons’ victim-strewn path to power, the most visible casualty of the Clintons’ contempt.

  The Little Rock team, Office of the Independent Counsel, 1995.

  Vince Foster, left, is seen in this October 12, 1988, photo with his wife, Hillary Clinton, and then-governor Bill Clinton. Robert Fiske and I investigated Foster’s suicide in 1993.

  April 22, 1994: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the State Dining Room, holding her “pink press conference.”

  Ethics adviser Sam Dash.

  Webster Hubbell is sworn in prior to testifying before the Senate Whitewater committee on December 1, 1995.

  Hillary Clinton leaving the Washington, D.C., federal courthouse in January 1996, following her testimony before a grand jury on her role in the Whitewater land deal.

  Jim Guy Tucker Jr., forty-third governor of Arkansas (1993–1996). He resigned on July 16, 1996, after his conviction for fraud.

  Jim McDougal talks to reporters outside the Little Rock, Arkansas, federal courthouse following his sentencing hearing for Whitewater offenses on April 14, 1997.

  Susan McDougal walks to the prisoners’ entrance of the Little Rock federal courthouse on May 1
4, 1998.

  U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno testifying before Congress on October 15, 1997.

  Linda Tripp talks to reporters outside the D.C. courthouse on July 29, 1998.

  White House intern Monica Lewinsky with President Bill Clinton at a White House function. This photo was submitted as evidence in documents by the Starr investigation.

  The Office of the Independent Counsel’s senior team of prosecutors meeting in their D.C. offices in 1998.

  Clinton strategist James Carville launched a public relations war against the independent counsel.

  Press conference, January 1998.

  Arkansas state employee Paula Corbin Jones sued President Clinton in 1994 for sexual harassment.

  Senior OIC prosecutors Bob Bittman, left; Mike Emmick, center; and Rodger Heaton.

  January 26, 1998: President Clinton angrily denies any improper behavior with a White House intern.

  Clinton attorney David Kendall, left, and White House Counsel Charles Ruff, right, prepare for the president’s testimony in 1998.

  I testified before the House Judiciary Committee for more than twelve hours on November 19, 1998.

  House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde meets with House managers to prepare for the Senate impeachment trial.

  April 14, 1999: I’m arguing against the reauthorization of the Independent Counsel Act, citing that it violates the separation of powers.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I wrote much of this book drawing on memory but would have been unable to recount many of the details without the invaluable insight—and astonishing recall—of Hickman Ewing. His daily journal was an unerring source of lively detail and sparking recollections that had remained hidden in the recesses of my mental nooks and crannies. Jackie Bennett, Bob Bittman, and Sol Wisenberg, my senior colleagues in both Little Rock and Washington, D.C., served brilliantly and boldly on matters great and small during our tenure together. They, too, very kindly provided fresh eyes and vivid memories of those stormy times.

  My wife, Alice, and daughter Carolyn were invaluable in editing my initial draft. Carolyn lived through the most challenging time, during her freshman year at Stanford, with round-the-clock security. My children Randall and Cynthia were likewise encouraging throughout the writing process, even though it brought back poignant memories of difficult times for our then-young family. They shared their memories, often painful, of times past. As was Carolyn’s educational journey, their college (Randall) and junior high (Cynthia) years were terribly disrupted by their father’s having answered the call of duty.

  My Waco-based research assistants, Drew MacKenzie and Luke Walker—later joined by Jake Adams toward the project’s conclusion—are undergraduate (or recently graduated) students at Baylor University. They were immensely able and cheerful companions who made the daily deep dives into electronic archives extremely helpful.

  My extraordinary agents Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu of Writers’ Representatives, LLC, believed in this project from the start. They had been my agents for my first book, published in 2002, First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life.

  Bria Sandford, my wise and insightful editor at Sentinel/Penguin Random House, has the great spiritual gift of encouragement. Immensely talented, Bria was unfailingly supportive, while continually urging me to tell the Whitewater-Lewinsky story in a more accessible way.

  Glenna Whitley, my tenacious book coach and now friend, took my initial draft, interviewed me for hours on end, reviewed numerous books about that controversial period in American history, and helped sculpt a story-filled narrative.

  My friend of long standing Terry Eastland, a distinguished journalist and former Justice Department colleague, helped in the earliest days of the project, in both conceptualizing what the book could be and supplying helpful insights about the role of the media.

  On the pages that follow, I identify every member of the Whitewater-Lewinsky team who co-labored with me during my tenure (1994–99). Their service to the Office of the Independent Counsel—and to the nation—deserves admiration and gratitude. The list does not include the numerous capable FBI and IRS agents assigned to the investigation. Each one served with distinction and fortitude. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh assigned some of the most able men and women in the Bureau to labor alongside our team in Little Rock and in Washington, D.C. My profound thanks to Director Freeh, a model of integrity and dedication.

  I am also deeply grateful for the sacrificial service of the men and women of the U.S. Marshals Service, so many of whom were summoned from around the country to protect my family when death threats abounded.

  Over the years, many fellow Americans whom I did not know have come up to me and said they had prayed fervently for my family and me throughout the course of the investigation. Others sent messages of encouragement through email or snail mail. Those gracious words, in person or by pen, from kindhearted strangers brought comfort to our hearts and tears to our eyes. For those unnamed and almost countless friends of freedom under law, I am deeply thankful.

  Special Thanks and Acknowledgments for the Service of the Office of the Independent Counsel Personnel from August 9, 1994, to October 18, 1999

  Roger M. Adelman, SENIOR COUNSEL

  Daniel R. Adrien, SUMMER INTERN

  Sabrina L. Alexander, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

  Geneva L. Allen, RECEPTIONIST

  Margaret E. Alvarez, LEGAL SECRETARY

  Bernard James Apperson, DEPUTY INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Caitlin O. Aptowicz, PARALEGAL SPECIALIST

  J. Keith Ausbrook, DEPUTY INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Alex M. Azar II, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Lawrence Bagley, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR

  Charles G. Bakaly III, COUNSELOR TO THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  David G. Barger, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Mark J. Barrett, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Jerry Bastin, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR

  John D. Bates, DEPUTY INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Stephen G. Bates, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Jackie M. Bennett Jr., deputy independent counsel

  Elliot S. Berke, SENIOR COUNSEL IN CHARGE OF CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS

  Dr. Alan Berman, CONSULTANT

  Ronice D. Bevan, STAFF ASSISTANT

  Cherry Joy Beysselance, LEGAL CONSULTANT

  Thomas H. Bienert Jr., associate independent counsel

  Stephen J. Binhak, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Robert J. Bittman, DEPUTY INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  William Black, CONSULTANT

  Dr. Brian Blackbourne, CONSULTANT

  James K. Blankinship, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Randy Boldyga, CONTRACT COMPUTER SUPPORT

  Thomas P. Bossert, PARALEGAL SPECIALIST/EVIDENCE TECHNICIAN

  Harvest Boyd, CONTRACT COMPUTER SUPPORT

  John Brandon, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR

  Ruth C. Brankstone, PARALEGAL SPECIALIST

  Thomas C. Breighner, RESEARCH ANALYST

  Kimberly Nelson Brown, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Tracee A. Brown, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

  John R. Bryck, PARALEGAL SPECIALIST

  Elaine Burns, CONTRACT COMPUTER SUPPORT

  John Burns, CONTRACT COMPUTER SUPPORT

  Tina A. Byers, ASSISTANT INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Jeb Coleman Cade, LEGAL ASSISTANT

  William Cade, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR

  Levi W. Chaconas, CLERK

  Joseph W. Cleary, PARALEGAL SPECIALIST

  Steven M. Colloton, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Ashford Connor, CONTRACT COMPUTER SUPPORT

  Coy A. Copeland, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR


  Julie A. Corcoran, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Kathryn A. Cottrell, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

  Pamela J. Craig, CONFIDENTIAL ASSISTANT

  James N. Crane, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Robert Crouch, FACILITIES AND RECORDS SPECIALIST

  Samuel Dash, ETHICS CONSULTANT

  Thomas W. Dawson, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Cheri M. Dea, ADMINISTRATIVE SPECIALIST

  Joseph M. Ditkoff, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Shireen E. Dodini, LEGAL SECRETARY

  Eric Dreiband, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Eric A. Dubelier, ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  William S. Duffey Jr., deputy independent counsel

  Colleen R. Duffy, SUMMER LEGAL CLERK

  Rajeev P. Duggal, PARALEGAL

  David L. Dunleavy, PARALEGAL SPECIALIST

  Cynthia D. Earman, ARCHIVIST

  Michael Emmick, DEPUTY INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  W. Hickman Ewing Jr., deputy independent counsel