Starr, Ken

dead 9 22

bak 1119

impeach pro trump on fOX

epstein lawyer with dershowitz?

SEE BRET KAVANaugh

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9 24 the lever podcast series

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trailer: Master Plan | Listen Now

ep 3 ken sTARR, BOPP AND ABRAMS BELOTTI AND BUCKLEY

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AN 2 26

Among the documents being slowly sorted from Jeffrey Epstein's investigation are email and text exchanges in which the trafficker expresses his heartfelt sympathies for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as he was forced to reckon with allegations of assault, The Guardian reported. It also showed a close relationship between Epstein and one of Kavanaugh's mentors.

On Sept. 22, 2018, Epstein told one person with a redacted name, “Ive sat in Kavanaugh chair. Im thinking of November.”

It isn't clear what the reference to November was, but it could be about the midterm elections. While Epstein appeared to be photographed with some Democratic officials, it's growing increasingly clear that he had long-standing policy agreements with MAGA. While coordinating with former Trump campaign manager and advisor Steve Bannon, the two men plotted the overthrow of several European countries and dreamed about the "take down" of the late Pope Francis.

While the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from one of Kavanaugh's accusers, who alleged he assaulted her in high school while visibly drunk, Epstein called it "a trap!"

“Iye [sic] been through many of these. MANY!! She will cry, make sordid allegations. Say she feels bullied, fearful, traumatized. Every thing bad in her life was s result of the rape attempt. Suffered anxiety! Her relationships with men etc. this is a very special skill set needed," Epstein said.

Epstein has been accused of trafficking many underage girls to the rich and powerful.

At one point after watching the hearing, Epstein attacked the GOP's choice of a female prosecutor, rather than the all-male Judiciary Committee questioning Kavanaugh's accuser.

In a message to another redacted name, Epstein wrote on Sept. 27, 2018: “horrible choice of prosecutor woman. critical and maybe lethal mistake. . prosecutors don’t cross examine. they prosecute.. power on their side . she should have been a criminal defense attorney.”

He had his own questions that he thought the Kavanaugh accuser should have been asked. He wanted to know if there was a history of anxiety in her family or whether the lights were on in the bedroom. He wanted to know if she'd seen Kavanaugh again and wanted to know more about how she got away, The Guardian summarized.

"In another message, Epstein said she should have been asked about how 'therapist notes' allegedly differed from her account," the report said.

Lisa Graves, who previously served as chief counsel for nominations in the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Epstein's messages disgraceful.

She told The Guardian it was “appalling to see a sexual predator weighing in this way against a woman who courageously testified about a man at the precipice of one of the most powerful posts in the country."

“It is shocking in part because you have this person who was at the center of efforts to abuse young women and girls and you have an adult woman testifying how she was allegedly treated by Kavanaugh and his friend, at an age when she was still a girl,” Graves added.

The report said that they haven't uncovered any evidence that Kavanaugh had a relationship with Epstein. Former special counsel and U.S. solicitor general Ken Starr, however, knew him quite well.

Starr was the independent investigator appointed by Republicans to probe into former President Bill Clinton's relationship with then-intern Monica Lewinsky. Kavanaugh was a key part of Starr's investigation team. Starr was a "close personal friend and professional contact of Epstein," the Guardian said, up until his death in prison in 2019.

"On 23 August 2018, Epstein appeared to ask Starr about a report that was to be released about Kavanaugh and the Starr investigation," said The Guardian. However, Starr told Epstein, “No writing for now. The release should be a non-event for Brett. I get criticized in one portion of the report, but no finding of illegality.”

Epstein gushed to his friend a few days later over the "disclosure" document, saying that it reminded him of "what a genius" Starr was as a lawyer.

The National Archives and Records Administration released documents showing details about Kavanaugh's role in the Clinton probe. Kavanaugh's aim was to “make [Clinton’s] pattern of revolting behavior clear." There was a list of graphic and explicit questions that he wanted Clinton to be asked.

The Guardian reported, "Earlier emails seem to also indicate that Kavanaugh was Epstein’s favorite to be nominated by Donald Trump. Epstein and Starr traded messages about it on 4 July 2018, days before the news was official, and Epstein called Kavanaugh his 'first choice.'"

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ggl 7 25

[### 2 lawyers on Trump defense team shared Epstein as a client

AP News

https://apnews.com › 2-lawyers-on-trump-defense-team...](https://apnews.com/2-lawyers-on-trump-defense-team-shared-epstein-as-a-client-005baf1972164c49924f787c08f985ae)

Jan 24, 2020 — Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr both helped the late hedge fund manager and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein win a lenient sentence for abusing underaged girls.

[### Alan Dershowitz and his role defending Jeffrey Epstein ... - Vox

vox.com

https://www.vox.com › identities › alan-dershowitz-jeff...](https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/7/30/20746983/alan-dershowitz-jeffrey-epstein-sarah-ransome-giuffre)

Jul 31, 2019 — Alan Dershowitz helped sex offender Jeffrey Epstein get a plea deal. Now he's tweeting about age of consent laws.

Missing: starr ‎| Show results with: starr

mma 922 matt g

The highbrow elements of the right-wing media complex like to tell a self-flattering story in which the modern American right is controlled by sophisticates such as themselves. The Republican Party’s extremists, in this version of reality, are mere rabble who provide the movement with manpower and votes but have little influence over the course of political events.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board offered up such a tale in its Saturday piece eulogizing former independent counsel Kenneth Starr. The board complained that “Starr’s critics” ignore his role in “putting to rest the conspiracy theories on the right about Vincent Foster,” a senior aide in President Bill Clinton’s White House who took his own life in 1993. “The Qanons of the era argued that the Clintons probably had something nefarious to do with it,” the board wrote. “Starr helped debunk that theory with an investigation concluding that Foster had killed himself.”

By tying together the Foster conspiracy theorists of the past with the QAnon fanatics of the present, the editorial board seeks to minimize the influence of both within the right. But in both cases, the conspiracy theory infested every element of the movement over which the Journal pretends to play a leading role.

Foster was the Seth Rich of the Clinton administration, someone whose tragic death was opportunistically seized by right-wing conspiracy theorists seeking partisan gain. And as with Rich, those conspiracy theories bubbled up to the heights of the right-wing press.

Indeed, the Journal editorial board itself stoked the Foster conspiracy theories at the time.After Foster took his own life in Virginia’s Fort Marcy Park – leaving behind a note stating that “the WSJ editors lie without consequence,” a reference to several Journal editorials attacking him – the board called for an independent counsel to investigate Foster’s death. “If he was driven to take his life by purely personal despair, a serious investigation should share this conclusion so that he can be appropriately mourned,” the board concluded in its July 22, 1993, piece.

That sort of winking paranoia was par for the course for the Journal during the Clinton administration, as the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald noted in a 2007 Salon.com review of the editorial board’s “profound hate-mongering and truly deranged accusations.”

“This is the Editorial Page that, throughout the 1990s, did more to infect and degrade our public discourse than anyone this side of Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge,” Greenwald, now a regular guest on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, wrote. “But the WSJ Editors were actually far worse than Limbaugh and Drudge, because they put a stamp of establishment journalistic credibility on those rancid dirt-mongers, elevating them to the realm of the credible and influential.”

Several investigations, undertaken as Foster conspiracy theories metasticized through the right, ultimately concluded the White House aide had died by suicide. After special prosecutor Robert B. Fiske Jr. released his findings in 1994, the Journal editorial board stated: “Barring some unimaginable new disclosure, we find no reason to doubt that the former White House counsel committed suicide in Fort Marcy Park.”

But Fiske’s report did not silence the right’s conspiracy theorists. Nor did the conclusions of the Department of Justice, FBI, and Park Police in 1993; the top Republican on the House’s government oversight committee in 1994; a Senate committee in 1995; or the results of Starr’s investigation in 1997. The Journal did little to establish guardrails against the insanity; responding to Starr’s report, editorial writer Micah Morrison tellingly refused to condemn Christopher Ruddy, the primary champion of the conspiracy theory, writing instead that Ruddy had simply been asking the “obvious questions” that the “mainstream press” refused to ask.

And so Starr did not ultimately “put to rest the conspiracy theories on the right,” as the Journal claimed this weekend. Instead, the most powerful forces on the American right continued to stoke the same lies about Foster’s suicide as they sought to damage Hillary Clinton’s political standing.

Limbaugh regularly insinuated during the 2008 presidential primary that the Clintons may have murdered Fosterand that their political opponents might end up in “Fort Marcy Park” or taking “Fort Marcy Airlines.” He received the Medal of Freedom from then-President Donald Trump and was celebrated upon his passing by the Journal editorial board as someone who “represented traditional American values that the dominant culture too often demeans.”

Sean Hannity, the longtime Fox host described as a shadow chief of staff in the Trump White House, was still talking about “the strange death of Vince Foster” among the “chapters remaining open” for Hillary Clinton long after Starr’s report. “Did a close friend of Hillary Clinton commit suicide, or was it a massive cover-up?” he asked during one 2007 Fox segment. He told his audience of Foster, “depending on which version of the story you believe, he took his own life,” and also claimed that “in the minds of some,” questions regarding the contents of Foster's files following his suicide “may have provided a motive for foul play.” Hannity later became the most prominent purveyor of Seth Rich conspiracy theories.

Trump, who rode a reputation as the nation’s most prominent birther to the Republican presidential nomination, himself pushed Foster conspiracy theories in the leadup to the 2016 general election. “I don’t bring [Foster’s death] up because I don’t know enough to really discuss it,” he told The Washington Post in a May 2016 interview. “I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.”

Trump loves conspiracy theories, and in recent days, he has started to lean hard into the QAnon movement.[twt qanon rally]

he is far from alone. That lunatic movement, once consigned to the fringes of the right, has become increasingly prominent. Its adherents and fellow travelers include members of Congress and Republican nominees for posts to oversee state elections. Major right-wing outlets such as Fox either cozy up to its extremism or pretend it doesn’t exist. They are all following the dictates of the right-wing base, which wants illiberalism and antidemocracy.

The Journal editorial board pretends otherwise, but the movement it supports is riddled with conspiracy theorists and extremists from top to bottom. And the inability or unwillingness of elite Republican organs like itself to hold the line against those elements is part of the reason why.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ken-starr-dead-1234592249/

no lnx

BONG HITS 4 JESUS

Ken Starr, Who Turned a Blind Eye to Rape and Defended a Sex Trafficker, Dead at 76

The right-wing lawyer was known for probing Bill Clinton’s affair, mishandling sexual assault cases at Baylor, and helping Jeffrey Epstein secure a sweetheart deal

BY JON BLISTEIN

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr offers his testimony to the House of Representatives Judicial Committee, in Washington, D.C, on Nov. 19, 1998. DAVID HUME KENNERLY

KENNETH STARR, THE lawyer known for investigating Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, mishandling sexual assault cases as president of Baylor University, and helping Jeffrey Epstein secure a sweetheart deal, died Tuesday, Sept. 13. He was 76.

Starr’s family confirmed his death, saying he died from complications from surgery at St. Luke’s Medical center in Houston, Texas.

Starr was a stalwart conservative foot soldier throughout his career. He started as a lawyer and was nominated by Ronald Reagan to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1983, a post he maintained for about six years before resigning. George H.W. Bush later appointed him solicitor general, and he was even briefly in the running to fill a Supreme Court vacancy later taken by David Souter.

Though always lurking around the right wing, Starr really started to rise to prominence in the mid-’90s, when he was tapped to investigate Bill and Hillary Clinton’s alleged involvement in an Arkansas real estate project. Neither Clinton was prosecuted,but Starr’s probe expanded to include an investigation into Paula Jones’ claims of sexual assault against bill Clinton, as well as Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky.

The “Starr Report,” released in Sept. 1998, claimed Clinton lied about about his affair with Lewinsky and cited obstruction of justice, perjury, abuse of power, and more as reasons for impeaching Clinton. The report led to Clinton’s impeachment in the House of Representatives, but he was acquitted on all counts in the Senate.

[RELATED

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Ken Starr

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After making a name for himself investigating Clinton’s sexual impropriety, Starr returned to his career as a lawyer and found himself involved in a handful of prominent cases. He successfully represented the Juneau, Alaska, school board and principal that suspended a student for unfurling a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” sign as the Olympic torch passed through the the city. He failed to secure constitutional immunity for the mercenary firm Blackwater after its contractors slaughtered four unarmed civilians in Fallujah. And he also failed to uphold Prop 8 in California, the ballot measure banning same-sex marriage that was later overturned in the courts.

Despite being busy defending opponents of same-sex marriage and private military contractors, Starr found plenty of ways to return to the world of sexual impropriety. With his plethora of connections to George W. Bush’s administration, Starr joined Jeffrey Epstein’s legal team and played a crucial part in pressuring the Justice Department to drop its sex-trafficking case against the billionaire. For his efforts, Starr helped his client secure the infamous sweetheart deal that landed him in prison for just 18 months and effectively ensured him immunity from future prosecution.

Epstein wasn’t the only alleged child molester Starr tried to help either. In 2013, he wrote a letter of support for Christopher Kloman, just before he was sentenced to 43 years in prison for molesting five girls while teaching at the elite Potomac School in the Sixties and Seventies.

Three years after that, Starr resigned as chancellor of Baylor University, and a professor at its law school, not long after being removed from his post as president. The reason? An investigation found that Starr and other administrators mishandled numerous accusations of sexual assault — including multiple rape allegations — against the school’s football players.

For his final act, the man who made a name for himself trying to take down one president tried to help another stave off the same fate. First as a TV talking head, he argued against impeaching Donald Trump over the Mueller report, claiming it would be “bad for the country.” Starr later joined Trump’s legal team when he was impeached (the first time) for abuse of power and obstruction of justice after he allegedly tried to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.

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david brock

...That critical flow of inside information allowed Starr, in effect, to set a perjury trap for Clinton, laying the foundation for a crazed national political crisis and an unjust impeachment over a consensual affair.

But the cabal's godfather was Ted Olson, the then-future solicitor general for George W. Bush and now a sainted figure of the GOP establishment(and of some liberals for his role in legalizing same-sex marriage). Olson had a largely hidden role as a consigliere to the "Arkansas Project" — a multi-million dollar dirt-digging operation on the Clintons, funded by the eccentric right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and run through The American Spectator magazine, where I worked at the time.

Both Ted and Brett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons — especially Hillary. While Ted was pushing through the Arkansas Project conspiracy theories claiming that Clinton White House lawyer and Hillary friend Vincent Fosterwas murdered (he committed suicide), Brett was costing taxpayers millions by pedaling the same garbage at Starr's office.

A detailed analysis of Kavanaugh's own notes from the Starr Investigation reveals he was cherry-picking random bits of information from the Starr investigation — as well as the multiple previous investigations — attempting vainly to legitimize wild right-wing conspiracies. For years he chased down each one of them without regard to the emotional cost to Foster’s family and friends, or even common decency.

[Related OPINION

Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination is the result of years of unopposed conservative organizing]

Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he's changed his stripes.

Like millions of Americans this week, I tuned into Kavanaugh's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great interest. In his opening statement and subsequent testimony, Kavanaugh presented himself as a "neutral and impartial arbiter" of the law. Judges, he said, were not players but akin to umpires — objectively calling balls and strikes. Again and again, he stressed his "independence" from partisan political influences.

also blackwater!

an 922

Here’s the simplest way to describe Ken Starr. When it fit his interests to talk about “morality,” he did so. When it fit his interests to defend the greatest moral reprobates in this country, he did so.

That it was always Democrats whom Starr found morally deficient and Republicans he defended maybe isn’t so surprising.

But given his witch hunt against Bill Clinton in the 1990s that he followed by being the greatest possible supporter of admitted sexual assaulter Donald Trump just sums up so much about today’s right.

Moreover, Starr himself oversaw one of the worst sexual violence scandals in contemporary college sports, when as president of Baylor, a conservative Baptist institution, he routinely overlooked serial rape committed by players because they won football games.

He defended Jeffrey Epstein.

He defended Donald Trump.

In short, Starr’s feelings about sexual crime depended entirely on whether he liked the person who committed it.

Born in 1946 in Vernon, Texas, Starr grew up in the town of Centerville and in the milieu of white backlash to civil rights.

His father was a Church of Christ minister, making the family far-right, even for Texas. They moved to San Antonio before Starr went to high school and then he was off to Church of Christ affiliated Harding University. He got a draft deferment due to, um, bad skin.

He transferred to George Washington University where he majored in history. As a historian, I issue an apology to the world on behalf of my profession, even though I wasn’t born yet when he graduated in 1968.Then it was onto Brown and Duke law schools.

Starr clerked for David Dyer on the Fifth Circuit after his graduation from Duke. Then Warren Burger brought him on as a clerk. By the time Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, Starr was on the fast path. After a few years at a prominent Los Angeles law firm, Attorney General William French Smith brought Starr on as a counselor. Then Reagan appointed Starr to the US Circuit of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which has long been a place for rising young judges.

At first, Starr wasn’t quite seen as conservative enough for the truly far right people in the Reagan administration. He fixed that problem.

By the early 1990s, he was a conservative attack dog.

That made him very useful to George HW Bush, who brought him on board as the US Solicitor General.But the real rightwingers weren’t convinced by his credentials. So when a Supreme Court nomination opened up, there was talk about Starr. Instead, Bush nominated who thought was a more reliable conservative – David Souter.

This is a great irony given that Justice Souter became a traitor to the rightwingers for putting constitutional principles above partisanship.

You never had to worry about that with Ken Starr!

Disappointed, Starr considered running for the the Senate in Virginia in 1994, but did not want to run against fellow rightwing operative Oliver North. What a choice that would have been …

In 1994, Starr became the lead investigator of Bill Clinton’s Whitewater scandal when it was going nowhere. This was one of the many questionable attempts by Republicans to get Clinton.

I do not want to excuse Clinton’s activities. I will never forgive his inability to control his personal demons and the shift of his presidency to defending himself rather than pushing policy.

But many of the attempts to get Clinton were bogus and Starr was there for all of them. With Whitewater, there wasn’t anything there. Most certainly, there was nothing Starr could prosecute Clinton for.

Starr showed no sense of boundary. He was determined to get Bill Clinton. It’s almost hard today to understand just how culturally divisive Clinton was. Yeah, he didn’t go to the Vietnam War but then neither did Starr. But he smoked marijuana when he was young and he enjoyed sex. In the 1990s, these things were outrageous.

These “crimes” meant that Republicans would stop at nothing. Did Ken Starr push forward the idea that Hillary Clinton might have killed Vince Foster? Oh, you know he did. Starr would promote any lie that any enemy of Clinton from any small Arkansas town would tell. It didn’t matter. Starr didn’t care. He just wanted to take down Clinton.

And who was Starr’s deputy in all of this?

A young lawyer named Brett Kavanaugh. (More on him later.)

That brings us to Monica Lewinsky. Again, I do not forgive Bill Clinton for this. But the idea that his relationship with an intern was impeachable was absurd. It was the most naked, disgustingly partisan moment of the late 20th century. It also failed miserably.

Starr was an attack dog. He pushed the most sensational claims and engaged in repeated bouts of unethical behavior to get Clinton.

But despite what he and Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole thought, the massive overreach by Starr created sympathy for Clinton and allowed Democrats to hold on to the Congress in 1998, helping to end Gingrich’s revolting career as speaker of the House.

Starr became the guy that the worst people in the world would come to for legal help. That includes Jeffrey Epstein. Starr became his fixer.

In 2008, he used his enormous influence to pressure federal prosecutors to let Epstein off, condemning many more girls to rape by Epstein and his friends. Starr was indirectly and knowingly responsible for letting off a disgusting criminal and while I think everyone deserves a legal defense, that’s different from working to get a sex criminal off because his friends are rich and powerful.

That Starr would defend one of the worst sexual predators in America explain his second career as president of Baylor University.

He took the job at Baylor after a run as dean at Pepperdine School of Law, the far-right evangelical school known for its incredible campus and horrific basketball team. Training new generations of far-right lawyers? Now that was a project Starr could throw himself into!

Baylor, a Southern Baptist school as closely identified with far-right politics, saw in Starr a natural leader, especially given as they wanted to upgrade their own horrible athletics. Starr was cool with that.

So when it turned out that a lot of the football players recruited by Baylor were engaging in sexual assault, you might have thought that Ken Starr would have had some sort of principles here.

And he did, I guess – if the sexual activity doesn’t serve my interests, I go after it and if it does serve my interests, we will cover it up.

That’s exactly what he did.

When head football coach Art Briles found out that Baylor football players were raping other students, he chose to cover it up.

Starr was indifferent to all of this, happy to participate in the cover up. As president, Starr had heard about the rumors of rape, but he simply refused to investigate. He didn’t care. The team was winning.

Starr led in a culture of indifference to sexual assault in service of good football. This was the leadership of the once moral scold of Democratic presidents’ sexual peccadilloes. It was utterly disgusting and it finally caused Baylor to push Starr out of his job in 2016.

Even so, Starr still remained someone the Washington press corps would talk to in order to get a “conservative” viewpoint on issues. This went far to demonstrate that there’s almost nothing conservatives can do to be banished from elite media appearances.

During the Trump administration, I could not listen to NPR. It was too depressing. But my wife likes All Things Considered on the way to work. So once, I said OK, we can try. We turn it on and the first thing we literally hear is Steve Inskeep saying, “I’d like to welcome our next guest, Ken Starr.” I immediately turned it off. Just revolting that such a hypocrite and overseer of sexual assault could retain his media profile, not to mention a media mostly consumed by liberals.

In fact, The Atlantic, the once great magazine today turned into a place for hot takes and rightwing fears about “cancel culture,” gave Starr a forum to discuss what he considered proper behavior of Robert Mueller in the impeachment of Trump. Of course, the answer was completely devoted to whatever Trump needed, completely ignoring Starr’s own history. Then Starr went farther, becoming part of Trump’s legal team in 2020 during the second impeachment.

To the end of his life, Starr showed up wherever there was room for one to excuse sexual assault if it was committed by a Republican.

When it seemed his former protégé Brett Kavanaugh might have his own Supreme Court nomination derailed by the sexual violence of his past, who was there to stand up for him? Ken Starr!

Starr even got involved in defending child molesters who had nothing to do with the contemporary Republican Party, such as pushing for a lighter sentence for a convicted child molester in Virginia. It turned out there was no limit to unacceptable behavior.

Finally, let us revisit the greatest Starr reference ever made. This was the “Treehouse of Horror” episode in Season 10 of The Simpsons. In this, the aliens Kang and Kodos fly off to kill every politician. As their spaceship flies out, Bart yells out, “Don’t forget Ken Starr!”

Indeed, Bart. Indeed.

an 1120

Lawrence Tribe calls Ken Starr a liar to his face: ‘It’s nothing like Bush v. Gore’

David Edwards

Raw

omg

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/i-knew-brett-kavanaugh-during-his-years-republican-operative-don-ncna907391

no lnx

I knew Brett Kavanaugh during his years as a Republican operative. Don't let him sit on the Supreme Court.

We were part of a close circle of cynical hard-right operatives being groomed for much bigger things.

Sept. 7, 2018,

By David Brock

I used to know Brett Kavanaugh pretty well. And, when I think of Brett now, in the midst of his hearings for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, all I can think of is the old "Aesop's Fables" adage: "A man is known by the company he keeps."

And that's why I want to tell any senator who cares about our democracy: Vote no.

Twenty years ago, when I was a conservative movement stalwart, I got to know Brett Kavanaugh both professionally and personally.

Brett Kavanaugh proves the Supreme Court swing vote is dead

SEPT. 4, 2018]

Brett actually makes a cameo appearance in my memoir of my time in the GOP, "Blinded By The Right." I describe him at a party full of zealous young conservatives gathered to watch President Bill Clinton's 1998 State of the Union address — just weeks after the story of his affair with a White House intern had broken. When the TV camera panned to Hillary Clinton, I saw Brett — at the time a key lieutenant of Ken Starr, the independent counsel investigating various Clinton scandals — mouth the word "bitch."

But there's a lot more to know about Kavanaugh than just his Pavlovian response to Hillary's image. Brett and I were part of a close circle of cold, cynical and ambitious hard-right operatives being groomed by GOP elders for much bigger roles in politics, government and media. And it’s those controversial associations that should give members of the Senate and the American public serious pause.

[Related OPINION

GOP's maneuvering during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings will seriously damage the Supreme Court's legitimacy]

Call it Kavanaugh's cabal: There was his colleague on the Starr investigation, Alex Azar, now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Mark Paoletta is now chief counsel to Vice President Mike Pence; House anti-Clinton gumshoeBarbara Comstockis now a Republican member of Congress. Future Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson were there with Ann Coulter, now a best-selling author, and internet provocateur Matt Drudge.

At one time or another, each of them partied at my Georgetown townhouse amid much booze and a thick air of cigar smoke.

In a rough division of labor, Kavanaugh played the role of lawyer — one of the sharp young minds recruited by the Federalist Society to infiltrate the federal judiciary with true believers. Through that network, Kavanaugh was mentored by D.C. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman, known among his colleagues for planting leaks in the press for partisan advantage.

[Related OPINION

Tom Steyer and Ron Fein: Stop Kavanaugh's confirmation until Mueller's investigation is done]

When, as I came to know, Kavanaugh took on the role of designated leaker to the press of sensitive information from Starr's operation, we all laughed that Larry had taught him well. (Of course, that sort of political opportunism by a prosecutor is at best unethical, if not illegal.)

Another compatriot was George Conway (now Kellyanne's husband), who led a secretive group of right-wing lawyers — we called them "the elves" — who worked behind the scenes directing the litigation team of Paula Jones, who had sued Clinton for sexual harassment. I knew then that information was flowing quietly from the Jones team via Conway to Starr's office — and also that Conway's go-to man was none other than Brett Kavanaugh.

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OPINION

Trump's election plot was eye-opening. And the Senate is finally paying attention.]

That critical flow of inside information allowed Starr, in effect, to set a perjury trap for Clinton, laying the foundation for a crazed national political crisis and an unjust impeachment over a consensual affair.

Both Ted and Brett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons — especially Hillary. While Ted was pushing through the Arkansas Project conspiracy theories claiming that Clinton White House lawyer and Hillary friend Vincent Foster was murdered (he committed suicide), Brett was costing taxpayers millions by pedaling the same garbage at Starr's office.

A detailed analysis of Kavanaugh's own notes from the Starr Investigation reveals he was cherry-picking random bits of information from the Starr investigation — as well as the multiple previous investigations — attempting vainly to legitimize wild right-wing conspiracies. For years he chased down each one of them without regard to the emotional cost to Foster’s family and friends, or even common decency.

[Related OPINION

Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination is the result of years of unopposed conservative organizing]

Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he's changed his stripes.

But I don't need to see any documents to tell you who Kavanaugh is — because I've known him for years. And I'll leave it to all the lawyers to parse Kavanaugh's views on everything from privacy rights to gun rights. But I can promise you that any pretense of simply being a fair arbiter of the constitutionality of any policy regardless of politics is simply a pretense. He made up his mind nearly a generation ago — and, if he's confirmed, he'll have nearly two generations to impose it upon the rest of us.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/not-his-first-cover-up-trump-impeachment-lawyer%e2%80%8b-kenneth-starr/

120 2 on AN

no lnx

Trump’s legal team is a wretched hive of scum and villainy

Written by Martin Longman / Washington Monthly January 17, 2020

From time immemorial, port cities have been “wretched hives of scum and villainy,” so why should spaceports be any different? That was the theory behind Mos Eisley, home of the famous bar scene in the original Star Wars. And why should Trump’s International Hotel in Washington, D.C. be any different? It’s a gathering place for every kind of crook and scoundrel. As Lev Parnas told Rachel Maddow, “It was like a breeding ground at the Trump hotel.”

And why should Trump’s legal defense team not follow suit?

President Donald Trump’s defense team for his Senate impeachment trial will include former independent counsel Ken Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton, and famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, sources familiar with the president’s legal strategy told NBC News Friday.

Also joining the team is Robert Ray, who succeeded Starr as Clinton special counsel, and Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who joined the White House in November to help manage the messaging around impeachment, the sources said.

Villainy may be in the eye of the beholder, but the stench of scum is hard to ignore.

Kenneth Starr is a completely disgraced man, after bringing Baylor University into total disrepute:

Starr was ousted as president of Baylor University and then resigned as chancellor in 2016 amid an investigation into claims he and school officials mishandled allegations of sexual assault by football players.

An independent investigation found that under Starr’s leadership the school actively discouraged “some complainants from reporting or participating in student conduct processes and in one instance constituted retaliation against a complainant for reporting sexual assault.”

Dershowitz has been credibly accused of taking advantage of the services of Jeffrey Epstein’s underage sex slavery empire.

“I kept my underwear on during the massage… I don’t like massages particularly.”

— Alan Dershowitz, via Skype, trying to explain why he was in an alleged sex trafficker’s house but was only massaged by an “old, old Russian woman” and had no clue what was going on in the rest of the house. Dershowitz also said: “Were there young women in another part of the house giving massages when I wasn’t around? I have no idea of that.”

Bondi is a poster girl for public corruption. Further, the worst of the accusations against her actually involves the person she’s supposed to defend in the impeachment trial.

Bondi was serving as Florida’s attorney general when allegations began to arise that Trump University was a fraud. On the one hand, she publicly said she’d look into it. On the other, she privately asked Trump to fund her reelection campaign. Trump obliged, illegally using his charitable organization to do it. Bondi promptly dropped the investigation into Trump University, and both parties defended the whole arrangement. Then they denied it had been an arrangement at all, with Trump claiming that he had actually donated the money to another organization with a similar name. But that organization never received any money, and Trump was fined by the IRS and his charitable organization was shut down.

More recently, Bondi has used her access to the president to rake in money from Qatar as a lobbyist. She also appears to disturbingly tight with the Scientologists.

Then there is Robert Ray. He’s another piece of work.

The former federal prosecutor who succeeded Kenneth W. Starr as independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation has been charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend, police said.

Robert W. Ray surrendered to police Thursday. He was ordered to appear in court at a later date and released, police said.

A complaint filed by Ray’s ex-girlfriend says he e-mailed, called and visited her against her wishes after their relationship ended.

There are many possible ways to respond to Trump’s choice of defenders.

Monica Lewinsky

@MonicaLewinsky

this is definitely an “are you fucking kidding me?” kinda day.

As far as I know, Bondihas never been closely associated with sexual misconduct or assault, but I think she’d fit in at the Star Wars cantina just fine. As it is, her lobbying firm regularly sends its clients to Trump’s D.C. hotel.

Maybe these are the only people who are morally compromised enough to see some advantage in arguing for the president’s innocence, but I hope the House Managers remember to bring their lightsabers to the proceedings.

Speaking of which, maybe Ponda Baba was an innocent victim and Obi-Wan Kenobi was wrong to cut off his hand. I’m sure Alan Dershowitz would be willing to make that argument.

wsoc hmmn: Barbara Olson was the lead counsel to the Government Oversight committee which investigated the "Filegate" and "Travelgate" affairs--both matters referred to Starr's office.Mrs. Olson recently discussed her relations with the Independent Counsel, revealing that the Olsons still socialize regularly with the Starrs, although they--of course not--never discuss the Clinton investigations.

his ticket back into pension plan? aha-let, everyone has their niche/function eg renta-X; eg kellyanne defends 1st lady melania on fake outrage on barron

Fox News’ Chris Wallace shreds Ken Starr: Trump’s scandal ‘a much bigger issue than whether Bill Clinton lied about sex’

David Edwards / Raw Story

Fox News host Chris Wallace argued that the deeds President Donald Trump is accused of are more serious to the country than President Bill Clinton’s actions.

https://www.alternet.org/dont-believe-insulting-book-tour-hype-ken-starr-no-robert-mueller

joe conason

In hawking his new memoir, Kenneth Starr displays all the dignity, fairness and proportion that characterized his pursuit of Bill Clinton's impeachment two decades ago.Which is to say not much. Still, after being unceremoniously dumped from his jobs at Baylor University for covering up a sexual assault scandal, and with no prospect of a future federal appointment in sight, Starr suddenly had time to write the account of his misadventures that has been festering within for all these years.And his book, titled "Contempt," inarguably arrives at an opportune moment, as another president faces criminal investigation and possible impeachment. On his publicity tour last week, the former independent counsel claimed to find "intriguing" comparisons and even "eerie echoes" of the Clinton chase in the current president's legal woes.

Echoes there are, but in his zeal to defend his fellow Republican, Starr omits or elides most of what really matters in both cases. "(At) least as far as we know Donald Trump has not lied under oath, as far as we know, he's not intimidated witnesses, (and) as far as we know -- in my view -- he has not obstructed justice," he told National Public Radio, seeking to draw a contrast with Clinton, whose guilt he still aims to establish on all counts. Starr forgets that among the 12 counts in the Office of Special Counsel's indictment of Clinton -- co-authored by Judge Brett Kavanaugh and sent to Congress as an impeachment recommendation -- were his lies to the public, not under oath, and his concomitant "abuse of power."

If that is the standard, then Trump has fulfilled it over and over again. As Starr knows perfectly well, this president has lied effusively and obsessively about everything to do with the Russia investigation, his payoff of Stormy Daniels and a hundred other salient matters. He lied about the Trump Tower meeting and sought to mislead the public. He has not only tried to sway witnesses but also interfered brazenly with law enforcement at the highest levels, by intimidating the FBI director and the attorney general. So whether he has obstructed justice or not is a question that won't depend much on Starr's "view." It is true, as Starr reminds us at length, that Clinton lied under oath in a deposition about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. According to Starr, Clinton also lied during his grand jury appearance, although that is a highly arguable charge. But whatever Clinton's mendacity in those sworn statements, he submitted to the processes of the court. He didn't pretend, as Trump does and his lawyers do, that he is permanently exempted from the obligation of all citizens to testify in civil or criminal proceedings when called. In his book, Starr indignantly recalls the negotiations that ended with Clinton's grand jury testimony, describing the tough legal maneuvers of the president's attorneys.

Yet the fact remains that both Bill and Hillary Clinton answered questions from Starr's prosecutors about Whitewater and other matters on numerous occasions, including various interrogations under oath.Yes, Starr's staff negotiated with Bill Clinton's attorneys for six months to obtain his Lewinsky testimony, while holding out the threat of a subpoena. So far, Trump has danced around special counsel Robert Mueller's request for an interview for at least nine months, with no end in sight. Contrary to all precedent and political principle, Trump's lawyers insist that he need not testify at all -- that he is, in effect, above the law. As a former judge, Starr should know better than to publish an attack on someone he failed to indict decades later. But he goes out of his way to smear Hillary Clinton, recalling how he yearned to indict her for alleged perjury in her testimony about Whitewater. This line of character assassination is puerile and unethical, even for him. If you want to understand why he never got anywhere close to indicting her, you can learn about the weakness of his case in "The Hunting of the President," a book I co-authored 18 years ago with Gene Lyons. None of the facts have changed since then, and the most relevant portions of our book can be downloaded free on the web as "The Hunting of Hillary."

It is equally insulting that Starr would seek to compare himself to the highly professional, competent and experienced Mueller. But the most important distinctions lie well beyond that self-serving analogy. Unlike the historic Russian intrusion into the 2016 election, which demanded investigation and action, there was never any plausible reason to launch a costly federal probe of Whitewater, a tiny failed land deal in rural Arkansas. Federal authorities had absolved the Clintons of any wrongdoing long before Starr ever showed up. He was appointed by a panel of partisan judges to replace an honest Republican prosecutor because they wanted to bring down the Clintons. And they believed that Starr, an ambitious and highly political jurist with no qualifications as a prosecutor, would eagerly do the deed. As of today, he is still trying. To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

witch hunt nation may 99

...

Steele, who says Willey asked her to lie to Newsweek and say Willey had told her about an unwelcome encounter, has been indicted for obstruction of justice and making false statements. She is the only person ever to be indicted in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair. During the past year Steele, her daughter, her brother, her accountant and her attorney have been summoned before one of Starr’s grand juries. Her telephone records, bank records, tax records and credit history have been subpoenaed. Her friends and neighbors have been questioned by Starr’s investigators. Starr’s staff has gathered so much information that a room in the independent counsel’s office has been labeled the Steele Discovery Room. Steele, 52, says she lost her job because of the publicity, her health has deteriorated and she may lose her home. Even the circumstances of her legal adoption of an infant Romanian orphan have been questioned.

But the story of Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer, and her erstwhile friend Julie Hiatt Steele is much more than the story of two women drawn into a political scandal. The story of how these women became crucial players in the independent counsel’s investigation provides graphic detail about the lengths to which Starr and his staff were willing to go in their efforts to find evidence that could impeach the President.It reveals the pressures Starr has brought to bear against ordinary citizens such as Steele, a Virginia woman who has never been involved in politics and whose only connection to his investigation is her consistent refusal under oath to back Willey’s story....

Kenneth W. Starr, the former independent counsel who delivered a report that served as the basis for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, was removed as president of Baylor University on Thursday after an investigation found the university mishandled accusations of sexual assault against football players.

The university also fired the football coach, Art Briles, whose ascendant program brought in millions of dollars in revenue but was dogged by accusations of sexual assault committed by its players — an increasingly familiar combination in big-time college sports.

Mr. Starr was stripped of his title as university president but will remain Baylor’s chancellor and a professor at the law school.The chancellor position is “centered around development and religious liberty,” a regent said on a conference call Thursday afternoon, adding that Mr. Starr’s “operational responsibilities have been removed.”

Mr. Starr’s demotion delivered a twist to the biography of a man whose reputation was built on what many considered an overzealous pursuit of allegations of sexual transgressions by Mr. Clinton. Now he is being punished for leading an administration that, according to a report by an outside law firm commissioned by the university’s governing board, looked the other way when Baylor football players were accused of sex crimes, and sometimes convicted of them.

“We were horrified by the extent of these acts of sexual violence on our campus,” Richard Willis, chairman of Baylor’s Board of Regents, said in a statement. “This investigation revealed the University’s mishandling of reports in what should have been a supportive, responsive and caring environment for students.”

Mr. Starr said in a statement to news organizations: “I join the Board of Regents and the Senior Administration of the University in expressing heartfelt contrition for the tragedy and sadness that has unfolded. To those victims who were not treated with the care, concern, and support they deserve, I am profoundly sorry.”

Violence against women on college campuses has risen as a national conversation in recent years, and one particular thread has been whether athletes in big-time sports like football and basketball are afforded favorable treatment by universities and communities that come together to support and protect successful teams

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/sports/ncaafootball/baylor-art-briles-kenneth-starr-college-football.html?_r=0

see holy cow 2000:

huge sums spent, lots of plum gigs

5.500 plane trips 73M$ 12 ft pros, 78 fbi barrett spend 23M$ on cisneros

indep council hogged fbi resources so cincinati office did not follow up on moussawi plane pilot training?

In addition to the DeVos family foundations, the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation is one of the top school privatization funders in the country, spending over $31 million over the past eleven years promoting "school choice" nationwide, according to One Wisconsin Now; for decades, Bradley has also been a major ALEC funder. The foundation has over $600 million in assets and is headed by Michael Grebe, Scott Walker's campaign co-chair.

Before Milwaukee became the first city in the nation to implement a school voucher program, Bradleybankrolled the groups that laid the groundwork. When the plan was challenged in Wisconsin courts, Bradleyfunded its legal defense, which included hiring Kenneth Starr -- later known for pursuing Bill Clinton over Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky -- to represent the state.

lost 3 of 4 trials against BC hunt epi

just saw ref to very early activirty ------

pepperdine head denies scaife infl (13 mil?) see wa post 99

---

Starr's connections to Richard Mellon Scaife and other Clinton-haters financing the scandals:

Star accepted a Scaife-funded tenured chair at Pepperdine University. (The ensuing scandal caused him to reject it.)
Starr sits on the board of the Scaife-funded Washington Legal Foundation.
Starr has done work for the Scaife-founded Landmark Legal Foundation, which has done work for Paula Jones.
Starr prepared a legal brief for Paula Jones on behalf of the Independent Women’s Forum, which is Scaife-financed.
Starr spoke at the Richard Mellon Scaife-funded Property Rights Group while working as independent counsel.
Starr spoke at right-wing televangelist Pat Robertson's Regent University while working as independent counsel.
Starr performed legal work for the conservative Bradley Foundation

.----

wiki

...

Post-Independent Counsel activities

After five years as independent counsel, Starr resigned and returned to private practice as an appellate lawyer and a visiting professor at New York University and the George Mason University School of Law. Starr worked as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, specializing in litigation. He was one of the lead attorneys in a class-action lawsuit filed by a coalition of liberal and conservative groups (including the ACLU and the NRA) against the regulations created by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known informally as McCain-Feingold Act. In the case, Starr argued that the law is an unconstitutional abridgement of free speech.

On April 6, 2004, he was appointed dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law. He originally accepted a position at Pepperdine as the first dean of the newly created School of Public Policy in 1996; however, he withdrew from the appointment in 1998, several months after the Lewinsky controversy erupted. Critics charged that there was a conflict of interest due to substantial donations to Pepperdine from billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, a Clinton critic who funded many media outlets attacking the president. (Scaife's money, however, supported the Foster-was-murdered theory, according to CNN, and Scaife defunded The American Spectator after it endorsed Starr's conclusion of suicide and mocked a Scaife-aided book.^{[^^14]^}(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Starr#cite_note-jackson-13)) In 2004, some five years after President Clinton's impeachment, Starr was again offered a Pepperdine position at the School of Law and this time accepted it....

blackwater

Hunting

http://www.benegesserit.com/THOTP/Porter-THOTP.htm

Money from the Pittsburgh billionaire's foundations also supported three conservative organizations prominently associated without he Jones case. Between 1988 and 1996, nearly a million dollars in Scaife funds had been lavished on the Landmark Legal Foundation, an organization based in Kansas City and Washington which litigated on behalf of right-wing causes. Well over half a million dollars had been doled out to the Independent Women's Forum since 1994, when its leaders engaged Starr to write a brief on Jones' behalf.

hunt 127 CONSIDERED filing amicus for IWF

clients were catr co, tobacco and RNC 134

pal of quayle

senate candiddate

http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html

Starr, the Federalist Society and Collegial Networks

Kenneth Starr was appointed Special Prosecutor to investigate alleged Clinton wrongdoing despite his being enmeshed in a network of conservative, libertarian, and hard right attorneys and political activists for years. According to People for the American Way:

Judge David Sentelle, who was one of the three judges appointed to oversee the selection of the independent prosecutor, was instrumental in the decision to fire the previous prosecutor and appoint Starr. Shortly before Starr's appointment, Sentelle lunched with Senators Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth, who had been demanding a new prosecutor. Faircloth later hired David Bossie as a personal aide on the Senate Whitewater Committee. Bossie previously worked with Floyd Brown at Citizens United where he helped compile the book, Slick Willie, and has been a long-time anti-Clinton investigator.¹⁴⁰(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P378_106609)

Eric Schlosser in Rolling Stone pointed to further connections:

Linda Tripp has known Kenneth Starr since at least 1994, when she met him during the Vincent Foster investigation. Tripp happens to be a friend of Unlimited Access author Gary Aldrich, the FBI agent who claimed to have seen the cock rings on the Clinton Christmas tree. Aldrich's publisher, Alfred Regnery, has been friends with Kenneth Starr since their days together at the Reagan Justice Department. Tripp's attorney, James Moody, attended meetings of the Federalist Society and did work for the Landmark Legal Foundation, as did Kenneth Starr. Tripp's literary agent, Lucianne Goldberg, has known Alfred Regnery for years. None of these facts proves the existence of any hidden conspiracy. Nevertheless, when it comes to the far right, it's an awfully small world.¹⁴¹(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P381_107548)

In early 1997 Starr announced he would leave the position of Special Prosecutor to take a position at Pepperdine University. The position had been funded by Richard Mellon Scaife. Although news stories discussed the possibility that Scaife had specifically arranged for Kenneth Starr to accept the job, all the parties denied a quid pro quo arrangement, and records show Scaife funded the university well before Starr was offered the post. Starr first accepted, then declined the post at Pepperdine, although the school said the offer was still open. ¹⁴²(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P383_108140) Scaife's prior funding of the position certainly made Starr's original acceptance improper given Scaife's ongoing campaign against Clinton who was being investigated by Starr.

Other substantial conflicts of interest issues were raised in the media about Starr's appointment and conduct, including questions about his continued representation of the tobacco industry.¹⁴³(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P385_108576) According to columnist Frank Greve, there was an informal network of libertarian attorneys that aided investigations of Clinton, "including Richard Porter, a partner in Starr's Chicago law firm, Kirkland & Ellis; Theodore Olson, a former Starr partner and lawyer for the Clinton-bashing monthly magazine The American Spectator; and Jerome Marcus, a Philadelphia sexual harassment law specialist." Says Greve:

Even Starr, it turns out, served as an unpaid counsel to Jones' lawyers in 1994 before he was appointed independent counsel. Because of Starr's discussions with Jones lawyer Gilbert Davis, Starr "never should have been appointed" special counsel, [according to] Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a member of the Judiciary Committee.¹⁴⁴(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P387_109318)

Starr's law firm contacted the Independent Womens Forum to see if they would sign on a proposed legal brief opposing President Clinton's claim of immunity in Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit.¹⁴⁵(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P389_109758) Those discussions should have been disclosed. The Scaife-funded IWF grew out of the informal "Women for Clarence Thomas" in 1991.¹⁴⁶(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P390_110056) IWF was founded by by Barabra Olson, wife of Theodore Olson, the former Starr law partner, and a funder of the Federalist Society. An informational tip to Starr's office regarding the Paula Jones case should have been reported as well. That incident involved two attorneys, Jerome Marcus and Paul Rosenzweig who had been in law school together.

At the center of this network is The Federalist Society, libertarian attorneys, and attorneys with Kirkland & Ellis. Starr is a founding funder of the Federalist Society's James Madison Club, consisting of those who donate $1,000 or more. Others on the roster include Alfred Regnery, ultra-conservative activists Richard and Betsy DeVos, and Donald and Barbara Hodel, C. Boyden Gray, William Bradford Reynolds, and Theodore Olson. According to the New York Times:

Marcus recruited others to assist his efforts, including several friends from the University of Chicago Law School. One of those who was approached, Paul Rosenzweig, briefly considered doing work for Jones in 1994, according to billing records and interviews, but decided not to. In November 1997, Rosenzweig joined Starr's office, where he and Marcus had several telephone conversations about the Jones case.

It was Rosenzweig who fielded a "heads-up" phone call from Marcus on Jan. 8, 1998, that first tipped off Starr's office about Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp. The tip was not mentioned in the 445-page Starr report, even though the information revived a moribund Whitewater investigation that would not have produced, it now seems, an impeachment referral to Congress. ¹⁴⁷(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P394_112236)

Another example of how collegial networks such as the Federalist Society advance ideas and actions, as well as careers, is the case of author and legal commentator Ann Coulter.¹⁴⁸(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P396_112566) Coulter attended Cornell University, where she launched the conservative Cornell Review, part of the conservative Collegiate Network funded by Scaife. She trained at the National Journalism Center, run by conservative columnist M. Stanton Evans, whose lectures are sometimes sponsored by the Young America's Foundation. The Center claims no partisan bias but its lecturers and postings are skewed to the right. The center receives funding from the conservative Olin Foundation. While at the University of Michigan law school, Coulter founded the local chapter of the Federalist Society. After the Republicans Congressional takeover in 1994, Coulter joined the staff of Sen. Spencer Abraham, (R-MI), a Federalist Society activist. She then became a legal commentator for MSNBC.

Coulter's book was published by Regnery. Phillips/Eagle, a major owner of Regnery, also publishes Human Events.¹⁴⁹(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P398_113679) Coulter went to work for the Scaife-funded Center for Individual Rights, then as a legal affairs writer for Human Events, which had previously run a favorable review of her book. Coulter also played matchmaker, helping Paula Jones find lawyers and suggesting that attorney Jim Moody help Linda Tripp with her legal problems.¹⁵⁰(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P399_114201)

Another conservative network, the Council for National Policy, also played a role in developing Republican impeachment strategy.¹⁵¹(http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-20.html#P401_114357)

^----^

Hunting Pres JC says help front CIA prop p 108

hated BC

Olson met w/ troopergate guys. indicted? p 109

scaife funded IWF hunt 261

Starr's law firm contacted the Independent Womens Forum to see if they would sign on a proposed legal brief opposing President Clinton's claim of immunity in Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit.145 Those discussions should have been disclosed. The Scaife-funded IWF grew out of the informal "Women for Clarence Thomas" in 1991.146 IWF was founded by by Barabra Olson, wife of Theodore Olson, the former Starr law partner, and a funder of the Federalist Society.

Myth: Ken Starr's investigation was ethical and fair.

Fact: Ken Starr's investigation was filled with conflicts of interests, illegalities and improprieties.

Summary

Ken Starr's investigation was not independent, but heavily based in right-wing politics, replete with conflicts of interest, illegal leaks, perjury traps, overzealous prosecution, and ties to Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire funding the scandals.

Below are 68 reasons why you should not trust Kenneth Starr or his investigation: (1)

Improprieties in gaining the office of independent counsel:

Starr was appointed by conservative judge David Sentelle's panel immediately after Sentelle had a lunch with Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth, North Carolina's right-wing, Clinton-hating senators.
Judge Sentelle's wife went to work for Senator Faircloth's office five months after Starr's appointment.
When the Justice Department considered Ken Starr for Independent Prosecutor, Starr failed to admit numerous conflicts of interest.

Conflicts of interest:

Before his appointment, Starr wrote a friend-of-the-court brief about Paula Jones for the Supreme Court.
Starr wrote a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Republican National Committee for Bush attorney general Richard Thornborough.
Starr maintained his million-dollar-a-year private law practice while working as independent counsel.
Starr represented Big Tobacco while working as independent counsel; Bill Clinton is Big Tobacco's number one enemy.
Starr's law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, was being sued by the Resolution Trust Corporation while Starr investigated the RTC.
Starr represented International Paper, which had sold land to the Whitewater Development Company.
Starr sits on the board of the conservative Washington Legal Foundation, funded by Big Tobacco.
Starr sought out a book deal with Newt Gingrich's agent, Lunn Chu.
Starr has ties to right-wingers James Moody and George Conway, the Jones/Tripp lawyers.
Starr was forced by Associate Attorney General Webb Hubbell to stop representing Bell Atlantic; later, Starr got even by prosecuting Hubbell into oblivion.

Illegalities and ethical lapses in the investigation:

Starr leaks like a sieve, contrary to the law preventing him from disclosing information to the press.
Starr contributed to a New York Times Magazine article to promote his investigation.
Starr wired Linda Tripp before asking for authority to pursue those allegations.
Starr pressured Lewinsky to wear a wire before asking for authority to pursue further allegations.
Starr's only key Whitewater witness, David Hale, is reported to have been paid by Richard Mellon Scaife, who is funding the Clinton scandals.
Starr's only key Whitewater witness, David Hale, is a proven liar.
Starr's own investigation gave David Hale more than $60,000 for living expenses.
Starr's Whitewater state trooper witnesses were paid by Jerry Falwell.
Someone at Starr's private law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, faxed an affidavit from the Jones case to the Chicago Tribune before it was filed in court.
Starr's star "witness," Linda Tripp, worked simultaneously with Starr's and Jones's lawyers.
Starr had gained detailed knowledge of Monica Lewinsky's sealed deposition in the Jones suit within hours of its completion.
Starr appears to have set a "perjury trap" for Clinton.
Apparently for political reasons, Starr withheld his report clearing Clinton on Vince Foster's suicide until after the 1996 elections.
Apparently for political reasons, Starr withheld his exoneration of Clinton on Travelgate, Filegate and Whitewater until after the 1998 elections.
Apparently for political reasons, the Starr Report, complete with pornographic details, was released to Congress and the public just a month before the 1998 elections.

Overzealousness of prosecution:

Starr held Monica Lewinsky without a lawyer for eight or nine hours. (She was technically free to go, but coerced psychologically with threats of 27-year prison sentences.)
Starr tried to force Marcia Lewis, Lewinksy's mother, to testify against her. (She became ill as a result.)
Starr's investigators were bearing guns when they interrogated Lewinksy's brother.
Starr tried to pressure Whitewater witness Steve Smith to testify falsely, according to Smith.
Starr threatened Whitewater witness Sarah Hawkins with indictment without any evidence of wrong-doing.
Starr subpoenaed a sixteen-year old boy at his school to intimidate him.
Starr subpoenaed Robert Weiner for making a phone call from his home.
Starr kept Susan McDougal locked in jail for eighteen months and tried to get her to testify to an imaginary affair.
Starr subpoenaed White House aide Sidney Blumenthal for talking with the press about his investigation.
Starr subpoenaed a Little Rock home decorating store where Webster Hubbell shopped.
Starr subpoenaed bookstores where Monica Lewinsky shopped, trying to learn her reading habits.
Starr has subpoenaed Secret Service agents to testify against the president.
Starr tried to dig up dirt on the president's sex life long before the Monica Lewinsky allegations.
Starr's investigators harrassed White House Interior Department liaison Bob Hattoy about recruiting gay people to work in the Clinton Administration.
Starr's lieutenant Michael Emmick is a notoriously vicious prosecutor.
Starr's lieutenant Hickman Ewing is also a notoriously vicious prosecutor.
Starr's lieutenant Bruce Udolf violated someone's civil rights with his prosecutorial excess.
Starr's lieutenant Jackie Bennett says he "didn't know" Mickey Kantor was the President's personal attorney.
Starr has maintained both Washington D.C. and Virginia Grand Juries, so that he can berate black witnesses in front of a white jury.
Starr has tried to breach the attorney-client privilege of Vince Foster, Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton.

Starr's far-right activism and bias (which prevent him from being an independent counsel, unlike his predecessor, the moderate and ideal Robert Fiske):

Starr considered running for a Republican Senate nomination in Virginia.
Starr was co-chairman of an unsuccessful Republican congressional campaign (Kyle McSlarrow, 1994).
Starr pushed a Whitewater story as a member of the ABA Journal editorial board.
Starr contributed $5,475 to Republican political candidates in the 1993-94 election cycle.
Starr contributed $1,750 to a political action committee gave money to 1995-96 GOP presidential candidates.
Starr, according to journalist David Brock, is a mainstay at right-wing parties.
Starr appeared on radio programs to speak in support of Paula Jones's case against the president.

Starr's connections to Richard Mellon Scaife and other Clinton-haters financing the scandals:

Star accepted a Scaife-funded tenured chair at Pepperdine University. (The ensuing scandal caused him to reject it.)
Starr sits on the board of the Scaife-funded Washington Legal Foundation.
Starr has done work for the Scaife-founded Landmark Legal Foundation, which has done work for Paula Jones.
Starr prepared a legal brief for Paula Jones on behalf of the Independent Women’s Forum, which is Scaife-financed.
Starr spoke at the Richard Mellon Scaife-funded Property Rights Group while working as independent counsel.
Starr spoke at right-wing televangelist Pat Robertson's Regent University while working as independent counsel.
Starr performed legal work for the conservative Bradley Foundation.

Other Starr fumbles:

Starr has spent nearly $40 million to smear the president and has found no evidence of wrong-doing anywhere, except for the cover-up of a sexual affair.
Starr has described no fewer than ten "critical stages" of his Whitewater investigation that never amounted to anything.
Starr resigned before completion of his Whitewater probe, only to come back after intense right-wing pressure.
Starr himself has admitted that he has exercised bad judgment.
Starr has been accused of shielding perjury in a General Motors case.
When Starr appeared before the House Judicial committee, he answered at least 30 times with statements like "I can't recall…" "I don't remember…" even for momentous events like when he learned about the Tripp tapes.

**Return to Overview** Endnotes:1. Sixty of these points are taken from James Carville, "Sixty Reasons Why I Don't Trust Ken Starr's Investigation," ...And the Horse He Rode In On (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), pp. 143-147.

Duckworth v. Whisenant, et. al., U.S.D.C. N.D. Ga., Obtained defense verdicts for three officers in 8 day bench trial of excessive force claims, limited verdict against DeKalb County to $500.

Alford v. Osei-Kwasi, 203 Ga.App. 716, 418 S.E.2d 79 (1992). Successfully defended jail officer who used a taser on a six month pregnant inmate.

Work for Southeastern Legal Foundation

Drafted petition to disbar William Jefferson Clinton filed by L. Lynn Hogue.

Drafted amicus briefs in the 11th Circuit for SLF in Johnson v. UGA, regarding constitutionality of affirmative action in college admissions, Gratz v. Bollinger a 6th Circuit affirmative action in law school admissions case, Washington Post Co. v. FreeRepublic.com, a First Amendment and copyright fair use case, and Utah v. North Carolina, a Supreme Court case involving the propriety of certain statistical methods in the apportionment count of the 2000 census. Actively involved on the plaintiffs’ side in McConnell, et al., v. FEC, et al., in the District of Columbia, an omnibus challenge to the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.

Oh...and never been laid. Not even once.

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starroute

(1000+ posts)

Fri Sep-17-04 11:20 PM

Response to Reply #9

27. Southeastern Legal Foundation is Scaife-funded

See http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2000/disbar.html

Any time Scaife's name comes up, you know you've got trouble.

MacDougald is also linked to Ken Starr -- both through the Southeastern Legal Foundation and by their having worked together on a challenge to the Campaign Finance Reform Act.

In othe words, MacDougald is part of the same old Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy -- the one that tried to bring down Bill Clinton, was involved in smearing John McCain in 2000, and is now organizing the SwiftBoat Liars.

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UpInArms

(1000+ posts)

Sat Sep-18-04 08:06 AM

Response to Reply #27

36. and per his bio

Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy, 1985-present

They have been indoctrinating and creating an entire cadre of right-wing attorneys in the mold of Renquist et al for years

http://www.fed-soc.org /

http://www.fed-soc.org/ourpurpose.htm

Law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology which advocates a centralized and uniform society. While some members of the academic community have dissented from these views, by and large they are taught simultaneously with (and indeed as if they were) the law.

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be.

The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities. This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law. It also requires restoring the recognition of the importance of these norms among lawyers, judges, and law professors.

In working to achieve these goals, the Society has created a conservative and libertarian intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community.

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Sophree