Legal Questions
Allegations of a secret White House affair between President Clinton and a female intern and charges that the he pressured the woman to lie under oath about what happened between them raises numerous legal questions:
Q: What kind of legal trouble is President Clinton in?
A: Potentially serious.
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr is investigating whether Clinton tried to cover up an affair by inducing Monica Lewinsky to commit perjury, by lying under oath himself and by obstructing justice. Except for the affair itself, all are felonies under federal law - which means they are punishable by a prison term. Clinton has denied any illegal acts.
Q: Does Starr have authority to investigate these charges?
A: Some lawyers say Starr has gone far afield of his original Whitewater investigation, but Starr’s lawyers insist their new probe is relevant extension of their inquiry into the activities of Vernon Jordan, a presidential confidant. Starr was trying to find out whether Jordan helped arrange consulting contracts for Webster Hubbell, once a close friend of Clinton, in order to persuade Hubbell not to testify against Clinton in the Whitewater affair.
A three-judge appeals court panel, which authorized Starr’s expanded investigation last Friday, apparently believed it was only a short step from the already-approved investigation.
Q: Is it lawful for someone to record a conversation without the other person’s consent?
A: Unlike Washington state law, federal law requires that only one party to a conversation give consent. The same rule applies in Virginia and the District of Columbia, where the tape recordings may have taken place. However, a judge must be convinced that the recordings are reliable before they can be used as evidence in court.
Q: What is Starr likely to do next?
A: He probably will seek to subpoena telephone, employment and other White House records from the White House in a search for evidence about the relationships between Lewinsky and the president and between Lewinsky and Jordan. He also is likely to seek testimony from other White House personnel and Lewinsky herself. If necessary, he could offer her immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.
Q: Can a federal grand jury indict a president in office?
A: That is a much-disputed, unresolved question. Duke University law professor William Van Alstyne, a leading constitutional scholar, said the conventional wisdom is that a president may be indicted only after he leaves office. He said a Justice Department memo written during the Nixon administration said prosecuting a sitting president would unconstitutionally cripple the president’s ability to perform his duties.
Q: What must be proved to remove a president?
A: The Constitution says a president may be removed from office for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” But it has never been clear whether a criminal violation is necessary. The Supreme Court has never interpreted “other high crimes and misdemeanors,” but, Van Alstyne said, it is generally believed that impeachment is not reviewable by a court. Former President Gerald Ford, while a congressman, said an impeachable offense is whatever the House and Senate say it is.