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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Suspected ‘Go-Between’ Subpoenaed

Boston Globe

President Clinton’s lawyers have subpoenaed New York attorney George Conway, believing he could be a “go between” linking the Paula Jones case and independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s probe, according to a source close to Clinton’s defense.

Any contact between Starr’s staff and Jones’s attorneys would be against Justice Department rules, legal specialists said Thursday. Jones’s attorneys have denied that they collaborated with Starr’s team in any way.

In addition, the source said, Clinton’s defense team has requested information from Starr’s law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago.

Both requests were made by Clinton’s attorney Robert Bennett as part of the discovery process in the Jones suit. Starr is pursuing allegations that a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, had a sexual relationship with Clinton and was then asked to lie about it.

It is unclear whether Thursday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright in Little Rock, Ark., preventing any further discovery in the Jones case relating to the Lewinsky allegations would block Bennett from pursuing information from Conway or Kirkland & Ellis.

While at Kirkland & Ellis, Starr reportedly worked on a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Jones’s contention that a sitting president should be required to defend a civil lawsuit. Starr abandoned his brief after being named independent counsel to investigate Clinton’s Whitewater land investment. Later, Conway filed his own friend-of-the-court brief supporting Jones.

Earlier this month, Conway helped steer Linda Tripp, the former White House secretary who recorded tapes of Lewinsky alleging an affair with the president, to Starr.

Conway, 34, is a partner at the New York firm of Wachtel, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. His secretary said Conway had gone on vacation.