Starr Performance Hit From All Sides Lewinsky’s Lawyer Critical Of ‘This Campaign Of Leaks’

A Republican senator said Sunday the Monica Lewinsky investigation should have been handled by someone other than Kenneth Starr because too many Americans “think he’s out to get the president.”

A Democratic senator said Starr’s ethics should be investigated in Congress.

“I think it would have been smarter had the attorney general, looking at the many years of Starr’s involvement and the public perception, which is adverse to Starr …, let someone else come in,” Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said.

“Many people think he’s out to get the president, and you have this adverse public reaction to Starr,” added Specter, appearing on “Fox News Sunday.”

Specter’s comments came as Lewinsky’s lawyer, William Ginsburg, continued harsh criticism of Starr for alleged leaks of information to the news media in the investigation of an alleged presidential affair. The latest revelation: Lewinsky’s supposed e-mails to friend Linda Tripp mentioning Lewinsky’s unnamed boyfriend, whom she referred to as “the Big Creep,” and his wife “Babba.”

“All of this goes to this campaign of leaks,” Ginsburg said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “This particular investigative group under Mr. Starr has managed to trample, and I mean totally trample, on Lewinsky’s 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendment rights” and the e-mails are “just more of the same.”

“It is a complete and total destruction of her constitutional rights,” added Ginsburg.

Newsweek said that in a Feb. 19, 1997 e-mail, Lewinsky wrote that “the Big Creep didn’t even try to call me on V-day (Valentine’s Day).” Lewinsky also refers to “the Big Creep’s wife,” calling her “Babba.” On March 5, 1997, Lewinsky e-mails Tripp, saying that her unnamed paramour “should (if Betty is nice) get my tie today. I sure hope he likes it. Make me feel better and tell me it’s really pretty, o.k?”

On CNN, Ginsburg said that “I’d like to cross-examine Linda Tripp on how she happened to have … e-mail and who in fact really did create that mail. I doubt very much that it was Monica Lewinsky.”

Ginsburg said that leaks of information to the press such as e-mail are “a complete and total destruction” of Lewinsky’s constitutional rights.

A friend of Tripp, New York book agent Lucianne Goldberg, said in an interview that she has seen copies of “chitchat type” e-mail between Lewinsky and Tripp. “The two frequently wrote e-mail to each other during the day,” Goldberg said.

In other developments Sunday:

Newsweek reported that Lewinsky told Tripp that in mid-November last year, Lewinsky was “hiding” in the president’s study off the Oval Office. Newsweek quoted an unidentified source as saying that Lewinsky told Tripp she was waiting to have sex with Clinton.

Time magazine reported that two sources close to the president said Lewinsky returned gifts she received from the president to Clinton’s personal secretary, Betty Currie, with the instruction: “Keep these for me. I’ll get them back someday.” If true, the account provided by the unidentified White House sources would be at odds with various news reports which said that Currie retrieved the gifts. Ginsburg declined to comment.

Time also reported that a woman named Julie Hiatt Steele signed an affidavit Friday helpful to Clinton in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. The affidavit conflicts with the story of Kathleen Willey, a woman who alleged she was groped by the president. Julie Hiatt Steele said Willey tried to get Steele to exaggerate what happened during a meeting with Clinton, Steele’s lawyer, John West, said in an interview.

Starr, a Republican, has continued while serving as independent counsel to do legal work for his private law firm. “I don’t think Mr. Starr is independent at all,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

“This is a case where the Senate Judiciary Committee should step in with an oversight hearing to see if Mr. Starr is guilty of any breaches of ethics,” Durbin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Starr “has a tin ear when it comes to … conflicts,” added Durbin. “More stories came out this week about involvement of his law firm with the Paula Jones investigation, and this isn’t the first that we’ve heard of it.”

Starr’s law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, is seeking to quash a subpoena from Clinton’s lawyer in the lawsuit filed by Jones.

Durbin said, “I think if we’re going to have an independent counsel statute - and I’m becoming very skeptical as to whether we can have a good one, at any point - we’ve got to make certain that it truly is an independent prosecutor.”