Willey, Adversary
USA
Today and the Washington Post lead with the grand jury appearance of
Kathleen Willey. The New York
Times covers the Willey questioning in its lead too, but goes higher in
the story with the news that President Clinton may be headed for a grand jury
appearance himself. The Los Angeles Times leads with the news that the INS
announced that none of a new batch of Border Patrol agents is being assigned to
San Diego--because the agency feels that illegal immigration there has "reached
a level of control." The paper notes that some Southern Californians, including
some area politicians, dispute this, noting that while San Diego's illegal
entries seem to have dropped, nearby areas of inland California have seen their
illegal immigration arrests skyrocket.
Yesterday's WP said that Willey was coming to the Starr grand jury,
but nobody predicted this soon. The papers seize on various indications that in
Willey, Starr seems to have at last found a cooperative witness, noting that
she did not appear to have her own lawyer with her ( USAT ), that she
arrived in a Starr van (the WP ), and was accompanied inside the
courthouse by prosecutors (the WP and NYT ). The WP notes the White House projected an air of
unconcern, quoting spokesman Joe Lockhart's comment: "When people tell the
truth, they tell the truth. It doesn't matter who drove you there." But the
Post also notes that the White House was mum about how Willey, a
clerical volunteer, managed to wangle the private appointment in November, 1993
with Clinton to discuss her husband's financial troubles and her sudden need
for a job, during which, she charges in her Jones case deposition, he groped
her.
The Post observes that Willey's appearance indicates Starr is
widening his investigation beyond the allegations involving Monica Lewinsky to
determine whether President Clinton has testified truthfully in his Paula Jones
deposition about other women as well. Everybody reports that Starr is also
interested in determining if Willey was--as she stated in her Jones case
affidavit--approached by Democratic fund-raiser Nathan Landow in an effort to
influence her to back off her grope charge.
It has been widely reported that a woman named Julie Steele now says Willey
asked her to falsely claim that she was told by Willey about the incident not
long after it happened. But USAT says that it has found another Willey friend
who says Willey told her of the incident shortly after it allegedly took place.
On the other hand, the paper also notes that in her 1995 testimony in
connection with a lawsuit over her late husband's estate, Willey says she never
had a conversation with anyone in Washington about her husband's financial
reversals.
The NYT front reports that six
Iraqis who worked with the CIA in plots against Saddam Hussein have now
been declared threats to U.S. national security and hence subject to
deportation, in a ruling so secret that their lawyers aren't allowed to read
it.
Another Times front-page piece describes how fear of litigation has
made high school guidance counselors much more hesitant to pass
along information about applicants to college admissions personnel. "They'll
write that Johnny took these courses and was a great student," remarks one
expert in the field, "but they won't tell you that Johnny burned down the
gym."
The Wall Street Journal "Tax Report" says that the number of
tax cases referred to the Justice Department in which taxpayers have simply
refused to recognize the basic legality of the income tax has doubled over the
past three years.
And the Journal 's piece about the upcoming Blumenthal vs. Drudge libel suit quotes First Amendment
scholar Floyd Abrams as saying, "If one were rewriting libel law today, one
would try to write it to assure that the false statements of Matt Drudge were
treated as libel." And what exactly would that rewrite say? You know, that
wouldn't allow Matt Drudge to say what he says, but would allow Floyd Abrams to
say what he says.
The WP reports that according to a new GAO report, in 1995-96, $8.5
million worth of food stamps were issued to more than 25,000 dead people.
Both the NYT and WP report that when asked to identify himself
by reporters in front of the courthouse where the Starr grand jury is located,
Kathleen Willey's son said he was "the sausage king of Chicago." The
Times is stumped by this, but the Post gets it: he's quoting a
line Matthew Broderick used in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
