[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 20 (Wednesday, March 4, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H840-H841]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE BY THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NETHERCUTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a subject that 
is on the minds of all Americans, the pursuit of justice by the 
Independent Counsel.
  In recent weeks, we have seen the personal character and motives of 
Kenneth Starr subjected to an unprecedented number of insults and 
attacks by friends of the President, attacks which are designed to 
delay justice and shift focus away from the truth.
  Sadly, Mr. Speaker, these attacks only tarnish our system of law in 
America. Our criminal justice system was designed to operate outside 
the political arena. It was intended that officers of the court would 
seek justice based on the presentation of the facts and the 
determination of whether conduct based on these facts was unlawful or 
not.
  The search for truth and determination of the facts has sadly become 
an indictment by political operatives of the Independent Counsel and 
his office. Diverting attention from the facts of this case does not 
serve justice, it simply demeans the Presidency.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress passed the Independent Counsel statute in 
response to the Watergate experience of 1974, assuring that an 
independently appointed court official would best be able to seek 
justice involving allegations against high government officials. Moving 
the prosecution process outside the White House best assures that 
credible allegations of wrongdoing against such officials will not go 
unchecked. It is certainly not in our national interests for a 
President to investigate himself.
  The history of the Independent Counsel statute is interesting. 
Congress reauthorized it three times. President Clinton himself signed 
the reauthorization legislation in 1994. Many Members of this Congress 
back in 1994 voted for such reauthorization.
  Under the law, the Independent Counsel is given the same 
investigative authority as the Department of Justice. The authority 
includes conducting grand jury investigations, granting immunity to 
witnesses, and challenging in court any privilege claims or attempts to 
withhold evidence on national security grounds.
  We must also understand, Mr. Speaker, that obtaining testimony by 
subpoena is an important investigative tool to determine the facts of 
allegations of wrongdoing by the President. Without facts, neither 
truth nor justice can be preserved.
  Mr. Speaker, the Attorney General appointed Mr. Starr through a 
judicial

[[Page H841]]

panel and maintains full authority to remove the Independent Counsel. 
Mr. Starr was not appointed because he was without integrity; he was 
appointed because he is a fine lawyer, possessed of substantial legal 
skills and experience, and respected for his character and honesty.
  If President Clinton genuinely believes Mr. Starr has acted beyond 
authority, the Attorney General may remove him for cause and appoint a 
different Independent Counsel. The power to do so resides in this 
President.
  If the President believes the insults that his spokesmen level at Mr. 
Starr, then the President should seek removal. If he does not agree 
with those insults, the President should instruct his defenders to stop 
their public criticism, criticism that is not designed to learn the 
truth, but to deflect it and bring contempt on our justice system.
  With international challenges facing our country, the public needs 
reassurance that our highest national leader is truthful, that his 
representations to us are reliable, that we can trust his word on 
matters of national security, that he is an honorable representative 
for all Americans. Under the circumstances, the President's sacred 
honor is in question. All the criticisms against the Independent 
Counsel by political operatives of the President do not change that at 
all. Their criticisms serve not the best interests of the country nor 
the one standard that Americans support most, the truth.
  Mr. Speaker, all Americans need to know that our President is 
honorable. Seeking the truth should not just be another political 
campaign. Assaulting our legal system and the officers of the court who 
administer it, who serve under it, may have temporary political 
benefit. Public opinion polls ebb and flow, but the long-term damage is 
more lasting. Public distrust of our legal system, the system in which 
we want our citizens to have faith, will result from a contradiction of 
the noble American principle that we are a country of laws, not men. 
That rule of law and justice is of paramount importance to a civil 
society. No person, no matter how popular, is above the law.
  Mr. Speaker, we should all take a careful look at the phenomenon 
unfolding before us, the gaming of our justice system, where 
criticizing legal authority is the defense weapon of choice, where 
putting a proper spin on the evidence is a substitute for being 
truthful and honest and accepting the consequences.

                              {time}  2230

  Free societies governed by laws fairly administered can prevail over 
political tyranny only if citizens have faith in and respect for 
authorities charged with enforcing the laws. Law is the embodiment of 
the moral sentiment of the people. The laws of our country are the most 
perfect branch of ethics. Laws should be like death, which spares no 
one. It has been said that every violation of truth is a stab at the 
heart of human society.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, our society, our country, needs the truth 
in this instance. To people of integrity, there would be no 
conversation so agreeable as that of a man, be he the President or the 
independent counsel, who has no intention to deceive. The withholding 
of truth can be a worse deception than a direct misstatement. Searching 
for the truth is the noblest occupation of mankind. Obscuring it is a 
curse on our society that will damage our institutions of government 
and our national spirit for years to come.

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