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Monica and Starr in starring role again |
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July 14, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) - Charles Bakaly III, the former independent counsel spokesman, is going on trial on charges he misled a judge about news leaks during the Monica Lewinsky investigation. U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ordered the Justice Department to prosecute the onetime aide to former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr in a non-jury trial set to begin Thursday. Prosecutors contend Bakaly misled Johnson, the chief judge of federal district court in Washington, when he denied leaking material in January 1999. They contend Bakaly later changed his account to acknowledge he may have "unwittingly" confirmed information for a reporter. Bakaly is charged in the criminal contempt-of-court proceeding with obstructing justice and making false statements to Johnson. The Justice Department said that if Bakaly is convicted, it would recommend a sentence of six months imprisonment or less. A New York Times story at issue was written during impeachment proceedings against the president, and said that Starr's office concluded a sitting president could be criminally indicted. Johnson on Wednesday turned down Bakaly's motion to dismiss the charges. The former spokesman argued that any false statements about his conversations with a Times reporter were not material to the central issue: whether the information in the story involved secret grand jury matters. The former spokesman also contended that even if the information did involve grand jury matters, it did not obstruct the investigation of news leaks. Obstruction is a key element that prosecutors would have to prove in order to convict Bakaly. A federal appeals court eventually ruled that the Times article did not reveal grand jury material, but Bakaly's original statements denying any leaks came before that ruling. "Put simply, the materiality of a false declaration must be measured at the point in time at which it was executed and filed with the court," Johnson said, adding that Bakaly's argument "strains logic past the breaking point." She also ruled that Bakaly's alleged false statements about leaks met the test for obstruction of justice because they caused "added delay and expense" to the independent counsel and FBI, which investigated the leaked material. She said the statements also resulted in more work for the court.
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