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Sources say new grand jury to probe Clinton in Lewinsky scandal |
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August 19, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) - Independent Counsel Robert Ray is signaling that the Monica Lewinsky scandal is far from over, assembling a new grand jury to investigate the U.S. president's conduct, legal sources say. News that the grand jury was impaneled a month ago reverberated to the other side of the country Thursday, with Democratic Party loyalists at the convention in Los Angeles decrying the story as a politically motivated leak designed to hurt Vice President Al Gore in his bid for the presidency. "If Clinton was to drop dead, the Republicans would dig him up," complained U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel. The timing of the news "hours before Al Gore is to give this speech" warrants a federal investigation, said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois. "You can bet your bottom dollar that the Republican Party was behind" the leak, said House Minority Whip David Bonior. "I think the American people are going to reject this kind of behavior." Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said the judicial system was being "manipulated for political purposes." With the convention in its final day, Clinton was at the White House, where spokesman Jake Siewert pointed to prosecutors as a likely source of the leak. Ray's office denied it. The sources telling The Associated Press that a new grand jury was convened July 11 in the Clinton-Lewinsky matter are outside the Independent Counsel's office. The sources spoke only on condition of anonymity. The setting up of a new Clinton-Lewinsky grand jury at the U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., follows through on Ray's promise to weigh whether the president should be indicted after he steps down from office next January. A year and a half after Clinton was impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate on a pair of 50-50 tie votes, a special panel of judges is renewing Ray's mandate for another year. The judges issued a legalistic one-sentence order Wednesday declaring that "termination of the office ... is not currently appropriate." The legal questions are whether Clinton committed perjury or obstructed justice when he denied an affair in sworn testimony in the Paula Jones case. The judge in the Jones case has already ruled the president gave false testimony and fined him for civil contempt of court. The disciplinary committee of the Arkansas Supreme Court has also moved to revoke Clinton's law license. Keith Ausbrook, senior counsel to Ray, declined comment about any grand jury activity, which is kept secret by law. But in response to the judges' order, Ausbrook noted that "we've made public that the Lewinsky investigation remains open and that the e-mail investigation remains open." The e-mail probe focuses on whether the White House concealed thousands of electronic messages sought by investigators. Presidential aides deny wrongdoing. The new grand jury is likely to get up to speed on the scandal by receiving evidence in the form of transcripts and summaries of previously gathered evidence.
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