The White House has broadened its attack on Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel investigating accusations involving President Clinton and a former intern, calling Starr "corrupt" and demanding an independent investigation of suspected leaks from his office.
Paul Begala, a senior White House political adviser, accused Starr on Sunday of using the sweeping powers and unlimited budget of his office to conduct a politically motivated "witch hunt" of the president and to intimidate witnesses into testifying against Clinton."There are serious questions of wrongdoing here," Begala said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," "and I think we need a truly independent investigation of the investigation itself, so that we can know who's behind these lies, who is behind these leaks, and let the investigation continue. I believe that Ken Starr has become corrupt in the sense that Lord Acton meant when he said, `Absolute power corrupts absolutely.' "
Begala also said the "out of control" nature of Starr's investigation was the reason Clinton was refusing to publicly answer questions about his relationship with the former intern, Monica Lewinsky. Begala offered no substantive explanation or defense of the president's actions.
Starr's office declined to comment on the latest accusations from the White House, but officials there said Starr had begun his own inquiry into whether his office was leaking to the news media.
Meanwhile, a White House staffer said Lewinsky confided a relationship with Clinton, and Whitewater prosecutors were reaching out to witnesses besides the former intern to investigate whether there was a presidential affair and cover-up.
Clinton's attorney, David Kendall, could take Starr to court as early as Monday, asking that Starr's office be found in contempt and punished for allegedly talking to reporters about secret grand jury proceedings.
Lewinsky's lawyer, William Gins-burg, said he will go to court in an attempt to force Starr to grant immunity from prosecution to the 24-year-old former intern.
An aide to House Speaker Newt Gingrich confirmed Monday that House Republican leaders last week discussed bolstering the Judiciary Committee staff in the event that Starr provides evidence to the panel that might lead to impeachment proceedings.
"It was a passing acknowledgment that should Starr turn over papers, the committee would need more personnel," said Gingrich spokeswoman Christina Martin.
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported Monday that Gingrich and other GOP leaders who met at a committee chairmen's meeting last Wednesday discussed dipping into a $4.4 million fund to help bankroll impeachment proceedings. The fund was set up to cover unexpected investigative costs.
For now, Starr's investigation appears to be focusing on people around Lewinsky such as Ashley Raines, an Arkansas native who is the customer-service program director in the White House Office of Administration.
Newsweek first disclosed Raines' questioning in the case and said she had given prosecutors detailed descriptions of Lewinsky's accounts of her alleged affair with Clinton.
The magazine reported that in addition to talking to Raines, Lewinsky played her tape-recorded telephone messages the president left on the former intern's answering machine. People who spoke to the Associated Press about the matter declined to characterize Raines' statements in any way.
If Lewinsky played answering machine tapes for Raines, this would be the second time the issue has come up in the investigation. Sources close to former White House staffer Linda Tripp say she has told investigators she heard recorded messages that Clinton left for Lewinsky.
The disclosure regarding Raines is part of "a campaign of misinformation and intimidation" by Starr, said White House spokesman Joe Lock-hart.
Starr said Saturday he would look into charges of leaks from his office and "take appropriate action" against any offenders.
NBC News reported that 57 percent of the public have a positive feeling about the president, while just 19 percent view Starr positively. The same poll showed 27 percent of the public with a negative view of Clinton and 39 percent with a negative view of Starr.
Lewinsky, in a Jan. 7 affidavit given in Paula Jones' sexual harass-ment lawsuit against Clinton, denied that she had an affair with the president. The denial came around the time Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan was helping arrange a job for her in New York.
The president's supporters suspect that Starr is leaking information in an attempt to persuade Lewin-sky to cooperate with the investigation, and her lawyers joined the White House in attacking Starr.
"Starr seems to think it's OK to break the law to enforce the law," Gins-burg and Nathaniel Speights said in a three-page article they co-authored in Time magazine.
Republicans sprang to Starr's defense.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., called the criticism "an effort to get away from the real story, the truth," adding that "as long as (Clinton) won't say what happened, the problem will hang out there." He spoke on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"I just don't believe" Starr's office would leak information, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said on "Fox News Sunday."
Clinton loyalist Harold Ickes said Lewinsky had been mistreated by Starr.
"If a common street mugger had been handled the way Monica Lewinsky was handled by Starr's team there would have been an outcry by the Civil Liberties Union and others," Ickes said on C-Span's "Washington Journal."
Ginsburg said that when he was called into the case Jan. 16, investigators told him, "We want to wire (Lewinsky) and record some phone calls." The investigators promised immunity from prosecution for Lewinsky, but "basically, they just reneged when we asked for the promise in writing," he and Speights wrote in Time.