WASHINGTON -- The tables may be turned on independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who tenaciously went after President Clinton and now is likely to be investigated himself.
After relentlessly pursuing Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky last year, Starr has come under fire in Congress and in the courtroom and is widely expected to come under a Justice Department investigation.In addition, Starr's former spokesman faces a Justice Department criminal investigation about a recent leak to the news media, and three of his top deputies from the Lewinsky case have left or soon will depart to go into private law practice.
"We have often expressed our concern about the excesses of the office of independent counsel, from the time and money it has consumed to the illegal leaking of grand jury information and its overreaching and partisan tactics," White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said.
Starr suffered a setback Thursday when a U.S. appeals court cleared the way for the Justice Department to open an investigation into alleged misconduct by his prosecutors -- an inquiry that could lead to Starr's dismissal from office.
The Justice Department plans to investigate whether Starr's prosecutors improperly attempted to make Lewinsky cooperate without a lawyer present when they first confronted the former White House intern in a hotel room on Jan. 16, 1998.
Another area will be whether Starr's aides, in winning permission to launch the Lewinsky investigation, misled the Justice Department about their contacts with lawyers involved in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton.
Starr's office said it "fully accepts" the ruling that the appeals court has no authority under the law to block a Justice Department probe. He has denied any impropriety in the way he has handled the investigation.