January 12, 1994 - Clinton request appointment of Special Counsel in Whitewater matter

White House Press Briefing (video link) | January 12, 1994 | George Stephenopoulos

[HAL9000]

In view of the Clintons' demand earlier this week for payment of several million dollars of taxpayer money to cover their legal fees in the Whitewater matter, it is worth remembering that it was Bill Clinton himself who requested the appointment of a Special Counsel.

Here is a relevant statement from George Stephenopoulos on January 12, 1993 -

"The President today has directed White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum to request the Attorney General to appoint a Special Counsel, a respected, impartial and qualified attorney who is not a member of the Department of Justice or an employee of the federal government, to conduct an appropriate independent investigation of the Whitewater matter and report to the American people."

Link to streaming video of the statement (RealPlayer):

http://play.rbn.com/?url=swave/abc/g2demand/clintonyears/steph_counsel_lo.rm&proto=rtsp

Alternate link (Use 'Open Location' command in RealPlayer):

rtsp://rxns-rbn-sea14.rbn.com/swave/abc/g2demand/clintonyears/steph_counsel_lo.rm

[HAL9000]

As Sandy noted in the post containing a court ruling on reimbursement of legal fees incurred in an Independent Counsel investigation -

We have previously established that "[a]ll requests for attorneys' fees under the Act must satisfy the 'but for' requirement." . . . And we have repeatedly held that "[t]he most difficult element for a fee applicant to establish under the Act is that the fees 'would not have been incurred but for the requirements of [the Act].'" . . . In order to establish eligibility for an award, the fee applicant must show that the amounts claimed are only those fees and expenses above and beyond those she would have incurred as a result of an investigation by the DOJ. . .

If the investigative act generating the defensive costs would, in the absence of the Act, have been pursued by other authorities--'had the case been handled by the Department of Justice or other executive authorities rather than the Independent Counsel'--then Congress did not contemplate the award of counsel fees. . .

Since a Special Counsel of the Department of Justice was already investigating the Whitewater matter at Clinton's request prior to the Independent Counsel Act taking effect, in my opinion, he is ineligible for reimbursement of his legal fees.

[HAL9000]

FYI

[11th Earl of Mar]

I think you have found the perfect topic for George Stephanapolis to start off his new solo show at "This Week."

[truthkeeper]

bumpo

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[88keys]

Does "bump" mean sort of the same thing as "bravo"? ;-)

[Honcho]

It's a thread bump, a new post bumps it up to the top of the thread listing.

[Stand Watch Listen]

bttt