The Ordeal of Charles Bakaly
York, Byron
n a case that is all about keeping secrets, it was hardly surprising to learn recently that in November 1999, when Charles Bakaly was indicted on charges of lying to a federal judge, the...
...In their defense, Bakaly's lawyers tried to emphasize two not-entirely compatible points...
...Now Peter Robinson has given us the first rule of political punditry: "Know thy tribe...
...2) Discussing internal Office of Independent Counsel matters with Mr...
...Van Natta told Bakaly that he had uncovered three pieces of information: one, that Starr had concluded he had the authority to indict the president...
...clearly, someone had been leaking to the Times reporter...
...First, he said that when Van Natta told him about the information he had gathered--that Starr had concluded he could indict the president, that some lawyers in the office were urging him to do so, and that there had been research done in the National Archives--Bakaly told Van Natta something along the lines of, "That information could only have come from inside the Office of Independent Counsel...
...Bucklin did not want David Kendall to know that we had sent an interual memo," Bakaly testified at the trial...
...Bakaly on its own, but Judge Johnson went ahead with the contempt proceeding anyway and assigned the department to prosecute it...
...There was even some talk that the Justice Department really didn't want to bring the case, but had been prevailed upon by the judge (see "Reluctant Prosecutors...
...At that point, Bakaly himself began talking extensively with Van Natta...
...For one thing, some of the documents involved-including the original indictment itself-are still under seal...
...Ken has proven he is inmlune to polls...
...But while Bakaly spoke in court, testifying in his own defense, Van Natta was nowhere to be found...
...I have first-hand experience working with an AmeriCorps member...
...That seemed to satisfy Bueklin...
...Rejecting Bakaly's arguments that there was no basis for a criminal case, the judge ordered the trial to begin July 13, 2000...
...From that moment onward, Bakaly was doomed...
...After a week on the job, it was more than clear to me that she had no interest in improving her situation or developing job skills...
...It was a matter that was handled by Mr...
...He said he wasn't the source for any of the information...
...The Bakaly trial was your first trial since--" Wilson continued...
...I happened to decide--" "So he's a very busy guy...
...Bakaly would be exonerated...
...Bakaly/York (Continued from page 32) had been the source or a source of the article...
...And--" "Appropriately so...
...n a case that is all about keeping secrets, it was hardly surprising to learn recently that in November 1999, when Charles Bakaly was indicted on charges of lying to a federal judge, the indictment was kept, well, a secret...
...The second admission, although it involved a minor part of the story, was devastating: Bakaly had told Bucklin he wasn't an "associate," and now he was admitting that he was...
...He got what might have seemed like good news in September, when a federal appeals court ruled that, contrary to what Judge Johnson and the White House claimed, the Times article did not contain any secret grand jury information...
...In that same interview, Griffith said, Bakaly declared that the Times article was harmful to the Start investigation, even as Bakaly "knew that he (Continued on page 7 6 ) 32 September 2000 _9 The American Spectator income levels rise do immigrants begin to feel sufficiently self-confident to vote Republican...
...she held an extraordinarily expansive view of the law, and even though her opinions had been overturned more than once by higher courts, she could make life miserable for everyone in Starr's office...
...Bakaly told the FBI that by saying that to Van Natta, he feared he might have "inadvertently confirmed" the reporter's information--a fact that had not been included in the Bakaly Declaration sent to Judge Johnson...
...Bakaly," Shays began...
...False and MisReading...
...They did not respond to several inquiries from TAS...
...The first thing Bakaly had to do was get out of the office...
...You wanted to send a message through Mr...
...it has also given us an unprecedented look inside the tense confines of the Start office at the height of the Lewinsky scandal, when the independent counsel's prosecutors were under siege from the White House and an angry judge...
...As Marvin Olasky says, we suffer from "compassion fatigue," and in the process go back to our comfortable homes and try to forget the whole thing, while hopefully making a pile of money along the way--and I'm as guilty as the next person...
...Van Natta away from an inaccurate report, I suggested that Judge Starr was himselfa constitutional scholar and would not be swayed by any one person or recent event...
...Byron York The American Spectator _9 September 2000 33...
...As they worked on the final version, both men had conflicting motives...
...I think it's a g-- damned outrage7 Davis took a seat in the courtroom and began to nod off as testimony got under way...
...The story, by Don Van Natta, Jr., reported that Starr had come to believe he had "the constitutional authority to seek a grand jury indictment of President Clinton before he leaves the White House in January, 2ool...
...Correspondence (Continued from page z~) central theme, and only those with inherited money can do such a thing without a stipend...
...a) That a perjury count based on the deposition given in the Jones ease was a stronger case than the perjury count being tried in the Senate...
...In fact, it appears Justice placed a high priority on trying Bakaly...
...Gershel's responsible for supervising a wide array of things," Robinson answered...
...I called Ken and said, 'We gotta talk,'" recalled Donald Bucklin, the outside lawyer who was defending the office against White House accusations of leaking secret grand jury information...
...Beyond calling Gershel's assignment "appropriate," Justice Department officials declined to elaborate on the issue...
...I agreed to provide an on-the-record quote, which appeared in Mr...
...Even though the trial was open to the public, much about the case remains a secret...
...This was my first," Gershel answered...
...seeing them in the Times article, Wisenberg testified, "meant that somebody may have disobeyed rather stringent warnings...
...Griffith asked...
...In the course of preparing the independent counsel's arguments, Bucklin interviewed Bakaly several times and wrote a statement for Bakaly to sign and submit to the judge...
...Bucklin, testifying at Bakaly's trial, said he went straight to Starr's office the Monday morning after the article was published and found, in essence, one long, rolling meeting in which various top Start aides drifted in and out, debating l what to do...
...In the last six months since I have been here," Gershel said...
...Van Natta that he should not rely on information from outside sources purporting to know what was going on inside the Office of Independent Counsel...
...it appeared just four days after they had all gathered in the "Fishbowl," the glass-walled conference room in the middle of the independent counsel's office, for a top-secret meeting on the topic of whether the president should be indicted...
...Van Natta on this subject on or about January 21,1999...
...Why did you want to participate in this case...
...Md he hadtold the FBI more than he told the judge...
...Gershel took--" "Let me ask you," Shays interrupted again, "why would you ask your deputy to take a ease about a spokesman for the independent counsel on whether or not he told the truth on a statement...
...he was involved because, as expected, the president's lawyers filed a motion with Judge Johnson accusing the independent counsel of leaking secret grand jury information...
...Fortunately for me, I didn't have to endure her presence as much as I should have, for she often would "disappear" from work for a week or two at a time...
...As this story goes to press, Judge Johnson has yet to make her decision...
...There was still no evidence that Bakaly leaked any of that...
...Maybe it was Bruce Udolf, a former prosecutor in Starr's office who had some well-known differences with several colleagues and whom Baka]y believed was biased against the office...
...Tou do that at severe risk to yourself and the office," Bakaly responded...
...they were plumbers, looking for the source of the story without regard to whether the leaks broke any laws...
...Is it the Deputy Criminal Division head that needs to handle this case...
...I was going to ask Mr...
...Wouldn't it be delicious to be able to say this: "After the entire Lewinsky investigation, after millions of dollars and months of grand jury testimony, the only person found guilty of lying under oath was Ken Starr's own spokesman...
...He announced his resignation in March, although he stayed on paid leave until June...
...l[~:I,:~.lg][~ ~atiJ 'Tin not saying he's more than qualified...
...Gershel, evidently you decided to undertake the ease against Mr...
...the full story of the Bakaly affair...
...Other defenders of the president, such as House Judiciary Committee Democratic Counsel Julian Epstein, also criticized the Bakaly prosecution, as did the New York Times and the Washington Post editorial pages...
...I was requested to participate in the case," he answered...
...Robinson can give a better answer...
...Congressman, that matter is certainly a pending matter," Gershel responded...
...This matter was being handled by Mr...
...And I'm just curious why you decided to prosecute this ease...
...And then she decided to preside over the trial herself, without a jury...
...for example, Bakaly's sworn statement to the judge describing his contacts with Van Natta--the very heart of the ease--is still under seal...
...The American Spectator _9 September 2000 i i 29 According to Bakaly, Van Natta said he had gotten his information from sources outside the independent counsel's office...
...The prosecutors eventually agreed to ask the FBI to investigate...
...And who could know who leaked the (perfectly legitimate) story to the reporter in the first place...
...On more than one occasion, Bucklin said he wanted to supply the minimum amount of information that would still be in compliance with the law...
...Van Natta to write the article in a way which would "protect the office...
...Robinson...
...Van Natta," although Bakaly's la~Ters pointed out that the agent, who took detailed notes of his meetings with Bakaly, never saw fit to write down the "untruthful" remark...
...Also, details of the fierce legal maneuvering that went on between Bakaly's lawyers and the government remain under wraps...
...You are not under arrest, they told him, and you can leave at any time...
...She was clearly a detriment to the organization and was instrumental in creating a divisive and extremely unpleasant office atmosphere...
...I can answer that question perhaps even better than Mr...
...Why did you feel it was so important that it be such a high ranking official...
...Whatever the ease, it seems likely that many of the president's allies--not to mention the White House itself--would be more than happy to see Bakaly hang...
...Frustrated by Impeachment At the trial's opening day, prosecutor John Griffith told the courtroom that the case was about "Mr...
...One of the first people they turned to was the man whose job it was to deal with the press: Charles Bakaly...
...In particular, it outlined four of Staff's possible courses of action against the president: First, he could choose not to indict...
...Perhaps it would make the White House happy...
...Second, he could indict after the president left office...
...Is he the only person qualified to handle this case...
...The agents took a wider view than Bucklin...
...But who...
...The declaration was submitted to the judge on February 9 as part of Staff's larger brief denying that his office was the source of the Times story...
...There was, in short, plen~, of public disCLtSSiOI1 of the "four options" that were such a large part of the Times sto U. "~I hose items were public," defense lawyer Michele Roberts argued...
...I refused to confirm or comment on what Judge Starr or the Office of Independent Counsel was thinking or doing...
...Start detailed a team of eight FBI agents--more than are assigned to some serious cases of violent crime--to find out who talked to Van Natta and what was said, regardless of whether it violated any laws of secrecy or not...
...The Justice Department concluded that the underlined ~tatement, like the one in the first count, was provably false, a, ccording to the indictment: At the time Mr...
...You were frustrated by the impeachment process, weren't you...
...Udolf left the Office of Independent Counsel in April or May, 1998 , and may be biased against the Office of Independent Counsel...
...In the The American Spectator _9 September ~ooo 77 At various times during the case, the Justice Department quietly put out word that it was not entirely enthusiastic about prosecuting Bakaly...
...They certainly had to do something...
...The agents never found any evidence that Bakaly was the original source for the article's main contention that Starr believed he could indict the president...
...All we know about them comes from excerpts quoted in other papers the judge has released to the public...
...Miranda Warning When the FBI interrogation began, it didn't take Bakaly long to realize that it would be much different from the lawyer-tolawyer conversations he had with Buck/in...
...Our daughter lived for the year on $8,ooo only because we were delighted to have her back in her old room, handed her an automobile, and kept the refrigerator full...
...Just look at the news from the time, they said...
...Prosecutors called Bucklin, Sol Wisenberg, and three PBI agents to testify...
...In November, he was formally charged...
...Okay," Shays said...
...And he added new details, telling the FBI that he and Van Natta discussed a wide-ranging series of topics...
...And Bakaly knew it from the moment he first saw the newspaper...
...Van Natta, I declined to discuss non-public ma~ers with Ms...
...Very busy...
...he testified that after he talked to Bakaly, and after he learned that all that was sent to Van Natta was old Watergate stuff, he was "relieved" that the office did not have what was known as "a 6(e) problem...
...The underlined s e n t e n c e - t h e underlining is the Justice Department's-- is the key to the first count against Bakaly...
...In the course of the questioning--which lasted between four and eight hours per session--Bakaly made two particularly damaging admissions...
...it in no way violated any rules of confidentiality or anything else...
...The first was conducted by Bueklin...
...The second was an edited version of something known as the "Bates memorandum...
...Of course, that was true...
...Robinson jumped in...
...and 4) That Judge Start relies quite a bit on Professor Kelley's advice...
...Bakaly said he gave Van Natta the Bates memo as part of an effort to steer the reporter away from the "Starr thinks he can indict the president" story and in the direction of a historical background piece focusing on Watergate...
...I'~ Fah~, In July, members of the House Government Reform Committee brought Gershel and Criminal Division head ~ [11 James Robinson to Capitol Hill to testify on a variety of campaign finance I.,"1"r I" ~ ~ matters...
...Third, he could indict, but keep the indictment under seal until the end of the presidential term...
...If what he told the FBI made parts of his declaration to the judge false, then he was guilty...
...Its only mention of Bakaly was a brief quote in which the spokesman declined to discuss the issue...
...Bakaly's first reaction was, 'Oh s--t, I'm the associate of Ken Starr," testified one FBI agent who interviewed Bakaly...
...Tin not going to comment as to why the case was brought...
...Gershel's predecessor, appropriately so...
...ere ~ ou ti~e source of the informalion that Kenneth Starr thougi~t he could indi,,'t the prcsidentF' 76 September 2ooo ' The Americor/ Spectator "No...
...He told the agents about the first call he received from Van Natta, about the breakfasts at the Willard, about the later calls and the three pieces of information and the four options...
...Gershel's predecessor, who became my chief of staff," Robinson answered...
...They needed to tell Judge Johnson that the office was not the source of the Times story, yet they did not want to tell her--and by extension, the White House--anything more than was absolutely necessary about their contacts with the press...
...on p. 33...
...It is impossible for anyone on the outside to know } BYRON YORK is The American Spectator's senior writer...
...Why did he tell the FBI things he had not told Bucklin...
...Bakaly was charged with criminal contempt--a crime that could send him to jail for six months-for, among other things, possibly confirming information Van Natta had gotten from somewhere else...
...No,' Bakah answcrcd...
...Because, he testiffed, he thought Bueklin was addressing only the issue of grand jury information, and he knew he did not give any 6(e) material to Van Natta...
...Although other judges might delegate a case with which they were so personally involved, Johnson chose not to, and the law allowed her to do it...
...The last three topics, incidentally, did not even appear in the Times story...
...According to the indictment (or at least the public part of it), prosecutors based their charges on two paragraphs in the Bakaly Declaration...
...The article caused an uproar inside the independent counsel's office...
...Van Natta in an attempt to influence Mr...
...Almost as an aside, Republican Christopher Shays wanted to know why Gershel, who has plenty of work to ~ do on campaign finance alone--not to mention the myriad other responsibilities of the Criminal Division--decided to become a trial prosecutor again for the Bakaly ease...
...Why did Bakaly make such problems for himself...
...And then there would be one last irony: the fact that Start started the leaks investigation himself, only to see it backfire, leading the independent counsel to quickly abandon his high-profile spokesman...
...Bakaly looked on, impassively, seemingly resigned to what was happening...
...Yes," Bakaly answered, and the defense offered up several articles--in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and others--that discussed just that...
...The first was an excerpt of Starr's testimony before the House Judiciary, Committee in November 1998--a completely public record in which Starr discussed the question of whether a president could be indicted...
...She became, in effect, Bakaly's victim, prosecutor, judge, and jury...
...But it meant that Bakaly was, contrary to what he told Bucklin, one of the "associates" referred to in the article...
...And fourth, he could indict publicly but postpone the trial until after the term...
...That in itself might seem an insurmountable obstacle to a fair prosecution of Bakaly...
...Gershel," he said...
...Are You An Associate...
...I was focusing on grand jury information," Bakaly continued, "and that did not come from our off• But Griffith pushed on...
...And so that was when Mr...
...Nearly every question in the trial revolved around the issue of what Bakaly said to Van Natta and what Van Natta said to Bakaly...
...Indeed there is no evidence that Bakaly supplied the information that gave Van Natta's article its punch--that Start believed he could indict a sitting president...
...I mean, he's in charge of investigating the president and the [a-] ~ ~ vice president, but he's going after the independent counsel...
...Bakaly admitted that in addition to talking with Van Natta, he gave the reporter two documents...
...Bakaly said it was because the issue had nothing to do with any secret grand jury information...
...That document, known at the trial as the "Bakaly Declaration," was a major part of the independent counsel's argument that it had not given any secret grand jury information to the Times...
...And no one seems to care that the case against former Kenneth Starr spokesman Charles Bakaly makes no sense a t all...
...During their talks, for example, Bakaly told Van Natta that he thought a perjury case against President Clinton based on the president's deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit would be stronger than the grand jury perjury charge being tried in the Senate...
...In an effort to steer Mr...
...He was, he said, angry at the charges against Bakaly...
...Bakaly's efforts to conceal or cover up his involvement in a New York Times article" that Griffith said was "an insider's look into deliberations inside the independent counsel's office," Not only did Bakaly lie in his declaration, Griffith continued, he even lied to the public...
...And so do some key pieces of evidence...
...Of course, Bakaly didn't know who they were, so he tried to guess...
...At the meeting, the four options had been written in felt-tipped marker on a large flip-chart...
...He was relying only on his memory...
...One agent even testified that Bakaly "told us that he had not been truthful in his statements relative to his dealings with Mr...
...But given Judge Johnson's-and the Justice Department's--determination to go ahead, it didn't matter at all...
...Now, evidence made public as a result of his trial has not only shown just how strange and tenuous the case against Bakaly is...
...Bakaly made the above underlined statement and representation, he knew that it was false and misleading in that he did, in fact, discuss non-public matters with Mr...
...For example, while the statement said Bakaly gave Van Natta historical material, it did not specifically say that he gave the reporter the secret Bates memorandum...
...Bakaly's second damaging admission concerned a paragraph deep inside the Times story...
...Griffith continued...
...Gershel," he said, "how many trials he has been involved in as a participating trial member since he became a deputy assistant attorney general...
...Maybe it would do further damage to the image of the Starr investigation...
...He then tried to explain that, after all the controversies and accusations against Starr's office during the Lewinsky scandal, independent counsel prosecutors were extraordinarily sensitive to the issue of what was and wasn't secret grand jury material...
...3) That Professor Rotunda is not in the office much and that Mr...
...over the next three weeks, the two men would have breakfast together three times at the Willard Hotel, just down the street from the independent counsel's office, and they would talk on the phone nearly two dozen times...
...There was speculation about whether he might take action while the president was still in office or wait until his term ended...
...Remember that no one heard from Man Natta, who was legally protected against being forced to reveal his sources...
...Bakaly was questioned five times between February 9 and February 25...
...And besides, the article was galling to the prosecutors...
...I'm busy, too...
...This suggests that even if the Republican Party came out four-square against Proposition 187, it wouldn't win very many Hispanic converts--not at this early stage in the evolution of the Hispanic-American political identit T. About z,5oo years ago, an Athenian philosopher named Socrates famously observed that the first rule of philosophy was, "Know thyself...
...And for telling Van Natta that Ronald Rotunda wasn't around the Start office very much...
...This is Bill Clinton's spokesman coming to support Ken Starr's spokesman," Davis said as he walked into the courthouse...
...Bakaly says he tried to warn \.tan Natta away from each one...
...Bakaly told Bucklin that he attempted to talk Van Natta out of doing the story by discrediting those sources...
...Iir January 1999, there was lots of public speculation about whether Starr might ultimately indict Bill Clinton...
...Bucklin then drafted a declaration, which went through several edits before Bakaly signed it...
...and three, that Starr staffers had done research in the National Archives, looking for guidance on how the Watergate prosecution team handled the indictment question back in 1974 . Bakaly said he was taken by surprise by what Van Natta knew...
...Perhaps Davis, Epstein, and the editorial writers are sincere...
...And for saying that Bruce Udolf left the office in 1998, a fact that was well known at the time...
...Isn't there a real clear message in your priorities when [,.I, ImI~-I---I ff*J you do that...
...They didn't limit themselves to the question of whether any secret grand jury information might have been leaked...
...Udolfleft in the spring of 1998 and doesn't know what's going on...
...What had begun as an investigation into allegations of leaked grand jury material had become instead an attempt to punish Bakalv for revealing "non-public" information-whatever that was...
...Van Natta, such as: 1) Confirnring four options regarding the possible indictment of President Clinton...
...Bakaly made the above underlined statement and representation, he knew that it was false and misleading in that he did, in fact, discuss non-public matters with Mr...
...But Bakaly hadn't told Bucklin the whole story...
...Neither do the Olsons...
...After Roberts finished, prosecutor Griffith began cross-examination...
...Well, I--Mr...
...Van Natta had written, Mr...
...It's My Party is a beguiling introduction to the endlessly fascinating complexities of political identib;--the kind of RepubIican primer that only an engaged observer like Peter Robinson could have produced...
...It would be a wonderful soundbite, a sure winner whenever the subject came up...
...But Bakaly went even further than that...
...I don't think there's a way for me to tell you the emphasis on grand jury information" in the office, Bakaly said...
...Starr said...
...But what, precisely, were Bakaly's crimes...
...and 3) That a perjury count based on the deposition given in the Jones case was a stronger case than the perjury count being tried in the Senate...
...Van Natta's article: "We will not discuss the plans of this office or the plans of the grand jury in any way, shape, or form...
...So when he denied giving out "non-public" information, Bakaly said, he meant information covered by Rule 6(e...
...The nagging issue that still hits me is that we all talk about the need for private charities as the core of the solution, but I would bet that there aren't many Republican congressional staffers or American Spectator employees out there as Big Brothers or helping with literacy efforts operated by a local church...
...He suggested that Bakaly was motivated by polities, that what he really wanted to do was to get the president, and that the article was part of that effort...
...It is perhaps theoretically possible that she will find Bakaly not guilty, but most observers would have to say that appears unlikely...
...But the FBI wanted to know everything, and Bakaly told them quite a lot, without regard to what he undoubtedly saw as minor discrepancies in the story...
...lq ill I l ii[=t~-_lE ~j "No, he's not the only person qualified...
...l h e defense called just one witness, Bakalv himself, who stressed over and over again that his declaration was true...
...An Outrage On the morning the trial began, Lanny Davis, perhaps the president's most energetic defender during the Lewinsky scandal, showed up to watch the proceedings...
...Van Natta that the [Senate] trial doesn't end things, didn't you...
...The indictment left Bakaly in an untenable position...
...The disclosure that a group of prosecutors 'believe' that an indictment should be brought at the end of the impeachment proceedings does not...violate Rule 6(e)," the appeals judges wrote, putting an end to the issue of whether Bakaly or anyone else illegally leaked any grand jury material to the newspaper...
...Several years ago, I worked at a local literacy organization...
...On that same day, Bakaly was interviewed for the first time by FBI agents running what was, in effect, a second, parallel, investigation...
...Why did you request him, Mr...
...Bucklin and the agents described their hours of questioning Bakaly, accusing him of changing his story over the course of the investigation...
...whoever leaked that has never been discovered...
...And then he left, never to return...
...That message was picked up by, among others, the Washington Post, which wrote in a recent editorial that "the Justice Department declined to bring charges against Mr...
...While that was perfectly understandable --had the reporter been called to testify, the New York Times would undoubtedly have refused, citing First Amendment protections-- it meant that the judge, who was trying to determine whether Bakaly truthfully described what he said to Van Natta, never heard both sides of the story...
...But if she chose to believe that the declaration contained false statements, then the second argument would shift the blame to Bucklin...
...That was pretty clear from the start, when agents read Bakaly his legal rights...
...This occurred just a few days after an artiThe American Spectator " S ep t e m b e r 2 o o o 31 cle by Jill Abramson appeared in the New York Times...
...What was Bakaly's motive for talking with Van Natta...
...I didn't ask that," Shays answered...
...In the following months, it would come back to haunt BakaIy, as the judge and prosecutors zeroed in on discrepancies between what he told Buckfin and what he told the FBI...
...I'll take a less-better answer, and then I'll ask him...
...If the judge chose to believe the first, there was no problem...
...Bakaly chose to stay and answer all their questions...
...Nevertheless, when Bucklin learned what Bakaly had told the FBI, he--and Start--withdrew the Office of Independent Counsel's defense brief, telling the judge that the office could no longer stand behind its statement that it was not the source of the Times story...
...Starr's associates said that neither the outcome of the Senate trial nor the public's wishes expressed in opinion polls would affect his decision...
...Robcrts askcd Bakah...
...And for revealing that Starr relied on William Kelley's advice...
...Beyond that, the testimony presented in the courtroom was fundamentally incomplete...
...But there was always the danger that Johnson might decide, on her own, that a violation had occurred...
...But who could know what really went on in the conversations between Bakaly and Van Natta...
...Bakaly assured me that he was not one of the 'associates,'" described in the article, Bucklin testified...
...Rotnnda is not in the office much and is often wrong, he said...
...Gershel gave up...
...He talked about some of Staff's outside consultants, like Rotunda and University of Notre Dame law professor William Kelley, who Bakaly said was a particularly valued adviser...
...In Judge Johnson's view, it mattered not that the quote Bakaly gave Van Natta had virtually nothing to do with the information that gave the story its impact-that Start had concluded he could indict the president...
...Even if one ignores the fact that the judge does not have the constitutional authority to force prosecutors to bring a case they oppose, there is some evidence that the department was not nearly as reluctant as some believe...
...Most importantly, Bakaly stressed that he was not the source of the story...
...The department's Ill ~ ~ top prosecutor in the courtroom was Alan Gershel, currently the number two ~ I man in the Criminal Division...
...Bakaly, the former spokesman for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, was accused of falsely denying that he was a source for an article that appeared in the New York Times on Sunday, January 31,1999, in the midst of Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in the Senate...
...And he talked with Van Natta about how the reporter would describe the sources of his story...
...Not that anyone really believed the article revealed any secret grand jury information as defined by Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure...
...I~J["~[~J Shays asked...
...To makes matters worse, the leaders of the discussion, Starr himself and deputy Michael Emmick, had been especially concerned about leaks...
...Emmick and Starr both admonished the group to stay quiet- and at this meeting that was stronger than usual," former prosecutor Sol Wisenberg testified...
...The judge has already denied a variety of defense motions to drop the case, and, at times in the courtroom, she all but coached prosecutors when they did not ask questions precisely as she would have liked...
...With all due respect," Gershel said, "I think Mr...
...But I don't want t o - - " "Well, let's give him a try," Shays interrupted...
...And for voicing a commonly held opinion about the relative strength of the two perjury cases against the president...
...Nevertheless, the Times article, attributing its information to "associates of Mr...
...On the final day, he approved and signed another statement of facts, this one drafted by the agents...
...The first was that the Bakaly Dectaration was true, and the second was that it was written by' Bucklin, not Bakaly himself...
...Perhaps it would vindicate the judge's sense of honor...
...Why are you involved in that ease...
...This was an internal--and secret-office paper written by Starr lawyer Stephen Bates, in which he summarized the arguments inside the Watergate special prosecutor's o~ce in 1974 as lawyers considered whether to indict Richard Nixon...
...Mr...
...There was absolutely nothing secret about that thought...
...But it did not put an end to Bakaly's troubles...
...Even though there was no longer any rationale for charging him with a 6(e) violation, Judge Johnson and the Justice Department decided to pursue Bakaly for allegedly lying in his declaration to the court...
...I just find that curious...
...Starr's office was forced to respond and, in effect, prove that it had not done any such thing...
...Somebody must have told Van Natta about it...
...Whatever the case, don't call it justice...
...In their conversations, Bakaly told Bucklin that he got a call from Van Natta in early January...
...Part of my duties were to help develop our AmeriCorps member...
...Prosecutors do not take polls to decide what to do," another associate of Mr...
...Abramson, and her article states: "Charles G. Bakaly, 3d, a spokesman for the Independent Counsel's Office, would not comment on any indictment speculation...
...Later, Roberts asked, "Were you familiar with any public discourse regarding the indictability of the president...
...In his questioning by the FBI, Bakaly admitted that he was the source of that quotation, that he had said, "Ken has proven he is immune to polls...
...Prosecutors allege it was false for a variety of reasons, according to the indictment: At the time Mr...
...the president's partisans were howling about allegedly illegal leaks, and Norma Holloway Johnson, the judge presiding over the Monica Lewinsky investigation, was notoriously tough on any press disclosures that The Charles Bakaly He was abandoned by his former boss, targeted by an angry judge, and prosecuted by the Clinton Justice Department...
...She spent the majority of her day at the office eating junk food, checking her pager, calling her friends, and complaining about her problems...
...Were you the source of information that prosecutors were urging Kenneth Starr to indict...
...But he certainly was qualified, [=1 ~ Ritl~=-I-.-~ and--" "Doesn't it send a very keen message about priority and appearance...
...Nevertheless, Bakaly's answers to the agents' hundreds of questions set offa chain of events that led to his secret indictment last November...
...I asked why you...
...A guilty verdict would put the last, strange, finishing touch on this exceedingly sad case...
...After the Times piece appeared, Starr launched two separate investigations...
...In the organized system, politicized as it is, and rife as it is with waste and fraud, I've also seen the earnest, honest efforts, and caring for kids who have had no chance or guidance based on family background...
...Later, Republican counsel James Wilson wrapped up the questioning...
...Griffith said...
...Maybe it was Ronald Rotunda, the University of Illinois law professor who served as a consultant to Starr and who had spoken publicly about the question of whether a president--any president-could be indicted...
...Starr," covered the topics that had been discussed at the meeting...
...The second count of the indictment targeted another paragraph in the Bakaly Declaration, this one reading: I cautioned Mr...
...Nevertheless, from the evidence thatwas presented, we can piece together a rough account of what happened...
...Byron York 28 September 2000 " The American Spectator might be traced to the Starr camp...
...At the first break, he headed for the bank of cameras and microphones set up outside the courthouse, where he offered more words in support of Bakaly...
...l'hev ~ere the subject of intensive discussion in the inedia...
...It was, to ahnost anyone familiar with the case, a stunning accusation...
...Among his other responsibilities, Gershel supervises the work of the Campaign Finance ~ I ~ ' ~ "1 Task Force, which is looking into the campaign finance scandal of 1992-]996...
...He was certainly more than qualig"I=-Iil ~] ~_1 fled, as was his predecessor, to try the case...
...Bucklin wanted to know why Bakaly had not told him about the Bates memo the first time they talked...
...If I tried to give her a project, she would growl at me and then haphazardly do the project at her leisure...
...Griffith pointed to an interview Bakaly did with ABC's "Good Morning America" the day after the Times story appeared, in which Bakaly declared, "We did not leak this information...
...But it meant that he was now confirming something he had denied to Bucklin and to the judge...
...Despite substantial coverage of the case, the allegations against him have never been reported in any great detail...
...Two days later, according to Bucklin, Starr called with word that "Charles had come forward" with some new information...
...If it were up to me, I would have fired this individual...
...two, that some prosecutors in the independent counsel's office were urging Start to do just that...
...Did \O1.l COllfirln or c o n l l n e l l [ OT] what Kclqneth Start was doing or thinkiiG...
...This is the first: I next recall a conversation with Mr...
...And besides, Bakaty's lawyers argued, why was the Justice Department arguing that the things Bakaly told Van Natta were "non-public...
...Maybe it was Ted Olson, a former Reagan Justice Department official and friend of Starr's, or Olson's wife, conservative pundit Barbara Olson...
...Shays was getting irritated...
...Sealed Up i irst, a warning...
...I would have done some things differently," Bakaly answered...
...I noted that people often overstate their knowledge as well as their own importance...
...Abramson's article addressed possible trials of the President and others after the conclusion of the Senate impeachment proceeding Consistent with the position I took with Mr...
...But you decided that he needed to be the one to handle this case," Shays sighed...
...DUANE OVEN Maple Grove, Minnesota I read James Bovard's article with great interest...
...If you didn't want the reporter to have any information, you can say, 'No comment' or not meet with them, can't you...
...Van Natta, such as: 1) Confirming four options regarding the possible indictment of President Clinton...
Vol. 33 • September 2000 • No. 7
