White House sets strategy for impeachment hearings

Aides to President Clinton indicated today they will mount a defense before the Judiciary Committee focusing on the allegations against Clinton and on the proper standards for impeachment-while steering far away from attacks on independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

"We have raised some concerns about the independent counsel, but we did that when he made his testimony," White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said. In a letter to the committee today, Clinton's attorneys dropped plans to include a panel on "prosecutorial misconduct and the impact of tainted evidence."

The letter says White House special counsel Gregory Craig will open the hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday with a statement describing Clinton's defense. Then, a series of panels will be convened.

Former Attorney General Katzenbach and several other lawyers will lead a panel called "Historical Precedents and Constitutional Standards." At 2 p.m., a panel on "Abuse of Power" will feature former Reps. Elizabeth Holtzman, D-N.Y., Robert Drinan, D-Mass., and Wayne Owens, D-Utah, all of whom served on the House Judiciary Committee at the time of the Nixon impeachment hearings. At 6 p.m., a panel titled "How to Evaluate the Evidence" will include attorneys James Hamilton and Richard Ben-Veniste, who served on the staff of the Senate Watergate Committee.

At 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, a panel on "Prosecutorial Standards for Obstruction of Justice and Perjury" will convene and mainly feature former prosecutors. At 1 p.m., White House Counsel Charles Ruff will make the final presentation.

Clinton's attorneys "will present a case that rebuts the allegations based on the facts and the law," Lockhart said. But sources downplayed the prospect that testimony contained in the referral would be challenged directly.

Clinton's lawyers will "address the referral," Lockhart said, "but mostly in the context of exculpatory evidence that was not used in the referral, and some issues where there are some questions of interpretation of the law." And they will "make the case about how this doesn't rise to the level of impeachment," according to Lockhart.

Amid widespread disappointment at the manner in which Clinton responded to 81 questions posed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., last month, White House aides said the president did not want to provide admission of offenses he does not believe he committed.

But one White House official said there was "no doubt" there would be efforts to mollify moderate Republicans who were insulted by the answers, and Lockhart expressed "regret" that some may have "taken offense." The aide added that GOP calls for further expressions of contrition by Clinton are under consideration.

Another White House official noted that, with internal White House polling showing that public sentiment favoring impeachment continues to hover at close to 30 percent, "our target audience" will be "20 or 30 moderate" Republicans.