WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Bob Weiner, Ken Starr's Clinton Grand Jury witness, is telling us on the fifth anniversary of the "parade of witnesses" that "we must not forget" Starr's "excessive control of the national agenda and overreach into privacy."
In a statement, Weiner, former director of public affairs for the White House Drug Policy Office, reminds us of the over 100 witnesses Starr called over the course of 1998 and says, "Neither our Capital nor the Nation wants anything like that personal harassment again. Starr went way too far. He put Washington and the country through public torture. Prosecutors were nearly universal in stating that he was exceeding prosecutorial discretion in a case of consensual private activities with no one claiming harm" -- and, says Weiner, despite the "imperious" arguments Starr and many congressional Republicans used, "the American people understood that fact. The more Starr victimized Clinton, the higher was Clinton's popularity, reaching 70 percent, while Starr's descended into single digits."
Weiner says, "Starr caused the Justice Department to be seen as a peeping Tom organization" and contends that Starr's actions "were far more damaging to the country than Clinton's." Weiner asserts that it is "bothersome" that Starr is teaching constitutional law and ethics at area high schools and colleges -- "kids should not be led to believe his model is the right one." Weiner is especially chagrined over recent press reports that Starr is a leading Bush candidate for Supreme Court. "Picture Hillary Clinton and others' colloquies on the Senate floor. Even if some make the case that aside from the Clinton investigation Starr has a respectable record -- I won't even get into the controversies of his other cases -- it would still be like saying, 'Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?'"
Jan. 26, 2003 is the fifth anniversary of the subpoena Weiner received from Ken Starr in 1998, and this week also marks the fifth anniversary of the entire Grand Jury testimony phase of the Clinton-Lewinsky investigation. Betty Currie was the first witness forced to testify, on Jan. 27, 1998; Weiner testified on Jan. 30. Weiner's subpoena was for personal home phone calls by his wife and him to friends on a local Democratic club -- an intrusion by Starr that the couple called "Big Brother at its worst." More than 100 Clinton staffers, Secret Service agents, friends, and associates were victimized by Starr's subpoenas and demands to testify before the Grand Jury.
Weiner was director of public affairs for the White House Drug Policy Office May 1995-August 2001 under Drug Czars Lee Brown and Barry McCaffrey. He now is president of a public affairs and issues strategy company (Robert Weiner Associates).