Thornburgh: News of Criminal Investigation of President Clinton 'Nothing New'
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: News of yet another grand jury to investigate whether President Clinton committed perjury and obstructed justice comes more than two years after Ken Starr first heard about the president and a White House intern. Is this a witch hunt or a search for justice? Well, Dick Thornburgh was attorney general under President George Bush, who faced his on scandal known as "Iraqgate." Mr. Thornburgh joins us this morning from Washington. Thanks so much for being here.</s>DICK THORNBURGH, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, Carol.</s>LIN: As I recall, Iraqgate was an investigation whether President Bush helped illegally arm Saddam Hussein. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but repeated investigations found no evidence of any wrongdoing.</s>THORNBURGH: That's right.</s>LIN: Is there a similarity here in these two cases, do you think?</s>THORNBURGH: Well, we don't know yet because the course that's being followed here is precisely the one recommended by the president's supporters during the impeachment proceedings. You may recall that one senator after another, including Senator Joseph Lieberman, one of the president's strongest critics, said that impeachment was not the proper course to follow, to remove the president from office, but that questions as to whether or not he committed any criminal offense should be left to the criminal justice process. And that's now what's going forward.</s>LIN: Once began, though, accusations of leaks just as there were accusations of leaks during Iraqgate by the Democrats. Now the Democrats here are accusing the Republicans of some pretty bad timing, of having this come out during Al Gore's big day yesterday.</s>THORNBURGH: Well, the news of the criminal investigation, of course, is nothing new. The independent counsel's office announced months ago that they were conducting this investigation to wrap up a determination as to whether President Clinton's conduct, in fact, violated any criminal laws. So whatever in the way of a so-called leak occurred yesterday, their timing was certainly deplorable. And any leaking of grand jury information is deplorable. That doesn't appear to be the case here.</s>LIN: So, President Clinton is leaving office in just a few months. How long could this investigation take?</s>THORNBURGH: Well, the independent counsel has obviously made a determination that a sitting president is not the proper subject of criminal charges. That's an open question. It's never been decided. But I think he's acted prudently in deferring any potential criminal charges until after the president leaves office, so that by impaneling this grand jury last month, the matter should proceed expeditiously so that a decision can be made just as quickly as possible upon the president's leaving office as to whether there'll be any charges or not.</s>LIN: And when he leaves office, and if he faces charges, will he be treated like any other accused in the legal system?</s>THORNBURGH: That's what the rule of law's all about. The president stands no higher or lower than any other citizen when it comes to having criminal charges against him assessed.</s>LIN: All right, thank you very much, Dick Thornburgh, for joining us this morning.</s>THORNBURGH: You bet.