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WASHINGTON, July 17: Chief Justice William Rehnquist refused to spare President Bill Clinton's Secret Service Protectors from testifying in the Monica Lewinsky case, abruptly ending a bitter legal dispute and clearing the way for prosecutors to question some of their last key witnesses.
``Because several of my colleagues are out of the country, I have decided to rule on the matter myself rather than refer it to the conference (full court),'' Rehnquist said. The opinion of the court of appeals seems to me cogent and correct.''
With the Supreme Court ruling near, Clinton's Secret Service Protectors arrived at a courthouse minutes before noon, when an earlier court ruling blocking their testimony was set to expire.
Independent counsel Kenneth Starr had subpoenaed the Secret Service personnel to appear before the grand jury probing possible suborning of perjury, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in an alleged sexual relationship between Clinton and the former White House intern.
Officials said WASHINGTON, July 17: Chief Justice William Rehnquist refused to spare President Bill Clinton's Secret Service Protectors from testifying in the Monica Lewinsky case, abruptly ending a bitter legal dispute and clearing the way for prosecutors to question some of their last key witnesses.
``Because several of my colleagues are out of the country, I have decided to rule on the matter myself rather than refer it to the conference (full court),'' Rehnquist said. The opinion of the court of appeals seems to me cogent and correct.''
With the Supreme Court ruling near, Clinton's Secret Service Protectors arrived at a courthouse minutes before noon, when an earlier court ruling blocking their testimony was set to expire.
Independent counsel Kenneth Starr had subpoenaed the Secret Service personnel to appear before the grand jury probing possible suborning of perjury, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in an alleged sexual relationship between Clinton and the former White House intern.
Officials saidprivately that the administration suspects Starr wants Larry Cockell, the head of the presidential security detail, to testify about what he heard in the limousine with Clinton's attorneys after the President's January 17 deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, in which he was questioned extensively about Lewinsky.
The officers filed into the courthouse today as ordered by Starr.
Rehnquist, who just returned from a European trip, said that while he was not ruling on the administration request to review the entire legal dispute, there was no need for order stopping the grand jury testimony.
In my view, the (administration) has not demonstrated that denying a stay and enforcing the subpoenas ... would cause irreparable harm,'' Rehnquist wrote.
On balance, the equities do not favour granting a stay ... A stay applicant must ... show that there is a likelihood that this court, having granted (review) and heard the case, would reverse the judgment of the court of appeals. The (administration)simply has not made that showing to my satisfaction.''
Earlier, summarily dismissed by a federal appeals court, the Clinton Administration had made a last-ditch plea to Rehnquist to stop prosecutors from questioning the President's Secret Service protectors before a grand jury.
On a day of escalating legal tension, the Justice Department won a temporary reprieve in the morning that kept US President Bill Clinton's chief bodyguard already at the courthouse from testifying before the Lewinsky grand jury.
But a few hours later, the US Court of Appeals, with stinging language, unanimously refused to reverse a decision by three of its judges ordering the Secret Service employees to testify.
The likelihood of success before the Supreme Court is insufficient to warrant further delay in the grand jury's investigation,'' the appeals court said yesterday, noting that none of the nine judges ruling in the case offered to intervene. Two of the court's 11 judges recused themselves.
One judge, LaurenceSilberman, ridiculed the notion that the administration could present itself rather than independent counsel Kenneth Starr as the United States' representative in the case.
Silberman wrote that the administration decided to literally and figuratively declare war on the independent counsel,'' and he asked: Can it be said that the President of the United States has declared war on the United States?''
At the White House, the President's chief spokesman took exception to the comments. War is a very precise term of art around here, the commander in chief takes that seriously. We are not at war with Ken Starr but we have some serious disagreements with him obviously,'' press secretary Mike McCurry said.
The intense focus on the Secret Service took the spotlight off prosecution witness Linda Tripp, whose secret tapes spurred the investigation.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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