Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 8, 1994                   TAG: 9408090041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

INVESTIGATOR ASKED TO WITHDRAW

The attorney, Robert Bennett, said he had no personal doubts about Starr's ``intellect and integrity.'' He did point, however, to Starr's recent comments opposing Clinton's argument that he is immune as president from being sued by former Arkansas state employee Paula Corbin Jones and to news reports that Starr had planned to file a friend-of-the-court brief opposing Clinton's position.

``I think Starr should decline it,'' Bennett said of Starr's appointment Friday as independent counsel. ``I think there is a real appearance of unfairness. If Starr found anything wrong, I don't think anybody could have any confidence in that.''

Starr, asked about Bennett's critical comments, said he would act impartially and ``with an open mind.''

``Judges are accustomed to setting aside their views and proceeding apace with a fresh perspective ... and my duty is to go forward with an open mind. That's what judges do, and I believe Congress intended that the independent counsel conduct himself or herself in that same manner,'' Starr said.

Bennett's comments were the first public salvo against Starr by a person associated with the White House and reflected the intense behind-the-scenes unhappiness of administration officials and their allies with the selection of an active Republican and a former top official of the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Starr had been on Attorney General Janet Reno's original list of possible special counsels to investigate Whitewater. But Bennett said Starr had ``picked up baggage'' since then because of his activities in the Jones case. Starr did not endorse Jones' lawsuit and appears to have dropped his plans to file the brief on her side.

Bennett also criticized Starr's lack of prosecutorial experience, saying he had ``nowhere near the practical experience'' of Robert Fiske, the special counsel he is replacing.

Starr is an active Republican who considered running for the Republican senatorial nomination in Virginia and has contributed to Republican candidates. He was a top official in the Reagan Justice Department, was named by then-President Reagan to the federal appeals court in Washington, and left to become then-President Bush's top courtroom lawyer.

Bennett would not say whether his comments had been approved by the White House or whether he had spoken with the president.

On Friday, a three-judge panel said it would not retain Fiske as Whitewater special counsel because of the need for the ``appearance of independence.'' Instead, the panel selected Starr to replace Fiske, a Republican former prosecutor appointed by Reno in January.

Bennett said that ``the circumstances surrounding Mr. Fiske's replacement are very troubling,'' pointing to letters to the special court that appoints independent counsels by a group of Republican members of Congress and Floyd Brown, a fierce political opponent of the president.

``You talk about trying to influence the outcome on a criminal investigation, that seems to be trying to do it in spades,'' Bennett said.