Editorial: Independent counsel abuses are disturbing

Independent counsels have come under well-deserved fire for the prosecutorial abuses they've inflicted on the targets of their investigations. To understand how deeply flawed the independent counsel statute has become, though, it helps to see how vindictive these special prosecutors can be against purely peripheral players.

Julie Hiatt Steele is a Richmond, Va., woman who has been indicted by independent counsel Kenneth Starr for obstruction of justice and making false statements to a grand jury. Steele's crime? She refuses to testify that Kathleen Willey told her that President Clinton made unwelcome sexual advances against Willey in 1993. Steele did support Willey's assertion -- at Willey's request -- when Steele spoke with a Newsweek reporter in 1997. But a few months later Steele recanted the story. Ever since then Steele has stood by her story that Willey told her nothing.

But Starr has become so obsessed that he will do just about anything to get a conviction -- even if it means indicting someone who won't lie to support his case. Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, who is being prosecuted by Starr, called Steele as a witness in her case to support similar claims of prosecutorial abuse. Steele told a federal jury in Arkansas Friday that she was led to believe by prosecutors she could escape indictment if she just told them what they wanted to hear. Not gaining her cooperation, Starr increased the pressure on Steele, subpoenaing her family members, friends and a former lawyer. FBI agents even started probing into Steele's adoption of an 8-year-old Romanian child, questioning that had no purpose other than to intimidate Steele.

Steele's case is symptomatic of a situation where independent counsels with virtually unchecked powers have abused the system. No other American should be put through the independent counsel wringer as Julie Hiatt Steele has been. The independent counsel statute is set to expire June 30; Congress should do nothing to prevent this law from withering away.

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