Targets, Dates & Costs of
Independent Counsel Investigations
| Target (Allegation) |
Independent Counsel | Dates of Investigation | Cost of Investigation(1) | |
| Hamilton
Jordan (cocaine use) |
Arthur Hill Christy |
Nov. 1979(2) - May 1980 |
$182,000. (3) |
|
| Timothy Kraft (cocaine use) |
Gerald J. Gallinghouse |
Sept. 1980(4) - Mar. 1981 |
$3,000. (5) |
|
| Raymond Donovan | (kickbacks) | Leon Silverman | Nov. 1981(6) - Sept. 1982 | $326,000.(7) |
| (perjury) | June 1985 - Oct. 1987 | |||
| Edwin Meese
III (financial improprieties) |
Jacob Stein |
April 1984(8) - Sept. 1984 |
$312,000 .(9) |
|
| Theodore
B. Olson (misleading Congress) |
James C. McKay |
April 1986 - May 1986(10) |
$2,100,000. (11) |
|
| Alexia Morrison | May 1986(12) - Mar. 1989 | |||
| Michael
Deaver (improper lobbying) |
Whitney North |
May 1986(13) - June 1989 |
$1,552,000. (14) |
|
| Oliver North (Iran-Contra) |
Lawrence Walsh |
$47,400,000. (17) |
||
| Franklyn
Nofziger & Edwin Meese III (Wedtech) |
James McKay |
Feb. 1987(18) - Jan. 1990 |
$2,600,000 .(19) |
|
| W.
Lawrence Wallace (income tax) |
Carl Rauh(20) |
$19,000. (23) |
||
| James Harper(24) | Aug. 1987(25) - Dec. 1987(26) | |||
| Samuel
Pierce (Fraud at H.U.D.) |
Arlin Adams |
Mar. 1990(27) - July 1995 |
$28,123,000. (28) |
|
| Larry D. Thompson (29) | July 1995 - present(30) | |||
| James Cicconi (questionable loan) |
Dan Webb(31) |
May 1989(32) - Aug. 1989 |
$15,000. (33) |
|
| sealed | Donald Bucklin(34) | Apr. 1991(35) - Apr. 1992(36) | $66,000.(37) | |
| Janet
Mullins (Clinton passport) |
Joseph diGenova |
Dec. 1992(38) - Jan. 1996 |
$2,867,000. (39) |
|
| Michael F. Zeldin(40) | Jan. 1996 - June 1996(41) | |||
| Bill Clinton (Whitewater) |
Kenneth Starr |
Aug. 1994 - present(42) |
$33,555,000. (43) |
|
| Mike Espy (illegal gifts) |
Donald Smaltz |
Sept. 1994 - present(44) |
$17,470,000. (45) |
|
| Henry Cisneros (false statements) |
David M. Barrett |
May 1995 - present(46) |
$7,309,000. (47) |
|
| Ron Brown (financial improprieties) |
Daniel S. Pearson |
July 1995 - April 1996(48) |
$3,258,000. (49) |
|
| Eli Segal (improper fundraising) |
Curtis Emery von |
Nov. 1996 - Aug. 1997(51) |
$382,000. (52) |
|
| Bruce Babbitt (false statements) |
Carol Elder Bruce |
Mar. 1998 - present(53) |
$4,000.(54) | |
| Alexis Herman (influence peddling) |
Ralph I. Lancaster, Jr. |
May 1998 - present(55) |
-- |
|
© Kathleen Clark
(based in part on Table I in: Kathleen Clark, Paying the Price for
Heightened Ethics Scrutiny: Legal Defense Funds and Other Ways that Government Officials
Pay Their Lawyers, 50 Stanford Law Review 65, 127 (1997) © Kathleen Clark and the
Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University)
Notes:
1. Cost figures are rounded to the nearest $1000.
2. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9 (1993).
3.See id. at 13.
4. See Sharon LaFraniere, Independent Counsel Law Increasingly Beset, Wash. Post, June 22, 1992, at A4; see also S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9.
5. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 13 (1993).
6. See id. at 9.
7. See Kirk Victor, Not So Special, 29 Nat'l. J. 215 (1997). But see S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 13 (indicating $7200 figure).
8. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9.
9. See id. at 14.
10.Katy J. Harriger, Independent Justice: The Federal Special Prosecutor in American Politics 96 (1992) (AThe special court originally appointed James C. McKay to investigate the allegations. McKay resigned a month later after determining that he had a conflict of interest. His chief deputy, Alexia Morrison, was appointed in his place on May 29, 1986.@)
11. See Investigation by Independent Counsels, CQ Researcher, Feb. 21, 1997, at 156. But see S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 149, (indicating $1.5 million figure)
12. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9 (1993).
13. See id.
14. Jennifer S. Thomas, Independent Counsel Law Likely to be Reinstated, St. Petersburg Times, June 8, 1995, at 5A; see also S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 14 (indicating $1.5 million figure).
15. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9.
16. See Scott Shephard, Focus on Independent Counsel, Atl. J. & Const., April 13, 1996, at A1.
17. See Tony Locy, $44 Million in Probes of Clinton Era; Starr Leads in Latest Special Counsel Costs, Wash. Post, Oct. 1, 1997, at A23.
18. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9.
19. See Special Prosecutors Down, But Not Out, U.S. News & World Rpt., Dec. 21, 1992, at 26. But see S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 14 (indicating $2.5 million figure).
20. See Ruth Marcus, Justice Official Won=t be Charged in Tax Case, Wash. Post, Dec. 19, 1987, at A3 (indicating that the court originally appointed Carl Rauh, who resigned in March 1987); see also In Re Sealed Case, 890 F.2d 451, 455 (D.C. Cir. 1989) ("There are not too many lawyers with adequate criminal law and tax qualifications, as the special division found when it was seeking an independent counsel to appoint in this case.").
21. See In Re Sealed Case, 890 F.2d at 454 (indicating that an IC was appointed in December 1996 to investigate an official accused of failure to file income tax returns); Marcus, supra note t, at A3 (identifying Wallace as the target of an IC investigation for failure to file tax returns).
22. See Marcus, supra note t, at A3.
23. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 13. But see Investigations by Independent Counsels, supra note k, at 156 (indicating $50,000 figure).
24. See Marcus, supra note t, at A3 (identifying the Atlanta tax lawyer as the IC who investigated Wallace).
25. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9; Marcus, supra note t, at A3.
26. See Marcus, supra note t, at A3.
27. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 9; U.S. General Accounting Office, Financial Audit: Independent Counsel Expenditures for the Six Months Ended March 31, 1997, at 11 (Sept. 1997) GAO/AIMD-97-164) [hereinafter GAO-1997].
28. See Locy, supra note q, at A23; U.S. General Accounting Office, Financial Audit: Independent Counsel Expenditures for the Six Months Ended September 30, 1997, at 10 (March 1998) (GAO/AIMD-98-100) [hereinafter GAO-1998]; U.S. General Accounting Office, Financial Audit: Independent Counsel Expenditures for the Six Months Ended March 31, 1998, at 10 (Sept. 1998) (GAO/AIMD-98-285) [hereinafter GAO-1998b]
29. See GAO-1997, supra note aa, at 11 (indicating that Adams resigned as IC in July 1995, at which time Thompson was appointed as IC).
30. See GAO-1997, supra note aa, at 10 (indicating that the Adams/Thompson investigation continued to have expenses in the six months prior to March 1997).
31. See George Lardner, Jr., Bush Aide Is Cleared of Ethics Allegations: $5,000 Borrowed from Fraud-Ridden Bank, Wash. Post, Sept. 6, 1989, at A8.
32. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 10.
33. See id. at 13, see also Victor, supra note g, at 215 (indicating that the sealed 1989 investigation cost $15,000).
34. See Where the Starr Report Will Be Stored, Legal Times, Aug. 17, 1998, at 10 (indicating that Bucklin was an independent counsel from 1991 to 1992 in a sealed investigation).
35. See S. Rpt. no. 103-101, at 10.
36. See Investigations by Independent Counsels, supra note k, at 156.
37. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 13. But see Investigations by Independent Counsels, supra note k, at 156 (indicating $93,000 figure).
38. See S. Rpt. No. 103-101, at 10.
39. See Locy, supra note q, at A23.
40. See GAO-1997, supra note aa, at 17 (noting that, in January 1996, diGenova resigned and was succeeded by Zeldin).
41. See id.
42. Attorney General Reno appointed Robert Fiske, Jr., to investigate Whitewater in January 1994, after the IC statute had expired. See Robert Jackson, GOP Lawyer Picked to Probe Whitewater, L.A. Times, Jan. 21, 1994, at A30. After Congress reauthorized the IC statute, Reno asked the special court to appoint Fiske as IC, but the special court chose Kenneth Starr instead. See Kenneth Jost, Navigating the Shoals: Whitewater Counsel Denies Conflicts, Admits Job a Liability, 82 A.B.A. J. 20 (1996).
43. See Locy, supra note q, at A23; GAO-1998, supra note bb, at 22; GAO-1998b, supra note bb, at 21, 23.
44. See GAO-1997, supra note aa, at 23.
45. See Locy, supra note q, at A23; GAO-1998, supra note bb, at 19; GAO-1998b, supra note bb, at 18, 20.
46. See Independent Counsel Named for Cisneros Investigations, Austin Am.-Statesman, May 25, 1995, at A27.
47. See Locy, supra note q, at A23; GAO-1998, supra note bb, 13, 15; GAO-1998b, supra note bb, at 13, 15.
48. The IC's investigation of Ron Brown ended before its completion after Brown died in a plane crash. See GAO-1997, supra note aa, at 20.
49. See Locy, supra note q, at A23; GAO-1998, supra note bb, at 16.
50. In re: Segal, 145 F.3d 1348 (D.C. Cir. 1998).
51. Independent Counsel Clears Ex-Clinton Aide in Funds Probe, Chi. Trib., Dec. 20, 1997, at 6.
52. See GAO-1997, supra note aa, at 28; GAO-1998, supra note bb, at 25; GAO-1998b, supra note bb, at 24.
53. George Lardner Jr., Independent Counsel Is Chosen To Probe Babbitt Casino Dispute, Wash. Post, Mar. 20, 1998, at A23.
54. GAO-1998b, supra note bb, at 16.
55. See Bill Miller & Charles R. Babcock, Maine Lawyer Named Independent Counsel in Herman Case, Wash. Post, May 27, 1998, at A4.