Starr Indicts Figure in Lewinsky Inquiry

WASHINGTON —  A onetime friend of Kathleen Willey, the former White House volunteer who claims President Clinton groped her in the Oval Office, was indicted Thursday on four felony charges for allegedly making false statements that cast doubt on Willey’s truthfulness.

The indictment of Julie Hyatt Steele on three counts of obstructing justice and one count of making false statements was obtained by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr from a grand jury in Alexandria, Va.

Aside from Starr’s impeachment report delivered to Congress last September, the grand jury action marked the first criminal charges to grow out of the yearlong Monica S. Lewinsky investigation.

Clinton “emphatically” has denied accusations that he groped Willey in an Oval Office encounter in November 1993, as Willey has alleged on national television and in an appearance last year before a grand jury in the capital.

Steele initially supported Willey’s account in what she said was an “off-the-record” interview in 1997 with a reporter for Newsweek, saying Willey had confided in her immediately after the encounter. Steele later retracted that statement to the reporter, as well as in sworn testimony.

The indictment alleges the retraction was a lie, which Steele provided under oath last February in a deposition in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. Steele later repeated her retraction to FBI agents assigned to Starr’s investigation and to Starr’s grand jury.

“I’m just shocked,” Steele told reporters Thursday night. “I can’t believe it’s all come to this.”

Willey, in comments to the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, said, “I regret Julie brought this on herself.”

The charges represent a blow to Clinton supporters, who had hailed Steele’s retraction as discrediting a woman who they said had falsely accused the president of sexual -misconduct. But a source friendly to the White House said, “The timing of this indictment is suspicious. [Starr’s prosecutors] are trying to pull the Willey stuff into the impeachment trial on its first day.”

Steele’s attorney, Nancy Luque, said her client is “totally truthful and totally innocent” and would contest the charges vigorously.

It was unclear what evidence Starr obtained to charge Steele with lying about her contact with Willey, but the indictment says she attempted “to influence the testimony of one or more witnesses in the grand jury investigation.” A legal source said such alleged manipulation is usually a sign that a person has something to hide.

It was also understood that the grand jury obtained testimony from other witnesses who bolstered Willey’s account to the detriment of Steele. One acquaintance of Steele’s, for example, testified that Steele confided to him in 1997 that Willey had told her of being groped by the president “right after it happened,” a source reported.

However, a friend of Steele’s said Thursday that in 1997, “Julie was giving out that false story to many people she knew.”

Last November, Starr gave the House Judiciary Committee two file boxes of evidence and testimony of grand jury witnesses on the subject of Willey’s accusations. The material was placed in a secure room on Capitol Hill and did not figure in last month’s House action to impeach Clinton.

However, some Republicans, including House Whip Tom DeLay of Texas, have suggested the House has additional evidence that could figure in Clinton’s Senate trial.

In Steele’s testimony to the grand jury last June, she later told reporters, she said Willey had asked her to lie about the groping incident to support Willey’s story.

“Over a year ago, I made two mistakes: I did a favor for a person I thought was my friend and I trusted a reporter,” she said outside the courthouse.

Steele said she decided she could not support Willey because, contrary to her initial statement, Willey “had not come to my house that day [in November 1993] and had never told me of any sexual advances made by President Clinton.”

Conviction on all four counts could subject Steele to a maximum possible punishment of 35 years in prison and fines totaling $1 million.