Editorial: Whitewater ends, but probe lives on

Friday, Sept. 22, 2000 | 9:26 a.m.

Six years -- and more than $52 million later -- independent counsel Robert Ray said Wednesday there was insufficient evidence to prosecute President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Whitewater investigation. The probe initially focused on an Arkansas land deal, but it scattered in many directions, including whether Bill Clinton lied about his involvement with a White House intern. Unfortunately, however, this isn't the end of Ray's investigation.

Even though the Senate acquitted the president during his impeachment trial over the evidence supplied by then-independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Ray is considering indicting the president over the Monica Lewinsky scandal once he leaves office, giving new meaning to the term "prosecutorial abuse." The Whitewater investigation highlighted how sound it was of Congress to let the independent counsel statute expire -- it's just too bad Congress didn't also pull the plug on the dollars funding Ray's never-ending probe of the president.

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