-Caveat Lector- Ostensibly, Starr made a deal with Hubbell to get the goods on the Clintons. So, what gives here? Hilary Hubbell Pleads Guilty in Starr Probe By Pete Yost Associated Press Writer Wednesday, June 30, 1999; 12:30 p.m. EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Longtime presidential friend Webster Hubbell was sentenced to a year of probation today after pleading guilty to concealing aspects of his work involving the failed savings and loan at the center of the Whitewater investigation. ``After five years, it's over,'' Hubbell said outside the courthouse. ``Our lives can begin again.'' Hubbell's attorney said Starr had agreed ``never to investigate or prosecute Hubbell again.'' Hubbell, who already had served 16 months in jail for an earlier guilty plea in the Starr probe, insisted somberly, ``I told the office of independent counsel, as I told them five years ago, that I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing on behalf of the president or Mrs. Clinton.'' As part of a deal, prosecutors had asked for no jail time, restitution or fine on the felony or a second guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge of failure to pay taxes. In court, Starr told the judge, ``It behooves us ... to bring matters within our jurisdiction to a prompt and reasonable conclusion.'' Starr suggested the controversy over his investigation of the Clintons has ``found its way into the hearts and minds of prospective jurors'' and might have tainted the trial if it had gone forward next month as planned. Hubbell pleaded guilty to a broad concealment charge alleging he hid from investigators his and Hillary Rodham Clinton's legal work for the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. But outside the courthouse, the former associate attorney general insisted he was only admitting to one facet of that charge -- that he had failed to disclose to federal regulators a potential conflict of interest before doing work for the government concerning Madison. Outside of court, Starr said his office would have been able to prove all the allegations underlying the concealment charge. Starr also said he was trying to bring his investigation to an ``orderly conclusion'' but that matters are still being investigated by the federal grand jury. He declined to be more specific. Starr indicated the Arkansas phase of his investigation concluded with today's court hearing. Hubbell's plea before U.S. District Judge James Robertson halted plans for a trial next month that could have been embarrassing for Mrs. Clinton as she explores whether to run for the Senate. And it finished two separate criminal cases brought last year against Hubbell, who already has served 16 months in prison for an earlier guilty plea in Starr's probe. In one case, Hubbell was accused of covering up his and Mrs. Clinton's legal work on a 1,050-acre land development south of Little Rock owned by Mrs. Clinton's Whitewater partner, Jim McDougal, and Hubbell's father-in-law. The land deal -- which federal regulators said was riddled with sham transactions -- cost the failing savings and loan owned by the Clintons' Whitewater partner $3.8 million and contributed to the insolvency of the institution. In the tax indictment, Hubbell was accused of failing to declare as income $74,000 of more than $450,000 in fees from 15 employers in 1994, when top Clinton advisers arranged consulting contracts for the former associate attorney general from Vernon Jordan and other close friends of President Clinton. The indictment said Hubbell paid only $30,000 in taxes for 1989-92 and 1994-95, even though he earned more than $1 million from 1994 to 1997. The indictment said that by the end of 1997, Hubbell and his wife had liquidated about $1 million in assets and spent virtually all their money. Hubbell had promised to fully cooperate with Starr's investigation when he pleaded guilty in 1994 to stealing $400,000 from his Arkansas law firm and its clients. But Hubbell's memory lapses about key events in the Whitewater saga slowed the investigation. Two events renewed Starr's interest in Hubbell in 1996. Mrs. Clinton's law-firm billing records emerged under still-unexplained circumstances inside the White House, revealing her work and Hubbell's on the fraudulent land development south of Little Rock. And Starr discovered the financial assistance to Hubbell arranged by the president's friends, which raised the specter of ``hush money.'' The question now is whether Hubbell has anything further to tell Starr's investigators about the Clintons. While Hubbell will be subjected to questioning once again by Starr's office, the prosecutor may end up with little more from Hubbell than he had in 1995. ``I don't see anything Starr gets out of it except the windup of these proceedings and another notch in his belt,'' said George Washington University law professor Mary Cheh. Recently released court records reveal that in his first round of cooperation with Starr's office in 1995, Hubbell gave the prosecutor damaging information about major figures in the Whitewater scandal, while providing little if anything useful to the prosecutor about his longtime friends. © Copyright 1999 The Associated Press http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990630/V000361-063099-idx.htm l DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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