Agents Lack Information for Starr, Lawyers Say

WASHINGTON —  Lawyers for Secret Service agents who were summoned to testify before a grand jury said Sunday their clients do not know anything that would substantiate allegations that President Clinton engaged in improper sexual conduct with an intern and sought to cover it up.

John Kotelly, an attorney representing Larry Cockell, the head of the protective detail that follows virtually every step the president takes, said Cockell expects to be called this week before the grand jury impaneled by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

But, Kotelly said on ABC’s “This Week,” Cockell is unlikely to have much to say about what the president does during his private moments in the White House. Addressing for the first time his client’s likely contribution to Starr’s case, Kotelly said Secret Service agents allow the president some isolated moments in private even though they are responsible for his safety at all times.

“In . . . private situations, secure situations like in the White House, the president has privacy and the Secret Service respects that privacy,” Kotelly said. “And although [the Secret Service] may be outside the room, the president has . . . total freedom to do whatever he wants, and the Secret Service would not be aware of that.”

Cockell and six other Secret Service personnel were ordered to the federal courthouse in Washington on Friday after Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist turned down the administration’s appeal to block their testimony. Three of the other six have testified, and those who did not are expected to be called back to the grand jury this week.

The Secret Service agents’ testimony is regarded as crucial to Starr’s case against Clinton because the president himself has declined to testify under oath about his relationship with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

If the Secret Service agents have little to say about what went on behind closed doors in the White House, that would deprive Starr of one of his few possible ways of developing corroborating evidence against Clinton.

Charles G. Bakaly III, spokesman for the independent counsel’s office, declined to comment.

Last week, however, Starr said his office has “information that Secret Service personnel have evidence relevant to its investigation.”

Other legal observers said they doubt Kotelly’s version of what the Secret Service agents know about Clinton’s private behavior.

“Prosecutors don’t subpoena people unless they have information they believe relevant to the grand jury,” said one source following the case.

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Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and expert on independent counsels, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Secret Service agents’ testimony could be pivotal to Starr’s case. Turley said the agents “represent fairly valuable witnesses” because “they’re trained to notice things . . . and they’re trained to remember things.”

But Michael Leibig, who represents three of the other Secret Service agents who were summoned to the grand jury on Friday, argued that his clients would not necessarily have information relevant to Starr’s investigation. He said the Secret Service has only one job: to protect the president from harm.

“The training of the uniformed division officers is specifically not to pay attention once they’ve cleared the security issues,” Leibig said. “They’re specifically trained not to pay attention [to] what’s going on.”

A lawyer for two of the agents who were summoned to the courthouse on Friday had said then that his clients “do not know” anything that would incriminate Clinton and Lewinsky.

Kotelly said Cockell will be prepared to testify when called before the grand jury this week. “He’s not happy about it, obviously.”

The Justice Department had sought to block the agents’ testimony, arguing that future presidents might try to maintain distance between themselves and their Secret Service guards if they knew the agents might one day be called to testify against them in court.

When the agents appear before the grand jury this week, they will carry White House instructions not to divulge any secrets that would threaten national security. But they will be in the grand jury room unaccompanied by their lawyers, who will be required to wait outside.

Kotelly, when asked how Cockell would know which questions might be out of bounds or pose a national risk, said his client would have to use his best judgment--or ask permission to leave the room and seek legal advice.

“We have discussed the types of questions that would cause him to ask to leave the grand jury room and come talk to me,” Kotelly said. “He will be on his own to . . . understand what the questions are, where they are leading to and to answer them if they do not impinge in any way on privilege matters that are recognized.”

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On another of the television talk shows, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) accused the Secret Service agents of concealing information from Starr’s investigators.

“They appear to be hiding something. What is it?” Lott said on “Fox News Sunday.” “If there’s no problem, just come forward, tell the truth and that will be it. We’ll move on.”

That comment drew a sharp rebuke from the White House. “It’s regrettable that the majority leader appears to question the integrity of people who put their lives on the line every day in the service of this country,” spokesman Jim Kennedy told the Reuters news agency.