Investigating the President cost $4.4M

Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a Senate resolution yesterday that would demand Clinton repay the cost of the investigation for misleading the country since January.

"President Clinton has pursued a strategy of deceiving the American people and Congress, and he purposely delayed and impeded the independent counsel investigation," Murkowski said. "Equity demands that the costs of the delays should be borne by the president and not the taxpayers."

Many Democrats are already advocating a penalty less than impeachment for Clinton, such as a censure and reimbursement arrangement similar to the reprimand and penalty that House Speaker Newt Gingrich got in a 1996 ethics case.

The White House left open the possibility yesterday that Clinton might accept a penalty.

Presidential spokesperson Mike McCurry said Clinton "does not owe the taxpayers" the $4.4 million, but "if there's a serious effort made in Congress to that, we'll consider it when the time comes."

Starr's office declined comment.

The Starr estimate covers the last eight months of the Lewinsky investigation, without the administration's costs in fighting legal battles that delayed the prosecutor, future reimbursements to witnesses or the other aspects of Starr's Whitewater investigation.

There was no immediate vote in the Senate on Murkowski's proposal.

Starr's staff calculated the costs its Washington office incurred between Jan. 15, the day permission was granted to expand the Whitewater investigation to include the Lewinsky allegations, and Aug. 31. They included:

n $1.86 million for its staff of investigators, prosecutors and support workers. The office includes 27 full-time lawyers, some on loan from other agencies;82,653 for supplies and services.

The figures do not include costs that Starr's Washington or Arkansas offices incurred investigating other matters during the same period.

The other aspects of the Whitewater investigation already have cost about $40 million over 4 1/2 years - a figure Democrats have used frequently to attack the investigation.

The $4.4 million does not include costs other government agencies - the White House, Justice Department and Treasury Department - incurred waging unsuccessful legal battles to stop presidential advisers, lawyers and Secret Service agents from testifying before Starr's grand jury.

The White House hired an outside lawyer, Neil Eggleston, to make its case for invoking executive privilege and attorney-client privilege to block certain aides' testimony.

Even though it already has sent Congress a report detailing 11 possible grounds for impeaching Clinton in the Lewinsky matter, Starr's office is likely to incur additional costs in the weeks ahead. It still must fight a Supreme Court battle over the attorney-client and executive privilege issues, which the White House appealed after losing in lower courts.

Several figures in the independent counsel investigation can seek reimbursement under the law for their legal bills if they are not indicted. Several officials

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