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The result was a major setback for Starr's office, which said it would decide shortly whether to retry McDougal on the charge that she committed criminal contempt of court by defying orders to testify before Starr's grand jury.
"We will now carefully assess future steps in light of today's developments," Starr's office said in a statement.
Reveling in victory outside the federal courthouse minutes after the verdict, McDougal and her lead attorney, Mark Geragos, had nothing but venom for Starr.
"This guy should pack up and get out of here," Geragos declared. "I'm happy to be the one, along with Susan, to wish him bon voyage. But get the heck out of Arkansas, and do it now. Nobody wants to see you."
McDougal added: "I'm still a little numb. I've been indicted since 1993, and this is the first day I haven't been indicted in years."
At the White House, President Clinton was "pleased to learn" that his former business partner was acquitted of obstruction of justice, White House spokesperson Joe Lockhart said, "He wishes all the best for her and her family."
McDougal, a partner of the Clintons' in the failed 1980s Whitewater real estate venture, twice refused to testify before a federal grand jury in Starr's long-running probe of the Clintons' Arkansas business dealings. She served the maximum 18 months for civil contempt of court for her refusal to testify, and then Starr's office took the unusual step of charging her with criminal violations for her defiance.
Although one of Starr's prosecutors in McDougal's five-week trial called her intransigence "cut and dried" violations of the law, jurors saw far more ambiguity in the case.
Joined by Virginia Republican Gov. James Gilmore III and roughly 250 Republican activists, the congressional leaders focused on how to convert a portion of the current budget surplus into lower taxes on everything from capital gains to a family's inheritance.
"We want you to be able to keep more of your money," declared Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles (R-Okla.) "The power to tax is the power to destroy." Nickles was accompanied by House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Tex.), Rep. Thomas Davis (R-Va.) and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.)
The House GOP leadership had planned to devote part of last week to publicizing its balanced budget resolution, but scrapped the five-city tour in light of the Kosovo hostilities.
With the deadline for filing taxes three days away, both lawmakers and audience members questioned why citizens are taxed as many as three times on some parts of their income.
While the GOP leaders outlined a range of tax cuts, Warner cautioned against "divisions between the bodies" over how to reduce taxes and urged his colleagues to craft "one, good tax bill."
Some activists said the most immediate obstacle to tax cuts could come if ground troops are sent to Kosovo. "It would be a quagmire of funds and lives, and I pray this doesn't happen," said Nick Kennedy, a resident of Falmouth, Va.
The get-tough approach is part of the nation's ongoing crackdown against illegal immigrants with criminal histories.
Returning to the United States after being barred from re-entry is a crime that, until recently, was seldom prosecuted. But armed with increased resources, authorities are charging these immigrants as never before, taking advantage of new laws that provide for prison sentences of up to 20 years.
Take the case of Maximo Marquez-Perez in California. Four times in the past few years, the 24-year-old Mexican citizen returned illegally to the United States after being deported. He did it again in August, traveling to the Huntington Beach, Calif., home of his wife and son.
He will now pay a heavy price. Marquez-Perez, a former gang member whose most serious conviction was for selling $40 worth of cocaine, was picked up in a routine traffic stop. He was turned over to immigration authorities and sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison, double the time he served for all his previous crimes.
Marquez-Perez is one of thousands snared by the U.S. Justice Department effort.
The court crunch is most severe along the U.S.-Mexico border. In San Diego federal court, 1,476 deportees with records were prosecuted for illegal re-entry in 1998, exceeding the total number prosecuted from 1985 to 1994. Nationally, prosecutions jumped almost fourfold from 1994 to 1998 - from 698 to 2,749.
Critics say the new policy is being applied unfairly by prosecutors who target some immigrants over others and by federal judges who are issuing widely inconsistent sentences.
Laws barring deportees with criminal backgrounds from re- entering the United States have been on the books for years. But, until recently, such statutes were rarely enforced because authorities lacked the personnel to apprehend, identify and prosecute violators. That is changing, in part, because of record budget increases for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"We're just inundated," said Fred Kay, who heads the federal public defender's office in Tucson, Ariz.
In fact, the ongoing crackdown is part of a broader national effort to identify immigrants whose criminal records subject them to deportation. The INS now regularly canvasses jails and prisons nationwide.
Illegal immigrants convicted of a so-called aggravated felony - a broad category of crimes ranging from small-time drug dealing to murder - cannot re-enter the country for as long as 20 years after being deported.
In the most recent fiscal year, the INS deported 171,000 illegal immigrants, a 50 percent increase from the previous year. About one-third had criminal records, the INS said.
The policy also is contributing to record growth in the number of federal prisoners.
More than 10 percent of the 1,028 inmates at the Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution in Southern California, for
example, are immigrants with criminal histories who are now serving time for illegally reentering the country. The INS has to
leased space at local jails to hold those awaiting trial.
Federal authorities say the effort rids American communities of criminals who habitually cross the border to commit crimes.
The threat of imprisonment is an effective deterrent, they say, and has contributed to lower crime rates, especially in border
regions.
``We think that prosecuting several thousand individuals who have committed every imaginable type of crime, including
homicide, rape and robbery ... has had an impact,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kraemer in San Diego.
But immigrant rights advocates and federal public defenders say there is no evidence that the policy is having an impact on
crime or unlawful immigration.
Last week, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that ``gross sentencing disparities'' exist in such cases, opening
the door for judges to impose lighter penalties. ``The government has identified no other federal criminal statute that has
spawned such enormous disparities,'' the judges wrote.
For instance, federal courts in the Central District of California _ which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties _ routinely
issue sentences of six years, triple the penalty typically handed down by federal judges in San Diego. Defense attorneys say one
reason is that prosecutors in Los Angeles are reluctant to accept less than six-year sentences in plea bargain agreements.
(Optional Add End)
Defense attorneys also complain prosecution is largely arbitrary. ``Not even close to half the people who commit the crime are
being charged,'' noted Karl Gunn, senior deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles. ``So you have this hidden, unreviewable
prosecutorial decision that affects people's lives.''
In Los Angeles, prosecutors say limited resources require they focus on deportees with the most serious criminal histories. ``We
simply cannot prosecute every case that we would like to ... so we're going to focus on the worst of the worst,'' said Thom
Mrozek, spokesman for Alejandro N. Mayorkas, U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.
LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST-04-12-99 1201EDT
04-13-99
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