WASHINGTON -- In the gravest threat yet to President Clinton, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr sent to Congress yesterday his long-awaited report on the White House sex scandal, outlining evidence of impeachable offenses that could bring down the Clinton presidency.

Thirty-six boxes -- containing a 25-page introduction, 280 pages of narrative, 140 pages of grounds for Starr's charges, 2,000 pages of appendixes and reams of grand jury testimony -- were delivered to the House of Representatives at 4 p.m. amid a carnival atmosphere, as tourists gawked, police officers swarmed and television cameras whirred.

The report is expected to detail charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of presidential power stemming from the president's sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern.

"The office has fulfilled its duty under the law," declared Starr's spokesman, Charles Bakaly. "The responsibilities for further action now lie with the Congress."

In a terse response, the president's personal attorney, David E. Kendall, complained that the president and his lawyers have been denied a chance to review the accusations, and he stressed that they were "only the prosecutors allegations."

"But we do know this," Kendall added. "There is no basis for impeachment."

Rep. Gerald B. H. Solomon of New York, chairman of the committee that sets the rules for House conduct, said the 445 pages that make up the core of Starr's report will be released publicly by early Friday afternoon. The House will decide next week how to proceed with a thorough examination of Starr's report.

Laying out an aggressive timetable, Solomon predicted that the full House will vote before it recesses for the year on whether to proceed with a formal impeachment inquiry. That historic vote could come by October and impeachment proceedings could begin next year.

Bakaly said the report contains "substantial and credible information that may constitute grounds for impeachment of the president of the United States."

The delivery of the report capped an extraordinary and historic day in Washington, when, for the first time in a quarter-century, presidential impeachment became a clear possibility.

The day dawned with an early morning White House meeting at which Clinton poured out his regrets to nine House Democratic leaders and asked them for forgiveness.

"Clearly, the president was profoundly angry at himself and deeply sorry for the hurt he caused, particularly to his wife," said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Democrat from Southern Maryland who attended the White House meeting. "You could tell the agony he was in."

That session was followed by a meeting of Republican and Democratic House leaders who began hammering out the rules that would govern any impeachment inquiry. That was followed by a presidential speech in Florida, where Clinton delivered his most emotional public expression of regret.

Its dramatic finale came at 4 p.m., when a black Dodge Ram van and a white minivan drove up to the Capitol steps. A phalanx of uniformed police officers transferred 18 boxes of documents and 18 boxes of duplicates to two hulking blue Chevy Suburbans, which then took Starr's report four blocks to the Gerald R. Ford office building, where they were placed in a locked room with armed guards. The House sergeant-at-arms changed the locks on the room's door to ensure that no one will have unauthorized access.

'Immense consequence'

"With the delivery of the report from the independent counsel, we begin a process of immense consequence, a process which our Constitution thrusts on the House of Representatives," said Rep. Henry J. Hyde, the Illinois Republican who, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, would lead any impeachment inquiry.

Hyde's formal statement followed a more candid assessment: "This is a lousy job, but somebody has to do it. Nobody looks forward to this traumatic journey we're about to embark on."

There appears to be good reason for secrecy. The boxes contain sexually explicit information and grand jury testimony taken in secret from witnesses not represented by attorneys and not cross-examined by the president's attorneys.

In a letter to House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, the House Democratic leader, Starr warned that much of the report's supporting materials "contain information of a personal nature that I respectfully urge the House to treat as confidential."

Some Democrats are still imploring that only the bare minimum of information be released publicly this week.

"People's lives are at stake," said Abbe Lowell, the Judiciary Committee's lead Democratic investigator. "If people could just wait, we're not asking for much."

Surprise timing

In delivering his report to Congress, Starr finessed three pending court cases that challenge his authority -- two still awaiting the Supreme Court's attention and one before the judge who supervises Starr's grand jury -- by choosing to report now.

Without telling anyone outside his office, Starr went privately to a federal appeals court and obtained permission to share grand jury secrets with Congress, even though two of the pending cases seek to test that authority.

The delivery of Starr's report yesterday seemed to take all of Capitol Hill by surprise. House Republican leaders were in the midst of outlining their legislative priorities for the dwindling legislative year. Judiciary Committee aides had placed a conference call to Starr's office to ask in what form the special prosecutor would transmit his report and when he would do so.

"I look out the window -- there it was," said David Schippers, the Republicans' chief investigator on the committee.

Some Democrats were furious at the spectacle of an impeachment report arriving on the House's first day back from August recess in the glare of television cameras, with about 15 minutes' warning. Rep. Eliot L. Engel, a New York Democrat, called it "an absolute disgrace," "a three-ringed circus" and "theater of the absurd."

Said Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state: "If he was going to pick a more partisan way of doing it, I can't think of it."

But leaders from both parties sought to quell such sniping. Lowell, the Democrats' chief investigator, said he saw no other way for Starr to deliver his report. Hyde declared that he had "no criticism" for Starr.

"He belongs in the pantheon of saints," Hyde said. "He has been through hell."

'We have to do it right'

Most of the day was devoted to solemn professions of bipartisanship, even as the two parties battled behind closed doors over the rules that will govern any impeachment inquiry.

"Next to declaring war, this may be the most important thing we do," Gephardt said of possible impeachment proceedings. "And we have to do it right."

House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas pledged that "there will not be partisan tirades or partisan antics on [either] side of the aisle."

But even as congressional leaders pledged to put politics aside, the salvos against Clinton kept coming. Republican leaders threw down a legislative gauntlet before the president, pledging to cut income taxes by 10 percent, nullify an arms control treaty cherished by Clinton, adopt new restrictions on the International Monetary Fund and push free-trade legislation that is sure to divide a beleaguered Democratic caucus.

"My resolve has been nothing but strengthened," Armey

declared.

And yet another Democrat, Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, took to the Senate floor to excoriate a president who "has sown the wind, and is reaping the whirlwind." Byrd, one of the most senior and respected members of the Senate, said Clinton's televised mea culpa Aug. 17 had "heaped hot coals on himself, coals causing wounds which continue to inflame and burn even more deeply."

But even as Byrd bemoaned "a sorrowful spectacle," he implored members of Congress to withhold judgment on the president's fate.

"Talk of impeachment and censure and resignation are in the air," Byrd said. "As we find ourselves being brought nearer and nearer to a yawning abyss, I urge that we all step back and give ourselves and the country a little pause in which to reflect and meditate before we cast ourselves headlong over the precipice."

Pub Date: 9/10/98