Ex-Clinton Spox Joe Lockhart Battles Ken Starr: Mueller Keeps Mum, Whereas You Did Pressers in Your ‘Driveway’

Former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart — who served under President Bill Clinton — battled Friday with ex-Clinton special prosecutor Ken Starr in a fascinating, multi-segment showdown on CNN’s New Day.

During a wide-ranging segment covering both the current special counsel probe being run by Robert Mueller, and the Clinton investigation over which Starr presided, Lockhart showed there is still some bad blood over Starr’s handling of the Clinton inquiry.

“The thing that, even 20 years on, probably still bothers me the most is, you have all of these things — you have counterintelligence, you have our national security at risk,” Lockhart said. “And Bob Mueller and his team have managed to do this the right way. Which is to keep it redacted, and they’ll reveal their cards when they want.

“With Judge Starr and his team, I read about it every day in the paper. I read about secret grand jury testimony every day in the paper. I saw Judge Starr at the end of his driveway doing press conferences. This was an attempt to put political pressure on the president to get him to resign. It didn’t work, he was eventually acquitted.”

Starr responded by defending his work on the Clinton probe.

“The issue with Monica Lewinsky and the relationship came in a context which is; we believe the President of the United States had committed perjury during the course of the Whitewater investigation,” Starr said. “We couldn’t prove it.”

From there, the two went on to debate whether a sitting president can be indicted, and the scope of executive privilege. It’s a fascinating discussion and you can watch an extended portion above, via CNN.