September 30, 1998

PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY

	     


                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                      September 30, 1998     

	     
                         PRESS BRIEFING BY 
                           MIKE MCCURRY      

                         The Briefing Room 

	     
..............






	     
	     Q	  Mike, speaking of secret units in the White House, 
do you know of any secret police operation in this White House?
	     
	     MR. MCCURRY:  I do not.  And let me -- here's the danger 
of grand jury testimony that is just sort of dumped unedited into the 
public domain.  This arises, as you well know, from testimony that 
Mr. Dick Morris gave in front of the grand jury.  He has been saying 
exactly that same thing, writing exactly that same thing for weeks 
and weeks now, and it got all the attention it deserved, which is to 
say it got zero attention, because, as he admitted to those of you 
who contacted him yesterday, he has no factual information to support 
that allegation.  He just kind of made it up.
	     
	     But when he made it up in front of the grand jury	  and 
suddenly some people treated it as news, I'm not sure I understand 
why it's news.  It doesn't have any more merit or value dumped in the 
raw and unedited form on the streets now by the committee than it did 
when he put it in whatever venue he had for punditry.  You know, 
punditry doesn't automatically make grand jury testimony more 
enlightening.
	     
	     Q	  Where do you think he got that idea?
	     
	     MR. MCCURRY:  I have not a clue.  And he made clear to 
those of you who talked to him yesterday that he doesn't have a clue.  
He thinks he read it somewhere. 
	     
	     Q	  So you're saying this former top aide to Mr. 
Clinton perjured himself in front of the grand jury?
	     
	     MR. MCCURRY:  No, I don't -- haven't seen his testimony, 
so I don't know the nature of it.  Normally, grand jury testimony is 
secret.  I haven't seen the transcript of what he said, it hasn't 
been released -- it's been seen by some and it's been reported on by 
some of you, but we haven't seen the nature of his testimony.  So 
there's no way we can know.
	     
	     Q	  Do you know if it will be put out, made public 
later this week?
	     
	     MR. MCCURRY:  No -- I mean, we've seen the same kind of 
anecdotal reporting that's some of you are carrying in your own 
reports.