The Washington Post reports on Democratic complaints that the special panel that oversees Independent Counsels has shown partisan bias in denying requesnts for reimbursement of legal fees by President Clinton and other former administration officials, when some Reagan officials did receive reimbursement. The story largely echoes Democratic whining and is quite incomplete. For instance, it fails to note that some on the right, such as the Scaife Foundation’s Richard Larry, have also had their attorneys’ fee requests denied. Indeed, this was the most recent ruling by the special panel — and shows that the three judge panel has been quite consistent — so its omission is quite conspicuous. The panel isn’t partisan. It’s just stingy with taxpayer dollars — as it should be.
[Disclosure: I clerked for Judge David Sentelle, the presiding judge on the special panel, but never worked on any matters relating to fee reimbursement requests.]