"When we had highly sensitive information, the DNA on the dress, that was held within our office and the FBI. There was no dissemination of that information"
About this Quote
The genius of Kenneth Starr's phrasing is how it tries to launder scandal through bureaucracy. "Highly sensitive information" is a sterile label for the lurid heart of the Clinton investigation: a dress bearing DNA evidence. By abstracting it into "information", Starr shifts the frame from sex and power to procedure and custody, as if the core issue were filing protocols rather than the spectacle of the state itemizing intimacy.
"That was held within our office and the FBI" is a quiet appeal to institutional virtue. The sentence builds a perimeter of legitimacy: not gossip, not tabloids, not politics - professionals. Starr is signaling chain of custody, but also laundering his own role. If the evidence stayed inside the walls, the investigation can present itself as disciplined and apolitical, even as it fed a media ecosystem hungry for salacious details.
Then comes the clincher: "There was no dissemination of that information". It's not just a denial; it's a strategic narrowing. He doesn't claim the story wasn't everywhere, only that his office didn't disseminate it. The verb matters: dissemination suggests deliberate distribution, not the more plausible reality of leaks, innuendo, and selective briefing. The subtext is a prosecutor's defense of a narrative: we were guardians of propriety, whatever chaos happened outside.
In context, this is Starr trying to preserve moral authority after an investigation that blurred law, politics, and entertainment. The line is less about innocence than about insulating legitimacy - a reminder that in Washington, control of the evidence is inseparable from control of the story.
"That was held within our office and the FBI" is a quiet appeal to institutional virtue. The sentence builds a perimeter of legitimacy: not gossip, not tabloids, not politics - professionals. Starr is signaling chain of custody, but also laundering his own role. If the evidence stayed inside the walls, the investigation can present itself as disciplined and apolitical, even as it fed a media ecosystem hungry for salacious details.
Then comes the clincher: "There was no dissemination of that information". It's not just a denial; it's a strategic narrowing. He doesn't claim the story wasn't everywhere, only that his office didn't disseminate it. The verb matters: dissemination suggests deliberate distribution, not the more plausible reality of leaks, innuendo, and selective briefing. The subtext is a prosecutor's defense of a narrative: we were guardians of propriety, whatever chaos happened outside.
In context, this is Starr trying to preserve moral authority after an investigation that blurred law, politics, and entertainment. The line is less about innocence than about insulating legitimacy - a reminder that in Washington, control of the evidence is inseparable from control of the story.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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