John Conyers: “This is an amendment that makes it clear to all to whom it had not previously been clear that all independent counsel…”

“This is an amendment that makes it clear to all to whom it had not previously been clear that all independent counsel, whatever their names, are employees of the Department of Justice. No more, no less. Does not implicate Kenneth Starr as a malefactor. It does not praise him. It does not say anything about where we come down on the investigation. We can be for or against the President or anything in between. All we are making clear to everybody that has brought this measure, and it would be nice for some of the sponsors of this amendment, well, some of them already have agreed with this amendment, but we cannot have an amendment that covers the Department of Justice U.S. attorneys and leave out the independent counsel, who is a U.S. attorney. All the laws that govern the U.S. prosecutors apply to the independent counsel. It should be obvious without the amendment that he is included. But since a few do not have this clear, I introduced the perfecting amendment.”