Whitewater independent counsel Ken Starr said he almost charged Hillary Clinton with perjury while conducting his investigation after he became frustrated with her answers during questioning.
According to a new memoir by Starr, Clinton claimed she "did not remember" more than 100 times in three hours of questioning about the suicide of White House deputy counsel Vince Foster—prompting Starr to consider indicting her for perjury.
"I was upset over Mrs. Clinton's performance, and was even considering bringing the matter before the Washington grand jury for possible indictment on perjury," Starr wrote in Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation.
"In the space of three hours, she claimed, by our count, over a hundred times that she 'did not recall' or 'did not remember,'" Starr wrote of the 1995 deposition of the then first lady in his book, an advance copy of which was obtained by Fox News.
"This suggested outright mendacity. To be sure, human memory is notoriously fallible, but her strained performance struck us as preposterous."
But Starr said he decided not to bring charges against Hillary Clinton because he believed it would be too difficult to prove that she had lied—despite his feeling that this was the case.
"Proving that someone knowingly lied when they said 'I don't recall' or 'I don't remember' is extremely difficult, especially if that person is the first lady," he said. "What was clear was that Mrs. Clinton couldn't be bothered to make it appear as if she were telling the truth."
In his book, Starr also described his questioning of then-President Bill Clinton, who was eventually impeached by the House (before being acquitted in the Senate) on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury following Starr's investigation, with Starr describing Clinton's reaction to being questioned as different from his wife's.
"[Bill] Clinton bobbed and weaved, but was always pleasant as he avoided answering," Starr wrote.
His book has already been condemned by Bill Clinton's attorney David Kendall, who told The Daily Mail: "The American people saw through Starr's obsessive pursuit of President Clinton and will see through his attempt to rewrite history to vindicate his own sullied reputation."
Hillary Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
