A new independent counsel was, for the moment, a distant prospect. Janet Reno was content to let her own task force of 25 lawyers and FBI agents look into whether foreign money was funneled illegally into either party's coffers last year. Starr wants to know if the White House or its agents urged Lippo and others with links to the Administration to hire Hubbell so he wouldn't cooperate with Starr's investigation into Whitewater. Making that charge stick would be difficult. Starr would have to show that any White House-organized work for Hubbell was intended not simply to help an old friend but also to buy his silence.
Obstruction of justice is hard to prove.
But it is one of those things that are both wrong and illegal.