HAS STARR GONE TOO FAR?

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Even to some defenders, Starr is beginning to look like a detective who has lost the thread of his case. Named in 1994 to investigate the Clintons' Whitewater land investment with Jim and Susan McDougal--a mandate that was broadened to include Vince Foster's suicide, the White House travel-office firings, the Administration's possible misuse of FBI files and several other matters--Starr has obtained 12 convictions and guilty pleas. But nearly three years and more than $30 million later, the American public is little closer to understanding the circumstances and import of the original land deals. Questions about whether the Clintons and their loyalists lied or otherwise covered up the truth remain unresolved. Starr hasn't even delivered his long-overdue report on Foster's death, though it's likely to be issued within two weeks. The exhaustive report was delayed when Starr's team grew concerned over allegations of sloppy work at the FBI lab. The Foster investigation wasn't one of the cases compromised, but Starr's team took extra pains in an effort to avoid attacks from conspiracy theorists who still don't believe Foster killed himself.

Sources close to Starr told TIME that the counsel's foray into Clinton's romantic life was driven partly by frustration and partly by a fastidious nature that wants to run down every lead. Decision time on prosecutions is near, they say, and with some sources of information apparently closed off, Starr is doing a final casting of the net. Susan McDougal has sat behind bars since last fall for refusing to cooperate, and former Justice Department official Webster Hubbell, who has already done hard time, says he won't help Starr further. In searching for other confidants, Starr hopes to establish whether Clinton told the truth when he testified that he had no role in an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal.

Some of the questions posed to the troopers--such as whether they witnessed Clinton having sex--were meant to test the troopers' credibility, Starr associates say. There's ample reason to doubt the officers. Two of the troopers admitted lying about a car accident. And in an affidavit obtained by TIME, trooper Ronald Anderson says three of his colleagues were given a contract by Arkansas lawyer Cliff Jackson guaranteeing them jobs paying $100,000 annually for seven years in return for making allegations in December 1993 that they arranged and covered up Clinton dalliances. Jackson, a longtime Clinton opponent, denies the story.

Equally troubling is another set of questions allegedly posed by Starr's staff this spring--to Bob Hattoy, who once worked in the Clinton White House and is now an official at Interior. Hattoy told George magazine that Starr's agents asked if it had been his job "to place homosexuals in the highest levels of government." Starr's office declined to comment.