It was a front-page New York Times scoop in the midst of a highly-charged criminal investigation.

A special prosecutor had reached a momentous conclusion.

He has the constitutional authority to indict the president of the United States.

That position was based on an exhaustive 56-page memo by a highly respected law professor.

But how would such a move play politically, especially with the president's supporters and defenders in the news media?

As the time story made clear, the prosecutors and his deputies were unconcerned.

Prosecutors do not take polls to decide what to do, one of them told the Times.

This sounds a lot like the current debate over whether special counsel Robert Mueller could bring charges against President Trump, especially if he refuses, as his lawyers are advising,

to submit to an interview on his decision to fire FBI director James Comey to curtail the Russia investigation.

In fact, the conclusion we're talking about was by another special prosecutor nearly 20 years ago, then independent counsel Ken Star,

who was investigating Bill Clinton's lies about his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Is Star's position a guide to what Mueller might do?

We'll explore that question on today's edition of Buried Treasure.

I'm Michael Isakov, Chief Investigative correspondent for Yahoo News.

And I'm Dan Clyde, Ben Editor in Chief of Yahoo News.

You know, Dan, I well remember the story. It came in the middle of the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton.

And at a time it was increasingly clear the president would be acquitted that Republican House managers simply didn't have the votes.

And 67 votes to convict Clinton and kick him out of office.

The idea that Star would prolong the Lewinsky matter by then bringing criminal charges seem to reinforce the idea that he and his team were obsessed with getting the president anyway they could.

Right. And in the end, Ken Star didn't do it.

I mean, you know, easy, easy for an anonymous source on the on the Star team at the time to say he doesn't pay attention to the polls.

But you know, ultimately it sounds like they did pay attention to the polls. They did not they went forward with the impeachment.

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