By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 22, 1998; Page A30

In approving release of the volumes of evidence offered by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr as potential grounds for impeachment of President Clinton, the House Judiciary Committee ordered the deletion of 155 items.

A few were deemed necessary to protect national security and a few to protect the public from "expletives." Many were required on "privacy grounds" and others because of the presumably too explicit "sexual description" discussed.

But some of the censorship comes too late. The Starr report, released in unexpurgated form Sept. 12, is much more candid. Perhaps committee members were unaware of it, but at least some of the sections carefully blacked out in the evidence made public yesterday can be read in full in the summary report.

The censored versions black out references to an e-mail Lewinsky once showed Clinton as well as other conversations and observations during sexual encounters. All are spelled out in the original report.