[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 43 (Monday, April 14, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3131-S3132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RELATIVE TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL APPOINTING AN INDEPENDENT COUNSEL IN 
                  1996 CAMPAIGN FINANCE INVESTIGATION

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, the Attorney General, today, will 
apparently respond to the request of a majority of the members of the 
Senate Judiciary Committee that she seek the appointment of an 
independent counsel in the investigation into campaign finance 
irregularities of the 1996 campaign. In deciding how to respond, the 
Attorney General's duty is to follow the law, not to respond to 
political pressure.
  But over the weekend, extraordinary attempts were made by several 
House Republican leaders to literally scare the Attorney General into 
doing what they want, not necessarily what the law requires.
  Both Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Armey said Sunday in effect 
that if she doesn't seek an independent counsel it's because she caved 
in to administration pressure. I ask that the Washington Post article 
of Monday, April 14, 1997, entitled ``Republicans Warn Reno on 
Independent Counsel'' be printed in the Record immediately following my 
remarks.
  Mr. President, those comments by the Speaker of the House and the 
Majority Leader of the House constitute an attempt at political 
intimidation. Their message to the Attorney General yesterday was that 
if she doesn't seek the appointment of an independent counsel today, 
she runs the risk of being hauled up before a congressional committee 
and put under oath. There are consequences, they are telling the 
Attorney General--there are consequences to not doing what they want 
her to do.
  Well, Mr. President, those statements by House Republican leaders fly 
in the face of the very purpose of the independent counsel law. Here's 
a statute that we passed to take the politics out of criminal 
investigations of high-level officials, and the Speaker and House 
Leader worked hard to put politics right back in. Their threats to the 
Attorney General--to make her do what they want her to do are 
inappropriate and jeopardize the very law they are demanding that she 
invoke.
  I have confidence, Mr. President, that the Attorney General will 
follow the law wherever it leads her, despite their clumsy effort at 
political intimidation. I hope that Members on both sides of the aisle 
here in the Senate will respect her decision, whatever it is, and the 
discretion the law entitles her to exercise.
  The article follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Apr. 14, 1997]

              Republicans Warn Reno on Independent Counsel


    attorney general should be called to testify if inquiry is not 
                        requested, gingrich says

                           (By John E. Yang)

       House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said yesterday Attorney 
     General Janet Reno should be called before Congress to 
     testify under oath if she does not tell Congress today that 
     she will seek an independent counsel to investigate alleged 
     abuses in Democratic Party fund-raising.
       Gingrich declared he has no confidence in Reno as attorney 
     general and, when asked if she should resign, said: ``We'll 
     know tomorrow,'' the deadline for Reno to respond to a 
     request from congressional Republicans that she call for an 
     independent counsel in the matter.
       ``The evidence mounts every day of lawbreaking in this 
     administration,'' Gingrich said on ``Fox News Sunday.''
       ``If she can look at the day-after-day revelations about 
     this administration and not conclude it's time for an 
     independent counsel, how can any serious citizen have any 
     sense of faith in her judgment?''
       Late last week, the indications were that Reno would likely 
     not seek a counsel in the case, which is already being 
     investigated by career Justice Department prosecutors, but 
     aides emphasized no final decision had been made.
       If she decides not to ask a three-judge panel to name an 
     independent counsel, Gingrich said, Reno needs to explain her 
     decision. ``She needs to answer in public, she needs to 
     answer, I think, under oath,'' he said.
       Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) 
     said Reno ``becomes a major issue'' if she does not call for 
     an independent counsel.
       ``The conflict of interest, both apparent and real, it 
     seems to me, would necessitate her choosing an independent 
     counsel,'' he said on ABC's ``This Week.'' ``If she doesn't 
     then I think there's going to be a swirl of criticism that's 
     going to be, I think, very much justified.
       Justice Department spokesman Bert Brandenburg dismissed 
     such talk. ``Unfortunately, this has become a battle between 
     law and politics,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``The 
     Justice Department will adhere to the law.''
       Reno routinely asks the career prosecutors looking into the 
     matter whether any development requires the appointment of an 
     independent counsel, according to Brandenburg. So far, they 
     have not said that an independent counsel is indicated, he 
     said.
       The law says the attorney general must ask for an 
     independent counsel if there is specific, credible 
     information of criminal wrongdoing by top administration 
     officials--including the president, vice president and 
     Cabinet officers--the head of a president's election or 
     reelection campaign or anyone else for whom it would be a 
     conflict of interest for the Justice Department to 
     investigate.
       House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) 
     said an independent

[[Page S3132]]

     counsel was needed to maintain public confidence in the 
     investigation. ``In-house investigations, as honorable as 
     they might well be, don't sell the public on the fact that 
     they are independent,'' he said on ABC.
       While Hyde said he retains his confidence in Reno as 
     attorney general, Gingrich was sharply critical of her for 
     not telling White House officials the FBI suspected China was 
     planning to make illegal campaign contributions. Reno has 
     said she telephoned national security adviser Anthony Lake, 
     failed to reach him and never called back.
       ``If you're the top law enforcement officer of this country 
     * * * wouldn't you say to the White House, `Gee, the 
     president and the secretary of state ought to know we think 
     the Chinese communists may be trying to buy the American 
     election'?'' he said.
       House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) suggested 
     Reno is victim of the political pressures within the 
     administration.
       ``This is a person that would like to be professional and 
     responsible in their job, and that makes her out of place in 
     this administration,'' Armey said on CBS's ``Face the 
     Nation.'' ``She is in a hopeless situation. * * * If I were 
     Janet Reno, I would just say `I can't function with people 
     that stand with these standards of conduct and behavior and 
     I'm leaving.' ''
       On another topic, Gingrich said the United States should 
     ``consider very seriously'' military action against ``certain 
     very high-value targets in Iran'' if there is strong evidence 
     linking a senior Iranian government official to a group of 
     Shiite Muslims suspected of bombing a U.S. military compound 
     in Saudi Arabia last year.
       ``We have to take whatever steps are necessary to convince 
     Iran that state-sponsored terrorism is not acceptable,'' he 
     said. ``The indirect killing of Americans is still an act of 
     war.''
       The Washington Post reported yesterday that intelligence 
     information indicates that Brig. Ahmad Sherifi, a senior 
     Iranian intelligence officer and a top official in Iran's 
     Revolutionary Guards, met roughly two years before the 
     bombing with a Saudi Shiite arrested March 18 in Canada. 
     According to Canadian court records, the man, Hani Abd Rahim 
     Sayegh, had fled Saudi Arabia shortly after the June 25 
     bombing that killed 19 U.S. servicemen and wounded more than 
     500 others.

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