[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 10 (Monday, March 15, 1993)]
[Pages 369-370]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Representative Robert H. Michel on the Justice Department 
Action on the Trial of Representative Harold Ford

 March 6, 1993

Dear Mr. Leader:

    This is in response to the March 2 letter from you and four of your 
colleagues. In that letter you express concern about the process which 
led the Department of Justice to object to the impaneling of a virtually 
all-white jury brought in from Jackson, Tennessee to try Congressman 
Harold Ford in Memphis, Tennessee.
    Please be informed that when the White House received inquiries 
concerning this jury issue, they were referred, at the direction of my 
Counsel, to the Department of Justice for whatever action the Department 
deemed proper. I have been informed by Counsel that the White House made 
no recommendation to anyone at the Department of Justice as to how this 
issue should be resolved.
    The Acting Attorney General, Stuart Gerson (who, as you know, was a 
senior member of the prior Administration and will be leaving office 
when a new Attorney General is confirmed), has informed us that he 
personally made the decision to object to the impaneling of the jury and 
that he did so strictly on the merits. When he made his decision, Mr. 
Gerson wrote that he was motivated by ``a desire to achieve a principle 
of fairness and uniformity that reflects on far more than this case'' 
and his decision was based on an ``[un]willing[ness] to say on behalf of 
the United States, that justice cannot be obtained from a Memphis jury 
or, indeed, from the jury in any city.'' I am attaching a copy of his 
written statement.
    I have no reason to question this statement by Mr. Gerson or his 
explicit assurance that political considerations played no role in his 
decision.
    Sincerely,
                                                  Bill Clinton

[[Page 370]]

Note: This letter was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary but was not issued as a White House press release.