Reno Asked Fbi For Atlanta Inquiry Was Richard Jewell Questioned Properly?

Attorney General Janet Reno asked the FBI to investigate whether its agents had mishandled the Atlanta bombing probe after top Justice Department officials in Atlanta and Washington raised concerns about whether suspect Richard Jewell’s constitutional rights had been violated.

Following a conversation Reno initiated with FBI Director Louis J. Freeh on Sept. 27, the two agreed to open an internal inquiry to determine whether Jewell had been questioned improperly, a senior federal official said.

Reno disclosed at her weekly news conference Thursday that she had inquired about Jewell’s interrogation. Asked why the FBI internal inquiry was necessary, she said, “If there are any questions raised, then we try to pursue them to make sure we are held accountable; that if something wrong was done, we know who did it and try to take appropriate action.”

The Justice Department officially advised Jewell last Saturday that he is no longer a suspect in the July 27 bombing of an Olympic park that left two dead and more than 100 injured. After 88 days in the spotlight, that left Jewell absolved, but now attention has shifted to those who pursued him.

At issue are highly unusual tactics used by FBI agents who questioned Jewell when the security guard was a prime suspect. According to federal officials, the agents allegedly tried to trick Jewell into surrendering his rights to legal counsel and to remain silent by telling him that their interrogation was a kind of make-believe event for use in a “training video.”

“To me the bullies are in the government,” said G. Watson Bryant, Jewell’s attorney, who found Jewell while he was being questioned at FBI headquarters and urged him to get out of the building before the interrogation could be completed. Bryant first publicly discussed the details of the FBI interrogation this week.

The alleged ruse involving Jewell’s constitutional rights was only one of several deceptions allegedly used by FBI agents in their zeal to quickly solve a crime hat had attracted worldwide attention.

The agents also arranged for a friend of Jewell’s who worked for a Georgia law-enforcement agency to visit Jewell’s home the night before his interrogation. The two had a long talk about the bombing that was recorded by a device the friend wore at the FBI’s behest, Bryant said.

Senior federal officials said Thursday that the FBI did not open an inquiry into the alleged misconduct of its agents in the Jewell interrogation until their methods had become a matter of such concern at the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, that Reno felt obliged to raise the matter directly with Freeh.

The inquiry into the FBI’s treatment of Jewell comes as the nation’s most powerful law-enforcement agency faces challenges on several fronts.

A former top-level FBI official pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges on Wednesday for having participated in a cover-up of FBI misdeeds during the 1992 Ruby Ridge incident. E. Michael Kahoe, who headed the FBI violent-crime section, admitted his role as part of a deal with prosecutors in which he is expected to testify against other senior FBI officials.

Meanwhile, several major investigations - the June 25 bombing of U.S. armed-forces housing in Saudi Arabia, the TWA Flight 800 explosion on July 17 and the Olympic bombing itself - remain unresolved, somewhat tarnishing the bureau’s reputation for swift and decisive action.

Asked whether such matters were feeding public skepticism about law enforcement, Reno answered Thursday in general terms and without rising to the defense of the FBI.

“One of the points that I’ve learned in watching law enforcement is that you have thousands of agents, thousands of police officers across the country that do their work, day in and day out, in the most professional way possible, against overwhelming odds sometimes, and under very difficult circumstances,” she said. “Some make a mistake, and we must get to the bottom of that mistake and hold people accountable.”

The issue of the FBI’s handling of Jewell came to the fore this week after The New York Times published a detailed account of the allegations of FBI misconduct. The next day Freeh issued a statement formally announcing two internal inquiries.