Cisneros investigation wraps up after ten years

WASHINGTON – A 10-year, $20-plus million independent counsel investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros ended Thursday with release of a much-disputed report accusing the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service of hindering a probe into possible income tax evasion by Cisneros.

The 745-page report alleges that Clinton administration officials blocked independent counsel David Barrett’s efforts to scrutinize Cisneros’ personal finances by limiting his investigative authority to a single tax year and by having IRS officials in Washington take control of a Texas-based review of Cisneros’ taxes.

Cisneros, who was Housing and Urban Development secretary from 1993 to 1997, was charged with 18 felony counts, including conspiracy and making false statements, but he pleaded guilty in 1999 only to a misdemeanor count of lying to the FBI. Cisneros admitted to understating the size of payments he made to a former mistress during a background investigation conducted as part of his confirmation to his cabinet position. President Clinton pardoned him in January 2001.

The length, expense and expanding scope of Barrett’s investigative effort came to symbolize what many Democrats and Republicans viewed as fatal shortcomings of the independent counsel law. It was allowed to lapse in 1999, although Barrett was authorized to finish his work.

The release of the report comes as congressional Republicans, in particular, wrestle with continuing fallout from a lobbying scandal.

The Barrett report includes four files that are sealed, although congressional leaders have access to them. There has been speculation by Washington political figures that the sealed sections might yield fresh information implicating Democrats in ethical lapses.

But as of late Thursday, there seemed to be no rush by either political party to attempt to make political hay out of Barrett’s report or to disclose its redacted portions.

Although most of the constraints on Barrett’s work were imposed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno and other Clinton administration officials, Justice Department officials in the current Bush administration also opposed efforts to expand the scope of his inquiry.

Barrett blasted Justice and IRS officials for “actively working to block any investigation or prosecution of Cisneros for tax offenses.”

He complained that he “received little in the way of cooperation from DOJ, whose purpose it should be to protect the public interest and not to circle the wagons in protection of government personnel.”

Attorneys and officials involved in Barrett’s inquiry were allowed to preview the report and many forcefully rebutted it in a string of letters appended to the report.

One of Cisneros’ attorneys, Barry Simon, called Barrett’s case “overblown.”

“The fact is that an 18-count felony indictment was resolved with a misdemeanor plea,” Simon said. “That disposition could have been obtained by (Barrett) on day one, without the needless expenditure of millions of dollars and thousands of hours of resources by the parties, the courts and the American taxpayers.”

Robert Litt, a former Justice Department lawyer, dismissed Barrett’s investigation as “one of the most embarrassingly incompetent and wasteful episodes in the history of American law enforcement.”