Republicans Threaten Reno With Contempt Charge Gop’s Hatch Asking Freeh To Investigate Fund Raising
Republicans threatened Attorney General Janet Reno with contempt of Congress on Sunday over her decision to forgo an independent counsel’s investigation of White House campaign fund raising.
One GOP senator, Orrin Hatch of Utah, said he’s asking FBI director Louis Freeh to bypass Reno, his boss, and investigate allegations of Democratic impropriety in fund raising. “I have no doubt that the political appointees in the department who have been influencing her are doing nothing but protecting the president,” Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Hatch said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, shot back: “Was it protecting the president when she appointed four independent counsels that all took aim at the White House?” Before the cameras were turned on, Glenn flashed Reno a thumb-to-forefinger OK sign and told her he admired her for standing up for her principles on the independent counsel decision.
On Tuesday, Reno announced her decision not to request a court-appointed independent counsel to look into fund-raising calls that President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore made from the White House. In a 69-page brief and accompanying news conference, she said they had broken no federal laws.
Furious over Reno’s decision, Republicans used Sunday’s talk show circuit to lob a series of threats at her and the Justice Department.
Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the panel will consider recommending a contempt of Congress charge if she refuses to comply with its subpoena seeking Freeh’s memo endorsing an independent counsel.
“We’re going to reach maybe a little crisis here,” Burton said. Asked whether he would cite Reno for contempt, he said: “That’s the step we’ll have to look at next.”
But with a chuckle, he acknowledged an inherent problem with that action: “Obviously if we cited her for contempt, it would have to go to the Justice Department for carrying out that contempt citation. And she would be making the decision on that.”
Reno did not rule out sending Burton the memo, with sensitive information blacked out.
On “Face the Nation,” Reno insisted: “I’m not protecting anybody. If I were protecting people, I’d close up the shop and go home.”
Hatch surprised Glenn on the program with the disclosure that he plans to send Freeh a letter today asking him to investigate Democratic fund-raising irregularities separately from Reno, even though the FBI is part of the Justice Department.