Reno criticizes GOP 'sound bites and quick appraisals' in call for Gore probe
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Janet Reno on Tuesday criticized Senate Republicans who second-guessed her refusal to launch an independent probe of 1996 Democratic fund-raising efforts, bluntly warning them to avoid "sound bites and quick appraisals."
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Attorney General Janet Reno
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A reported memorandum from Justice Department lawyer Robert Conrad recommends a special prosecutor be named to investigate whether Vice president Al Gore misled prosecutors during a four-hour April interview on the fund-raising matter. During sometimes-pointed questioning from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Reno insisted several times Tuesday that she cannot comment on any pending investigation.
"I'll have greater confidence in your telling me I'm wrong when you have all the facts," she told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, one of the more vocal critics on the panel.
Republicans have repeatedly said a special prosecutor was needed to investigate allegations of campaign finance abuses stemming from the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election effort. Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Tuesday that the probe has taken too long and yielded too little.
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Sen. Orrin Hatch
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"We now find ourselves on the threshold of a new election with many old questions still unanswered. ... It is now time to make a decision and be held accountable for it," Hatch said.
Committee Republicans have pressed her about why she has turned aside earlier recommendations by Justice Department lawyers and FBI Director Louis Freeh for appointment of a special prosecutor. In sometimes-cordial, sometimes-testy exchanges with senators, Reno said her advisers were split on whether or not to seek a special counsel, and the ultimate decision was hers.
In the April interview with Conrad, Gore vehemently denied any knowledge that his 1996 appearance at a California Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser. Federal law prohibits such events at religious institutions because of their tax exempt status. Gore made the transcript public last Friday, declaring: "I've told the truth."
The interview came about a month after former Gore aide Maria Hsia was convicted of arranging more than $100,000 in illegal donations in connection with the event at the Hsi Lai temple.
Specter angered by McCarthy comparison
Reno already has rejected appeals for a special counsel from Freeh; from Conrad's predecessor, Charles LaBella; and former aide Robert Litt. Reno was said to have been angered by last week's disclosure, and has launched an internal review to determine just how that happened.
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Sen. Arlen Specter
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Gore advisers have suggested the news was leaked in an attempt to force Reno to name a special counsel during the presidential campaign. Specter, who revealed Conrad's recommendation last week, bristled at that suggestion Tuesday.
"I do not take lightly the comments of the vice president's surrogates accusing me of McCarthy-like tactics," the Pennsylvania Republican said, adding: "That is a matter I will take up personally with the vice president to see if it was authorized."
Despite Specter's indignation, Gore spokesman Chris Lehane continued that line of attack Tuesday.
"Arlen Specter, (Indiana GOP Rep.) Dan Burton and their congressional cronies have turned the Congress into a scandal-industrial complex designed to manufacture and create partisan scandals and inflict political damage on the vice president a mere four months before voters go to the polls," Lehane said Tuesday in a statement. "It's clear for all to see that this constitutes Republican political skullduggery, GOP chicanery and Republican dirty tricks."
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Sen. Patrick Leahy
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Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday the session was "more of an inquisition than an oversight hearing."
"Nobody -- including the chairman of the investigation, Sen. Specter -- has said that the vice president has done anything wrong," he said.
Gore denied knowledge of fund-raising
Gore told Conrad in April that he "sure as hell" did not know the Hsi Lai temple visit was a fund-raising event. Rather, the vice president said, he thought of the event was "celebratory," because a high-ranking official had come to pay a visit to the Buddhist community.
"There was no solicitation of money," Gore told Conrad. "I did not see any money or checks change hands. I never heard it discussed, nor do I believe it took place, incidentally."
The vice president also was questioned about his relationships with Hsia, Pauline Kanchanalak, John Huang and Charlie Trie, all of whom have been found either by the Justice Department or the House Government Reform Committee to have forwarded illegal contributions to the Democratic National Committee in 1996.
Trie pleaded guilty in May of 1999 to one felony charge of causing the Democratic National Committee's treasurer to submit a report to the Federal Election Commission that gave false names for donors. He also pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of making political contributions in the names of others.
Huang pleaded guilty in August 1999 to a felony conspiracy charge for violating campaign finance laws, while Kanchanalak has agreed to plead guilty to other charges.
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