Reno to Open Probe of Ickes In Fund Raising
Clinton's Campaign Chief Is Suspected of
Perjury In Deposition to Senate
By DAVID S. Cloud
Staff Reporter of The Wall STREET Journal
WASHINGTON-Attorney General Janet Reno, amid
signs she is softening her stand against a broad outside investigation of 1996
Clinton-Gore campaign fund raising, moved toward appointing an independent counsel to
investigate the campaign's architect, Harold Ickes.
Ms. Reno said she will conduct a 90-day preliminary investigation
after she concluded that Mr. Ickes. former White House deputy chief of staff, may have
committed perjury in a 1997 deposition given to a Senate committee
investigating campaign-finance irregularities. Last week. Ms. Reno launched a similar
inquiry into whether Vice President Al Gore misled federal investigators
examining fund-raising telephone calls he made from the White House.
The move comes a day before Ms. Reno is to meet with leaders of
the House and Senate Judiciary committees whose Republican chairmen have been pushing for
an independent counsel to examine a wide array of allegations surrounding the Clinton
campaign's fund-raising efforts.
Though the Ickes investigation is focused on a very narrow issue,
senior Justice Department officials are conducting a 30-day review of
whether to open another formal 90-day investigation into whether a broader-based
independent counsel investigation should be launched. The exact scope of that probe is unclear, but senior Justice Department officials said Ms. Reno is more
open to the idea than ever before. She has resisted calls for a broad-based independent
counsel since fund-raising irregularities first came to light in late 1996..
"There's a whole bunch of things on her
plate and there are other matters still to be decided," some of which could lead to
additional 90-day preliminary investigations. said a senior department official. Another
official familiar with the inquiry cautioned that it continues to appear unlikely that any top Clinton campaign or White House official will be charged unless they
are found to have lied to investigators.
Senior Justice Department aides said Ms. Reno
decided to begin the preliminary review because of what one called the "specific and
credible" information about possible perjury by Mr. Ickes. Another factor. officials
said, was the central role he played in the White House fund-raising
effort as a close confidante of President Clinton. Since his position is not explicitly
covered by the independent counsel statute, Ms. Reno invoked discretionary provisions of
the act, which allow her to consider an outside investigation if she thinks the Justice
Department may have a conflict.
Ms. Reno may still decide not to seek court appointment of an
independent counsel in the matter. The perjury allegations hinge on Mr. Ickes's response
to a question about whether the administration did favors for the
Teamsters union in return for campaign contributions when it urged a settlement of a
strike at Diamond Walnut Growers in California.
When asked by congressional investigators what the administration
did to settle the Diamond Walnut strike, Mr. Ickes answered: "Nothing that I know
of." But congressional investigators found that Mr. Ickes urged former U.S. Trade
Representative Mickey Kantor to intervene with company officials to urge
them to end the strike. An aide to Mr. Ickes later called to check whether Mr. Kantor had
followed through.
Lawyers for the Justice Department's Public
Integrity section will examine not only the perjury allegations, but also
the underlying question of whether Mr. Ickes was seeking to curry favor with the Teamsters
in exchange for campaign contributions, a senior department official said.
In a statement, Mr. Ickes's lawyers said that, during the 20 occasions he had testified on matters arising from his three years in the White House, Mr. Ickes had "testified truthfully on all occasions. Therefore we think such a review and ultimately, the appointment of an independent counsel in this case is unwarranted."