Reno Delays Decision On Ickes
Investigation
By Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writer
December 1, 1998
Attorney General Janet Reno yesterday delayed a decision on whether an independent counsel should investigate allegations
that a top aide to President Clinton committed perjury during a Senate campaign finance
probe.
The Justice Department spent three months on a preliminary
investigation of Harold M. Ickes, a former deputy White House chief of staff, but top
officials were split over whether to proceed with an independent counsel. At midday
yesterday officials said Reno appeared to be leaning in favor of asking for appointment of
an independent counsel, but the attorney general then decided to hold off and ask for more
time to decide.
The allegation against Ickes was raised last
March by the Republican majority of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which
accused the veteran political operative of giving "less than candid" testimony
about the Clinton administration's dealings with the Teamsters union.
Reno, as she has in other independent counsel decisions, did not
start her final deliberations on the Ickes question until hours before a deadline set by
law. Although she has often made her own call in the face of divided advice from top
aides, officials said Reno balked yesterday because she was not comfortable with the
choices before her -- either launch an independent counsel inquiry or
shut down the investigation.
In a court document that remains under seal, Reno
asked the special panel of three federal judges that oversees the independent counsel
process for a 60-day extension. In granting the request, the judges, in a public document,
said Reno had "shown good cause for the requested extension" but did not
disclose her rationale.
Justice Department officials said Reno asked for further analysis
of evidence that has already been gathered and some of her top aides agreed with her.
In addition to materials from the Senate probe and its own
investigation, the Justice Department is considering evidence recently
gathered in an ongoing investigation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters by the
House Education and the Workforce oversight and investigations subcommittee.
Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who is among several Republican leaders
to consistently reproach Reno for not seeking an independent counsel on campaign finance
matters, said in a statement yesterday that "every time we reach a new plateau, Attorney General Reno delays and delays and delays."
The Ickes inquiry is one of three independent counsel decisions
that have preoccupied Reno this autumn. Last week, she also faced
contradictory advice from top aides but decided at the last minute against seeking further
investigation of whether Vice President Gore made false statements about campaign finance
practices. Next week, she faces a deadline in a preliminary investigation of President
Clinton's use of Democratic Party funds for television advertising in the 1996 campaign.
Attorneys for Ickes, now a Washington attorney
and business consultant, have said that he has been called upon to testify some 20 times
as a result of his White House service from 1994 to 1997 and that he has told the truth on
every occasion.
The only allegation under consideration by Reno
is whether Ickes lied to Senate investigators when he said he had no knowledge of anything
done by the Clinton administration regarding a labor dispute between the Teamsters and
Diamond Walnut Growers Inc., a cooperative of nut growers in California. The Teamsters had
been on strike for nearly four years and were looking for a resolution in 1995 when Ickes
sought the union's financial support for Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign.
According to an internal Teamsters memorandum acquired by Senate
investigators, Ickes told union officials that he had contacted then-U.S. Trade
Representative Mickey Kantor and asked him to call a Diamond Walnut executive and press
for a resolution in favor of the Teamsters. An aide to Ickes confirmed to
Senate investigators that Ickes had called Kantor about Diamond Walnut.
In the testimony at issue, Ickes was asked by Senate investigators
during a deposition on Sept. 22, 1997, "What did the administration do regarding the
Diamond Walnut strike?"
Ickes replied, "Nothing that I know of."
Although the question was asked twice in
different ways, the Senate investigators did not further explore the matter with Ickes,
nor did they develop conclusive evidence that Kantor had reported back to Ickes that he
had taken any action on behalf of the Teamsters.
Ickes's apparent denial of facts that should
have been well known to him convinced some senior Justice Department officials that he
should be investigated for perjury by an independent counsel. Other officials argued that
the questioning of Ickes was so weak that no investigation is justified.
In testimony in October to the House panel investigating the
Teamsters, Kantor said that although Ickes asked him to call Diamond
Walnut's president, it was not as part of an effort to assist the union. Instead, Kantor
said, he merely called to inquire about the status of the labor dispute.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who heads the
House investigation of the Teamsters, said there is evidence that Kantor pressured the
growers on the Teamsters' behalf. "The information we developed strongly suggests
that the attorney general must appoint an independent counsel," Hoekstra said in a
statement yesterday.
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