The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“RELATIVE TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL APPOINTING AN INDEPENDENT COUNSEL IN 1996 CAMPAIGN FINANCE INVESTIGATION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S3131-S3132 on April 14, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
RELATIVE TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL APPOINTING AN INDEPENDENT COUNSEL IN
1996 CAMPAIGN FINANCE INVESTIGATION
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, the Attorney General, today, will apparently respond to the request of a majority of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that she seek the appointment of an independent counsel in the investigation into campaign finance irregularities of the 1996 campaign. In deciding how to respond, the Attorney General's duty is to follow the law, not to respond to political pressure.
But over the weekend, extraordinary attempts were made by several House Republican leaders to literally scare the Attorney General into doing what they want, not necessarily what the law requires.
Both Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Armey said Sunday in effect that if she doesn't seek an independent counsel it's because she caved in to administration pressure. I ask that the Washington Post article of Monday, April 14, 1997, entitled ``Republicans Warn Reno on Independent Counsel'' be printed in the Record immediately following my remarks.
Mr. President, those comments by the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the House constitute an attempt at political intimidation. Their message to the Attorney General yesterday was that if she doesn't seek the appointment of an independent counsel today, she runs the risk of being hauled up before a congressional committee and put under oath. There are consequences, they are telling the Attorney General--there are consequences to not doing what they want her to do.
Well, Mr. President, those statements by House Republican leaders fly in the face of the very purpose of the independent counsel law. Here's a statute that we passed to take the politics out of criminal investigations of high-level officials, and the Speaker and House Leader worked hard to put politics right back in. Their threats to the Attorney General--to make her do what they want her to do are inappropriate and jeopardize the very law they are demanding that she invoke.
I have confidence, Mr. President, that the Attorney General will follow the law wherever it leads her, despite their clumsy effort at political intimidation. I hope that Members on both sides of the aisle here in the Senate will respect her decision, whatever it is, and the discretion the law entitles her to exercise.
The article follows:
Republicans Warn Reno on Independent Counsel
attorney general should be called to testify if inquiry is not requested, gingrich says
(By John E. Yang)
House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said yesterday Attorney General Janet Reno should be called before Congress to testify under oath if she does not tell Congress today that she will seek an independent counsel to investigate alleged abuses in Democratic Party fund-raising.
Gingrich declared he has no confidence in Reno as attorney general and, when asked if she should resign, said: ``We'll know tomorrow,'' the deadline for Reno to respond to a request from congressional Republicans that she call for an independent counsel in the matter.
``The evidence mounts every day of lawbreaking in this administration,'' Gingrich said on ``Fox News Sunday.''
``If she can look at the day-after-day revelations about this administration and not conclude it's time for an independent counsel, how can any serious citizen have any sense of faith in her judgment?''
Late last week, the indications were that Reno would likely not seek a counsel in the case, which is already being investigated by career Justice Department prosecutors, but aides emphasized no final decision had been made.
If she decides not to ask a three-judge panel to name an independent counsel, Gingrich said, Reno needs to explain her decision. ``She needs to answer in public, she needs to answer, I think, under oath,'' he said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said Reno ``becomes a major issue'' if she does not call for an independent counsel.
``The conflict of interest, both apparent and real, it seems to me, would necessitate her choosing an independent counsel,'' he said on ABC's ``This Week.'' ``If she doesn't then I think there's going to be a swirl of criticism that's going to be, I think, very much justified.
Justice Department spokesman Bert Brandenburg dismissed such talk. ``Unfortunately, this has become a battle between law and politics,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``The Justice Department will adhere to the law.''
Reno routinely asks the career prosecutors looking into the matter whether any development requires the appointment of an independent counsel, according to Brandenburg. So far, they have not said that an independent counsel is indicated, he said.
The law says the attorney general must ask for an independent counsel if there is specific, credible information of criminal wrongdoing by top administration officials--including the president, vice president and Cabinet officers--the head of a president's election or reelection campaign or anyone else for whom it would be a conflict of interest for the Justice Department to investigate.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) said an independent counsel was needed to maintain public confidence in the investigation. ``In-house investigations, as honorable as they might well be, don't sell the public on the fact that they are independent,'' he said on ABC.
While Hyde said he retains his confidence in Reno as attorney general, Gingrich was sharply critical of her for not telling White House officials the FBI suspected China was planning to make illegal campaign contributions. Reno has said she telephoned national security adviser Anthony Lake, failed to reach him and never called back.
``If you're the top law enforcement officer of this country
* * * wouldn't you say to the White House, `Gee, the president and the secretary of state ought to know we think the Chinese communists may be trying to buy the American election'?'' he said.
House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) suggested Reno is victim of the political pressures within the administration.
``This is a person that would like to be professional and responsible in their job, and that makes her out of place in this administration,'' Armey said on CBS's ``Face the Nation.'' ``She is in a hopeless situation. * * * If I were Janet Reno, I would just say `I can't function with people that stand with these standards of conduct and behavior and I'm leaving.' ''
On another topic, Gingrich said the United States should
``consider very seriously'' military action against ``certain very high-value targets in Iran'' if there is strong evidence linking a senior Iranian government official to a group of Shiite Muslims suspected of bombing a U.S. military compound in Saudi Arabia last year.
``We have to take whatever steps are necessary to convince Iran that state-sponsored terrorism is not acceptable,'' he said. ``The indirect killing of Americans is still an act of war.''
The Washington Post reported yesterday that intelligence information indicates that Brig. Ahmad Sherifi, a senior Iranian intelligence officer and a top official in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, met roughly two years before the bombing with a Saudi Shiite arrested March 18 in Canada. According to Canadian court records, the man, Hani Abd Rahim Sayegh, had fled Saudi Arabia shortly after the June 25 bombing that killed 19 U.S. servicemen and wounded more than 500 others.
____________________
