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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (14884)	3/10/2000 10:21:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX FRI MARCH 10 2000 21:29:32 ET XXXXX TOP JUSTICE OFFICIALS TWICE URGED RENO TO APPOINT INDEPENDENT COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE GORE A frontpage NEW YORK TIMES blockbuster set for a Saturday drop is revealing for the first time that senior Justice Department officials twice tried to urge Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Al Gore's involvement in the 1996 campaign fundraising scandal. The paper is also reporting that Reno, at one point, almost pulled the trigger, but instead chose to end her investigation of the vice president in December, 1998. Citing "government officials and previously undisclosed documents," David Johnston and Don Van Natta Jr. add new details to the LaBella memo and the event surrounding Justice's handling of the 1996 Democratic fundraising probe. "Not only did the FBI director, Louis Freeh, and Reno's chief campaign finance prosecutor, Charles La Bella, conclude that Reno was obligated to seek an independent counsel, but so did aides like Robert Litt, a highly influential political deputy at the Justice Department who was often said to have opposed such appointments." MORE... The TIMES rereveals a letter that shows how Justice thwarted Los Angeles-based federal prosecutors from investigating the infamous fund-raising event at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple. "'As would be necessary in any matter with potential independent counsel ramifications, your office should take no steps to investigate these matters at this time,' Lee J. Radek, the chief of the public integrity section, wrote in a Nov. 1, 1996, letter to a top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles. The letter was recently obtained by The New York Times." "The department's Temple inquiry exonerated Gore by 1997, and when he was later interviewed by the FBI in 1997 and 1998, he was never even questioned about the Temple. The investigation led to an indictment of Maria Hsia, a California immigration consultant and longtime fund-raiser for the Gore, who was convicted by a federal jury in Washington last week." MORE... According to officials, it was Radek who ultimately convinced Reno not to prosecute. Stephen Mansfield, the former Assistant U.S. Attorney, describes how an investigation into Gore was allowed to fizzle out: "I wanted to move very quickly, to gather evidence by issuing subpoenas, interviewing witnesses and considering the execution of search warrants. But it got yanked off my desk and as far as I know, nothing happened for many, many months. The consequence of a strategy of sitting back and doing nothing means you effectively make the matter go away. It is so much harder to develop. Speed is everything in a highly publicized case." During the time that elapsed, key figures in the Gore Temple fundraising scheme were able to fled the country, while Reno claimed to be "vigorously" matters. MORE... drudgereport.com