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

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (26172)	7/28/2000 8:17:28 AM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 769667

The clock is ticking for Al Gore...... newsmax.com FBI Advised Reno on Gore Probe UPI Friday, July 28, 2000 WASHINGTON – Attorney General Janet Reno revealed Thursday that FBI Director Louis Freeh has spoken to her about whether she should appoint a special counsel for an independent probe of Vice President Al Gore. Though Reno would not give details, Freeh recommended an independent counsel investigation of Democratic fund raising as early as 1997. Other department officials believe the FBI is continuing to urge a Gore probe. Freeh met privately with Reno on Tuesday. He has consistently maintained that a Justice Department investigation of Democratic fund raising is a conflict of interest. The appointment of a special counsel to conduct an independent investigation only months before the presidential election would be a political disaster for the vice president, even if, as virtually everyone concedes, such an independent probe probably would not result in charges. If the FBI presses its case hard, it will lend support to Robert Conrad Jr., the chief of the department's Campaign Financing Task Force. Conrad recommended earlier this year that Reno appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Gore spoke the truth about fund raising in 1996. The attorney general is getting opinions from the Justice Department's criminal division, the Office of Public Integrity and the staff of Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, among others, before she acts on Conrad's recommendation. Not all of the opinions have been received, but individual staffs are working on them. Of those written opinions received by the attorney general so far, only Conrad's urges an independent investigation. At her weekly news conference in the Justice Department Thursday, Reno said she had received "comment from Director Freeh" on the Gore controversy but was still "waiting for additional material" from the FBI. Reno said she did not know whether that written material would be forthcoming. Questions About Cheney Surprise Reno On another matter, Reno and other department officials appeared surprised Thursday by questions about former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, whom Texas Gov. George W. Bush has selected as his GOP vice presidential running mate. Media reports Wednesday said Cheney had hosted briefings inside the Pentagon for big Republican political donors in 1991 and 1992. Similar reports that President Clinton hosted Democratic donors in the White House helped spur several department and congressional investigations of Democratic fund raising. But department officials have consistently declined to characterize such events as illegal fund raisers on federal property because money did not change hands at the events. Reno told reporters she was not aware of the Cheney reports Thursday morning. Department officials later questioned whether federal statutes of limitations would have run out on any event held in the early 1990s. On the Gore front, the vice president was interviewed by the task force in April about 1996 fund raising, and Conrad has questioned whether Gore told the truth. Conrad's preliminary finding was made public last month by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who refused to reveal the source of his information. Reno is conducting a secret internal investigation of who leaked the information to Specter. If she decides to name one, Reno would appoint a special counsel under Justice Department regulations she signed last summer when Congress refused to renew the five-year Independent Counsel Act. The regulations are modeled on the federal law in trying to ensure an independent investigation. However, a special counsel would be appointed and supervised by the attorney general instead of a three-judge panel........ JLA