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Reno Hints At Compromise On Memo Subpoena

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 8) -- Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh will appear before Rep. Dan Burton's committee on Tuesday to answer questions about a memo Freeh sent to Reno about the campaign fund-raising probe. Look for fireworks over Reno's refusal today to turn over the memo to the committee.

The Justice Department is expected to officially inform Burton of Reno's decision in a letter that will be sent later today.

Burton, the Indiana Republican who chairs the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, is demanding to see the written advice Freeh gave Reno. Reno last week opted not to seek independent counsels to look into the fund-raising activities of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, despite the FBI director's arguments.

The House committee subpoenaed the memo late Friday, but both Reno and Freeh have refused to hand it over. Reno indicated Sunday that she might try to work out a compromise with the committee.

On Saturday, Justice Department sources said that Reno would likely refuse to honor the subpoena because release of the details contained in it could harm the Justice Department's ongoing investigation. But on CBS's "Face The Nation" Sunday, Reno herself displayed a more conciliatory tone.

"Congress has an oversight function, and I have the responsibility to pursue an investigation the right way, which is certainly not to disclose the details of how I'm going to conduct an investigation," Reno said. "We will be working with Chairman Burton to see how we both fulfill those functions."

Asked if that might mean giving Burton's committee an edited version of the memo, she said, "We will be discussing all of these issues with the chairman and the committee."

But Burton said Sunday he might try to hold Reno in contempt of Congress if she doesn't turn over the memo.

"I'm prepared to push as far as we have to get this information, because the American people have a right to know why this information is not being given to them," he said on CNN's "Late Edition with Frank Sesno."

Thompson recommends perjury charges

Also on Sunday, Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) said his committee, which conducted a lengthy hearing into campaign finance irregularities, would send reports to the Justice Department recommending criminal perjury charges against several witnesses who appeared before the committee.

Thompson did not identify the possible targets. Neither Clinton nor Gore testified in front of Thompson's committee.

"People think that they can waltz up to Congress and say anything that comes to their minds," Thompson said. "Until somebody is prosecuted for some of this activity, people are not going to take congressional investigations very seriously in the future."

Hatch calls for Freeh to conduct his own probe

Another top Republican, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah, called Sunday for Freeh to take the extraordinary step of bypassing Reno --- his boss -- and conducting his own independent investigation into White House fund-raising practices.

"He should do it independently because that's the only way we're going to have ... a way around these conflicts of interest that clearly exist," Hatch said.

But Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he thought Hatch's call amounted to inappropriate political pressure on Freeh.

"I don't think this call for the FBI to run something independent of the Justice Department is going to work with him," said Levin. "He is part of the Justice Department. That's the way our system works."

Reno: 'I'm not protecting anybody'

On the Sunday talk-show circuit, Republicans kept up their drumbeat of criticism of Reno's decision not to appoint a special counsel. But the attorney general continued to defend her decision and to insist that it does not mean the Justice Department has stopped looking into possible fund-raising irregularities from the 1996 campaign.

"We are continuing with a larger investigation, and if the (independent counsel) statute is triggered at any point during that investigation, I will be the first one to trigger it," she said on "Face The Nation."

"I'm not protecting anybody. If I were protecting people, I'd close up the shop and go home," Reno said.

Reno also was scheduled to discuss the controversy Sunday on ABC's "This Week." But anchor Sam Donaldson told viewers she would not appear because "she set conditions as (to) the terms of her appearance that we were not able to meet." He did not say what those conditions were.

CNN Reporter Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.