Grand Jury’s Presser Probe to Continue, Judge Pledges

A federal judge pledged Monday that a grand jury investigating the government’s use of Teamsters Union President Jackie Presser as an informant would have a “life of its own” and provide a full public report.

“Neither presidents nor judges nor FBI agents can interfere with the criminal justice system,” U.S. District Judge Sam H. Bell said in an interview in his chambers. “The system is above us all.”

Until Bell’s comments Monday, it had appeared that the grand jury might lose its reason for existence and its investigation might automatically be terminated if the judge granted a Justice Department motion to dismiss fraud charges against Presser’s uncle, Allen Friedman.

But Bell said that the grand jury, being an independent body, would continue its investigation of the FBI’s dealings with Presser, and whether Friedman’s attorneys should have been told of them, even if Friedman is not retried.

Friedman was convicted in 1983 of accepting $165,000 in a payroll-padding scheme allegedly authorized by Presser at his hometown Teamsters local in Cleveland.

Bell last month granted Friedman a new trial after his attorneys argued that prosecutors had improperly failed to disclose Presser’s role as an informant and that the FBI had condoned the payments as part of an effort to gather information on organized crime.

At the same time, Bell rejected a Justice Department motion to dismiss the charges against Friedman. The department said that it would rather free Friedman than publicly detail its dealings with Presser.

“Something prevented the administration of justice here,” Bell said Monday of the Friedman case. “There was a malfunction. Was it purposeful? Was it a miscommunication? We have a right to know.”

The judge, who presided over the 1983 trial, said that the inquiry has implications beyond the Friedman case.

“It is important to the average person,” he said. “I want some mother and father who have a son perhaps falsely accused of crime to know that, if there are facts in the possession of the government which tend to show that he is innocent, these facts will not be withheld.”

His made his comments as sources familiar with the investigation said in Washington that several past and present FBI officials who have dealt with Presser are being subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury in Cleveland.

Probe by Senate Panel

Sources said that the FBI is citing the grand jury’s inquiry as a primary reason why it cannot immediately cooperate with a parallel investigation being conducted by the Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee on investigations.

Officials familiar with the Senate inquiry say that the panel has virtually reached an impasse in its efforts to obtain cooperation from the FBI.

The Cleveland grand jury is the same one that looked into allegations that Presser had authorized illegal payments from union funds to five “ghost employees,” including Friedman. And Bell said Monday that it is being directed by the same federal strike force that recommended that Presser be indicted in the scheme.

High-level Justice Department officials in July rejected the strike force’s recommendation after Presser’s lawyer argued that the FBI had given the union leader permission to participate in the scheme.

Case Politically Charged

Thus, the strike force is now in the unusual position of investigating federal agents and department officials who played crucial roles in the politically charged Presser case.

“Members of the strike force impress me as very honest and level-headed people,” Bell said Monday. “However, it now appears there was more exculpatory material relating to Mr. Friedman than was disclosed (by the Justice Department at his trial).

“The question is: Was the existence of this material known prior to his trial, and who knew it? Was there some purpose in its concealment?”

Bell, an experienced Ohio state judge whom President Reagan appointed to the federal bench in 1982, emphasized that he will not interfere in the grand jury’s day-to-day operations.

“I don’t think judges should be prosecutors or detectives,” he said. “The system is there. The system works, and I have faith in the system.”

Grand Juries ‘Marvelous’

“I believe very strongly in judicial restraint,” he added. “You should not act to control or influence or direct the operations of an independent body like a grand jury. You should not interfere in its day-to-day operations. Grand juries are marvelous, intuitively smart.”

If the grand jury should decide against indicting anyone, Bell said, he expects it to issue a full public report--a relatively rare step for a federal grand jury.

If it cannot obtain relevant documents or if the Justice Department refuses to turn over certain files, “I will deal with that when it arises,” Bell said. “I don’t intend to anticipate problems.”

Term Extended 3 Times

Bell said he could not predict when the grand jury, which already has been extended three times beyond its normal 18-month term, would complete the investigation. “I don’t want this thing to sit,” he said.

If the grand jury’s term expires and cannot be extended, Bell said he would make certain that the matter is handled by another grand jury.

Robert L. Jackson reported from Akron, Ohio, and Ronald J. Ostrow from Washington.