Grand Jury Probes Presser Lawyer : Climaco’s Alleged Dealings With Indicted FBI Man Studied

Alleged dealings between John R. Climaco, defense lawyer for Teamsters President Jackie Presser, and indicted FBI supervisor Robert S. Friedrick are under investigation by a federal grand jury in Washington, The Times learned Thursday.

The disclosure is the first indication that the activities of Climaco, also the general counsel for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, are under scrutiny. The information about Climaco is contained in a sealed Justice Department motion filed in federal court in Cleveland on June 13.

Related Cases

Because of the constitutional guarantee to effective counsel, it would be highly unusual for prosecutors to try to bring charges against a lawyer who is engaged in defending a client in a related matter. Presser was indicted in Cleveland last month on labor fraud charges; the Washington grand jury that is looking at Climaco’s conduct already has indicted Friedrick on charges of making false statements in the Presser case.

Sources who have seen the Justice Department motion gave no explanation of what conduct by Climaco is under investigation. But one count filed against Friedrick last month charges that he covered up the fact that he had met “on various occasions” last June with Climaco and Presser to discuss a strategy “which would avoid an indictment of Jackie Presser . . . .”

Prosecutors decided to inform U.S. District Judge George W. White that Climaco is a subject in the grand jury inquiry in the hope of avoiding a later charge by Presser that he had been ineffectively represented because his attorney himself was under federal scrutiny, sources said.

At a hearing Thursday, White rejected a request by two Cleveland television stations to open all documents in the case and ruled that they should remain sealed until after the Presser trial. The documents would cause prejudicial pretrial publicity “even though they have no bearing on the culpability of the defendants themselves,” the judge said.

Climaco urged White at the hearing to keep the Justice Department motion and the other papers sealed, describing them as “highly prejudicial.” He added that he regarded the motion as part of “a deliberate attempt by the government to manufacture publicity. I represent not only a defendant but a victim of the U.S. Justice Department.”

Afterward, he refused to comment when asked about being designated a subject in a grand jury investigation.

A subject in such an inquiry is defined by the U.S. attorney’s manual as “a person whose conduct is within the scope of a grand jury’s investigation.” Subjects are persons who are believed to have participated in a suspected criminal enterprise or to have “highly relevant” information about the operation but who will not necessarily be charged, a Justice Department source explained.

Department rules do not require that subjects be informed that their conduct is being investigated. Targets of investigations must be so informed; the U.S. attorney’s manual defines a target as “a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who in the judgment of the prosecutor is a putative defendant.”

It was also learned Thursday that prosecutors have told Presser’s defense team that, for the first time, the government will officially acknowledge in the Friedrick case that Presser has been an FBI informant. Friedrick served as Presser’s “handler,” or control agent, for part of the period, according to government sources.

Disputed FBI Order

The trial of Presser and two Teamster co-defendants in Cleveland is not expected to begin until after Friedrick’s trial in Washington on five counts of making false statements to Justice Department lawyers and FBI agents who were investigating the department’s controversial decision not to indict Presser on labor fraud charges last year.

In a related development, sources familiar with the case said Thursday that FBI documents show that a 1983 order from FBI Director William H. Webster removing Presser from the informant rolls did reach Cleveland, despite Friedrick’s contention that he knew nothing of the order.

According to associates, Friedrick has said he continued to receive information from Presser through 1985 and that no order about dropping Presser was ever relayed to him.

Another source involved in the case said Presser was perhaps “the most unusual informant the bureau ever had.” When the Teamster leader agreed in the early 1970s to supply information, he insisted that no FBI file be maintained on him “and there was none, until 1983,” this source said.

Robert L. Jackson reported from Cleveland and Ronald J. Ostrow from Washington.