FBI to Probe Leak of Harassment Charges, Senate Leaders Say

The FBI will investigate the leak that caused sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas to become a public part of the Supreme Court confirmation process, Senate leaders said Sunday.

The question of whether the probe should extend beyond the Thomas incident to other congressional leaks remained in dispute.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that an investigation should and would be conducted.

“The question is the scope of the investigation,” he said. “I have said right along that this should be an investigation not just of this leak, but of other recent leaks as well.”

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said that the investigation should focus first on the disclosure of law professor Anita Faye Hill’s charges that Thomas made sexually harassing remarks to her when she worked with him at the Education Department and later at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“There may be other areas we want to go into, but this is the one the public believes we’re going to sweep under the rug,” Dole said on the NBC program. He also supported investigating other leaks.