Clinton, in Shift, Is Critical of Independent Counsel Law : Ethics: His earlier strong backing has given way to second thoughts. He says the statute makes it too easy to launch investigations of high officials.

Last year, the Administration vigorously backed resurrection of the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act. But Friday, with the mechanism for appointing an outside prosecutor focusing on him and a record number of Cabinet officers, President Clinton appeared to be having second thoughts.

Clinton complained at a press conference that the law makes it too easy to launch investigations of high officials and needlessly difficult to serve in high office.

“We live in a time now where the first thing people call for is a special counsel,” Clinton said, when asked to explain why so many investigations are under way of top officials in an Administration that he had said would be the most ethical in history. “I mean, we really have to ask ourselves whether we are creating a climate here in which a lot of people will be reluctant to serve.”

Clinton suggested that some members of his Administration have been unfairly accused and that the law itself is partly to blame. An unprecedented four current or former Cabinet members are under investigation by independent counsels or now are subject to preliminary investigations to determine whether outside prosecutors should be appointed.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy resigned when an independent counsel was named to investigate his relationship with firms regulated by the department. Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros and Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown are both under preliminary inquiries by the Justice Department.

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In addition, the Justice Department is conducting a 30-day preliminary review of allegations against Transportation Secretary Federico Pena to decide whether a full-scale 90-day preliminary inquiry is needed to decide whether to seek appointment of an independent counsel.

“If you look at the rules and you look at the facts instead of the number of investigations--man, there’s no way to control that under that new law,” Clinton said. “All you’ve got to do is have a certain number of members of Congress ask and then it triggers this prospect.”

Actually, members of Congress are not able to order the appointment of an independent counsel. Instead, a majority of Democrats or Republicans on the House or Senate Judiciary committees can ask the attorney general to seek such an appointment but the attorney general then decides whether to take that step. The attorney general’s only obligation to Congress is to explain the decision within 30 days of the request.

None of the inquiries now under way, however, began with a request by House or Senate Judiciary Committee members, according to Justice Department officials.

Clinton’s criticism of the independent counsel law is unusual, both because he is under scrutiny by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr in the Whitewater case, and because he strongly supported reauthorizing the counsel law after it expired in December, 1993.

On signing the law last June 30, Clinton said: “Opponents called it a tool of partisan attack against Republican presidents and a waste of taxpayer funds. It was neither. In fact, the independent counsel statute has been in the past and is today a force for government integrity and public confidence.”

After the press conference, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said that Clinton was “absolutely not” thinking about changing the law. “He’s just saying it’s good to have these things but when they turn into scandalous headlines, that’s unfortunate and unfair.

“The law provides a very low threshold for an independent counsel. He was signaling that it’s probably good that we have a low threshold but we then have to live with the consequences,” McCurry said.