Republican Prosecutor Named to Head Cisneros Investigation

A Republican who once headed a House ethics inquiry was named independent counsel Wednesday to investigate whether Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros committed a crime by misleading the FBI about payments to his former mistress.

David M. Barrett, 58, was appointed by a special three-judge court at the request of Atty. Gen. Janet Reno under the independent counsel law.

Barrett has less than two years’ experience as a federal prosecutor, and the congressional probe he headed was cut short by the resignation of the target, Rep. Daniel Flood (D-Pa.).

The court gave Barrett exactly the jurisdiction Reno requested March 14: to see if Cisneros committed any federal felony “by making false statements, with respect to his past payments to Linda Medlar, to the FBI during the course of his background investigation or conspiring with others to do so.”

Reno told the court, “Information provided by Secretary Cisneros concerning his payments to Medlar was false.”

Cisneros has denied committing any crime. His attorney, Cono Namorato, welcomed Barrett’s appointment: “We look forward to cooperating with him” and “are hopeful that this matter can be resolved expeditiously.”

During an FBI background check before his nomination, Cisneros acknowledged his affair with Medlar and that he had been paying her. “However, he also stated to the FBI that he had paid her no more than $2,500 at a time and no more than $10,000 a year,” Reno wrote.

“In fact, he paid her more than $2,500 at various times, and his total annual payments to her were between $42,000 and $60,000,” Reno wrote.

Medlar sued Cisneros for $256,000, claiming that he promised to pay her $4,000 a month until her teen-age daughter graduated from college. But she settled with Cisneros on Friday for $49,000.