Reno Says Starr’s Indictment of Gov. Tucker Should Stand

The Whitewater prosecutor has the right to pursue fraud and conspiracy charges against President Clinton’s successor as Arkansas governor, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said in court papers filed Friday.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed by Justice Department lawyers, Reno told U.S. District Judge Henry Woods that the three-count indictment charging Gov. Jim Guy Tucker should stand.

The brief also says the law under which Kenneth W. Starr was appointed does not give any court the right to review jurisdiction matters involving special prosecutors.

Tucker’s lawyer, George Collins, said it is up to Woods to decide whether that’s true. Tucker, reached in Burlington, Vt., site of the National Governors’ Assn. meeting, declined comment.

Tucker contends that, under the court order appointing Starr, the Whitewater investigation must be limited to matters that involve: President Clinton; Hillary Rodham Clinton; James B. McDougal; the Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan; the Whitewater land development company; or Capital Management Services, a Little Rock lending house.

Starr said he came across violations involving Tucker while investigating Capital Management and got permission from Reno to broaden the investigation.

Tucker is accused of lying to Capital Management about how he would use a $300,000 loan, then using that money to make millions in the cable TV industry and shielding his profits from the Internal Revenue Service.

The brief filed Friday cited a 1987 congressional report that said, except to remove an independent counsel, “an attorney general’s determinations under the independent counsel law are not subject to judicial review.”