Reno Vows Thorough Fund-Raising Probe

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who has turned down three requests for appointment of an independent counsel to investigate Democratic fund-raising practices, said Thursday that Justice Department prosecutors will pursue the case with “any tools they need.”

Reno told reporters at her weekly news briefing that a special task force of three career attorneys in the department’s public-integrity section is already investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in the way Democratic National Committee officials obtained money from contributors with foreign interests.

Other Justice Department sources said the campaign-finance team would have access to a federal grand jury to issue subpoenas and obtain testimony, and could call on FBI agents to conduct interviews.

But with a Justice Department investigation likely to remain confidential for months, House Republicans said they are pressing ahead with their own inquiry. Two requests from House and Senate Republicans for an independent counsel have been rejected by Reno, as well as a request from the citizens group Common Cause.

Reno said none of the alleged wrongdoers are of sufficiently high rank to meet requirements of the Independent Counsel Act.

As a first step in the House inquiry, lawyers for the Democratic Party and a House subcommittee have set a Dec. 20 “target date” for the DNC to begin supplying Congress with documents relating to some of the activities of fund-raiser John Huang, who solicited most of the questionable donations.

Depending on the quality of evidence obtained by congressional investigators, nationally televised House hearings could begin early next year, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Reno sought to assure congressional Republicans that the department’s own inquiry would be thorough. Speaking of her prosecutors, she said: “I’ve directed that they pursue every lead, that they follow those leads where the evidence and the law takes them.”

Declaring that her lawyers have “full powers,” Reno said, “any tools they need to do the job that are available to them under the law, I want them to use.”

Based on disclosures and questions raised by The Times and other newspapers, the DNC so far has returned about $1.5 million in political contributions that it judged to be of uncertain if not illegal origin.

By federal law, donations to a U.S. presidential campaign or for any federal election are permitted only from U.S. citizens or from foreigners who are legal residents.

Of particular concern have been $450,000 in contributions from an Indonesian couple and $250,000 from a South Korean company, both of which the DNC returned in response to news stories. Questions also have been raised about a Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights that was used for a fund-raising event attended by Vice President Al Gore.

Huang, a central figure in the inquiries, formerly was a high-ranking Los Angeles-based executive of the Lippo Group who was appointed to a Commerce Department job in 1994. Several months ago, he left the government to become a principal Democratic fund-raiser.

He went into hiding in October when reporters raised allegations about his activities, but he later appeared in public to deny any wrongdoing.

The congressional request for Democratic documents relating to Huang originated from the civil service subcommittee of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the same panel that conducted hearings into Whitewater-related cases such as the 1993 firing of White House travel office employees and the 1996 controversy involving FBI background files furnished to the White House.

Although Congress routinely seeks records from federal officials, the panel’s request for Democratic Party documents is believed to be unprecedented. Congressional investigators normally do not delve into the workings of political parties.

Subcommittee counsel Gary Ewing said the panel is seeking all records and computer messages on the terms of Huang’s employment by the DNC, a summary of the duties he performed there and documents relating to any fund-raising that he may have done while he was an official of the Commerce Department before joining the DNC.

Times staff writers Alan C. Miller and Richard A. Serrano contributed to this story.