Gore Hires Two Private Lawyers in Donor Probe

Vice President Al Gore, acknowledging the seriousness of the legal and political controversy facing him, has retained two private defense lawyers, his aides said Friday.

Gore’s hiring of the lawyers--both politically seasoned former prosecutors--comes as Atty. Gen. Janet Reno is reviewing whether to seek appointment of an independent counsel to investigate aspects of the vice president’s fund-raising for the 1996 campaign. Reno has until Oct. 3 to determine whether the review should advance to a second, 90-day stage.

Supporters of Gore have said in recent days that the vice president--while confident of his innocence--was considering whether the advantages of hiring private counsel would outweigh the potential stigma. Gore ultimately decided that he needed private counsel to present his position directly to the Justice Department lawyers who are working under Reno.

“The vice president wanted private counsel so he can get his position presented directly and personally to the Department of Justice,” said his spokeswoman, Lorraine Voles. “He has instructed his private counsel to continue to cooperate fully with the department.”

Reno and her team of lawyers are examining whether Gore’s soliciting of campaign contributions from White House phones in 1995 and 1996 may have violated federal law. Gore has insisted that he did nothing wrong; critics point to an 1883 statute, called the Pendleton Act, and say the determination of wrongdoing should reside with an independent counsel.

Voles said the fee arrangements between Gore and his lawyers “have not yet been worked out.”

The two lawyers chosen by Gore are longtime friends of his with extensive criminal-law experience.

James F. Neal, 68, of Nashville was an associate special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal and helped prove the Nixon White House cover-up. Neal also is the first prosecutor to have won a conviction of the late Teamster boss James R. Hoffa. After receiving taped evidence that Hoffa unsuccessfully had tried to bribe a juror in a kickback case Neal had prosecuted, Neal in 1963 convicted the labor leader on charges of obstructing justice and jury tampering.

Hoffa’s reported description of Neal: “The most vicious prosecutor who ever lived.”

An indication of Neal’s political acuity is that Gore, while preparing for his 1992 vice presidential debates, chose Neal to play-act the role of retired Adm. James Stockdale, running mate of Ross Perot.

As a defense lawyer, Neal won an acquittal for a Memphis, Tenn., doctor charged with criminal malpractice in the prescribing of massive doses of drugs to Elvis Presley in the last three years of his life.

Gore’s second lawyer, George T. Frampton, Jr., 53, worked as a deputy under Neal during Watergate. Frampton also was deputy assistant independent counsel in an investigation of whether then-Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III used his office for personal gain. That probe ended in 1984 with no charges being brought.

Frampton served until March of this year as a deputy secretary of the Interior. From 1985 to 1992, Frampton gained nationwide recognition among environmentalists as head of the Wilderness Society, an advocacy group whose positions often meshed with Gore’s.

“He’s someone [Gore] respects as a lawyer and for his work on the environment,” Voles said.

Frampton declined to comment. Neal could not be reached.

In representing the vice president, the pair will have the immediate objective of preventing appointment of an independent counsel. They also must consider how their representation will bear on the political future of Gore, the presumed front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000.