GOP Presses for Counsel on Clinton Donor Calls

Republican lawmakers on Sunday intensified their long-standing criticism of Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, imploring her to seek appointment of an independent counsel to investigate claims that President Clinton may have solicited campaign contributions by telephone from the White House.

Despite Reno’s launching of an internal 30-day review last week to determine whether an outside prosecutor is needed to scrutinize Clinton’s fund-raising activities, GOP congressional leaders expressed their desire to see the attorney general move even further.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) called Reno’s decision to open the review a “very serious” development. But, in an appearance on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” he added: “In all honesty, we suggest that she should have done that seven months ago. . . . It seems to me there’s politics being played all the way around.”

Democrats insisted the president broke no laws even if he made the fund-raising calls and that a careful review of Clinton’s conduct will not lead to the appointment of an independent counsel.

“The Justice Department has a policy of never having prosecuted this kind of a [telephone] call,” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a member of the Senate committee investigating campaign finance abuses, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And what is really absurd is to say the call is fine if it’s made from the president’s car or the president’s home, but somehow or other this technicality should be applied to trigger an independent counsel law against the president.”

Clinton, clad in jeans and running shoes, appeared chipper early Sunday after attending a marathon of three Northern California fund-raisers that netted his party $950,000. He shrugged off a question about the Justice inquiry aboard Air Force One, telling reporters, “I don’t really know anything about it.”

It remains unclear whether the president actually made any telephone solicitations from the White House and, if he did, whether such an action would violate federal laws.

Rahm Emanuel, a senior White House policy advisor, said Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition” that Clinton does not recall having made any fund-raising phone calls. “As he’s stated . . . he may have. He may not have,” Emanuel said.

Previously released documents indicate that Clinton was asked to make fund-raising phone calls to the party’s biggest supporters, and perhaps even volunteered to do so. But so far, there has been no public verification that he did.

Reno’s internal review, first disclosed by the administration on Saturday, means that both Clinton and Vice President Al Gore now face the prospect of an independent counsel for their roles in helping the Democratic National Committee raise $187 million during last year’s election campaign.

The attorney general already had launched a 30-day review of White House fund-raising calls placed by Gore, who has acknowledged making solicitations on more than 40 occasions. Gore, who has denied any wrongdoing, hired two private lawyers last week to represent him.

If Reno finds “specific” and “credible” evidence of a crime from the initial review, she would authorize a 90-day examination and then decide whether to recommend the appointment of an independent counsel.

The Washington Post reported today that records of Clinton’s fund-raising calls were turned over to a Justice Department task force several months ago. But they were not reviewed by department attorneys until a few days ago because of confused document-handling procedures, government officials said Sunday.

To date, no contributor to either the Clinton-Gore campaign or the DNC has acknowledged being solicited by phone by the president. But documents provided this year by the White House to a Senate investigating committee show Clinton was asked to make such calls.

In one memo, for instance, an aide asked Clinton to call 10 prospective donors, including Gail Zappa of North Hollywood, the widow of musician Frank Zappa. Gail Zappa has told reporters she was not called by Clinton before she donated $30,000 to the DNC.

On Sunday, a spokesman for another prospective donor on that list, Ray R. Irani, the chairman and chief executive officer of Occidental Petroleum Corp., also denied any phone contact from Clinton.

“He did not get a phone call,” the spokesman told The Times.

Justice Department sources said Sunday that Reno remains determined to assess the conduct of both Clinton and Gore based on the law, not politics.

That said, Reno has considerable discretion in how she chooses to characterize what her department is, or is not, doing regarding the fund-raising efforts of the president and vice president.

For instance, Reno was not compelled by law to acknowledge that the 30-day reviews had been opened. Yet in response to media inquiries, the attorney general decided to do so.

The harshest congressional criticism of Reno on Sunday came from Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), a member of the Senate panel examining fund-raising for the 1996 campaign.

“We need some more aggressive action, some stronger leadership,” Cochran said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.” “And I frankly think the attorney general should resign.”

Cochran criticized Reno’s handling of her department’s months-long review of the overall campaign finance controversy, saying ample evidence to merit appointment of an independent counsel has long since surfaced.

Cochran’s remarks were disputed by another member of the committee, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.).

“The suggestion that she should resign . . . is very unfair,” Lieberman said, appearing on the same CBS program. “The fact is that the attorney general is not a politician. She’s a law officer . . . There’s a difference between what’s wrong and what may be illegal, and that’s what the independent counsel statute calls on her to [distinguish].”

* GOP CONFUSION

Fund-raising probe shift perplexes GOP lawmakers. A14

* DINING WITH CLINTON

Dinner brings in $600,000--and a chat with Clinton. A14