Clinton Defends Fund-Raising Tactics

President Clinton said he and Vice President Al Gore “believed we were acting within the letter of the law” when raising funds for the 1996 campaign. “I believed then and I believe now that what we did was legal,” Clinton told reporters here in his first extensive response to U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s opening of a 30-day review to determine whether Clinton made fund-raising calls from the White House, and if so, whether they may have been illegal. Reno’s action is the first step in a process that could lead her to seek appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the president.