Panel Votes to Cite Reno for Contempt

Amid fierce partisan sniping, a House committee voted along party lines Thursday to cite Atty. Gen. Janet Reno for contempt of Congress because of her failure to turn over two subpoenaed memos recommending the appointment of an independent counsel in the campaign fund-raising controversy.

The sanction--which requires the endorsement of the full House--was largely viewed as a political response to Reno’s long-standing refusal to call for an outside prosecutor to look into campaign finance improprieties and illegalities that marked the 1996 presidential election. The Justice Department is conducting the inquiry, which focuses largely on the Democratic Party and President Clinton’s reelection team.

Although contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor that can bring heavy fines and up to a year in jail, it is unlikely Reno ever will be subjected to such penalties, lawmakers in both parties and legal experts said. Nor is it expected that the committee vote will prompt Reno to immediately change her mind on the independent counsel issue, given the failure of harsh Republican attacks in the past to do so.

Still, the vote ratchets up GOP pressure on one of the most popular members of President Clinton’s Cabinet. And even before the contempt threat surfaced, Reno had said she is once again reviewing whether to call for the appointment of an independent counsel, based on the progress of the Justice Department investigation. She expects to reveal her decision by the end of the month.

“I don’t know what decision I’m going to make,” a stern-faced Reno remarked at a news conference after the committee vote. “I don’t know if I’m going to name an independent counsel or not.”

The move to hold Reno in contempt was a rare but not unprecedented action for such a high-ranking official. It was sparked by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee’s attempt to review two internal memos--one from FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and the other prepared by Justice Department investigators--urging Reno to turn to a special prosecutor. The existence of both documents was leaked to the press.

Reno has resisted releasing the memos because she has said that doing so would compromise her department’s investigation. Freeh also argued that forcing release of the internal correspondence would discourage law enforcement officials from putting their thoughts on paper.

“The contempt citation will send a very chilling message to prosecutors and special agents throughout the country,” Freeh said in testimony before the committee this week.

But Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who subpoenaed the memos last month, said Reno’s refusal is against the law. He said the subpoena specifically does not cover information about the investigation and that those parts of the memo could be blacked out.

“Under normal circumstance we would not have subpoenaed [the memos],” Burton said. “But these are not normal circumstances. We have a reasonable basis for believing that the attorney general isn’t upholding the law [by not recommending an independent counsel], and we have an obligation under the Constitution to find out if that is the case.”

A Reno recommendation for an independent counsel would be reviewed by a three-judge panel. Generally the judges have gone along with such proposals.

The only time the House has gone forward with a contempt citation against a Cabinet-level official was in 1982, when then-EPA Administrator Anne M. Burford was cited for refusing--at President Reagan’s request--to turn over documents. The Justice Department refused to prosecute her and instead filed a lawsuit to block action on the citation. The matter was eventually settled, with House members gaining access to the documents.

Democrats on the oversight committee roundly condemned the contempt citation against Reno as a clear abuse of the panel’s power.

“There are countries that do throw people in jail for exercising their independence,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, the committee’s ranking Democrat. “Powerful dictators punish disobedience with jail. But America has never been that way. Americans have never tolerated raw abuses of power and I know they won’t tolerate this committee’s attempt to intimidate the attorney general.”

All of the panel’s 24 Republicans--including Reps. Christopher Cox of Newport Beach and Stephen Horn of Long Beach--voted for the contempt citation. Conversely, the 19 votes against it came from committee Democrats--including Reps. Gary A. Condit of Ceres and Tom Lantos of San Mateo.

Reno told reporters she has sought in vain to reach a compromise with Burton in recent weeks. First, she offered to brief Burton and Waxman on the memos’ contents after she reaches her decision on naming an independent counsel. The Republicans rejected this as a delaying tactic.

The House breaks for a monthlong recess today, meaning that consideration of the contempt citation will have to wait at least until September. And even if the House endorses such a sanction, the citation would be referred to one of Reno’s subordinates, a U.S. attorney, for possible referral to a grand jury.

Reno has said that, if the citation gets that far, she would recuse herself from the case and allow Holder to oversee it. Ironically, at that point, an independent counsel could possibly be named to handle the matter.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.