Senator Says Indictments Warranted

Congressional hearings have produced enough evidence of illegal fund-raising in the 1996 presidential campaign to warrant criminal indictments by the Justice Department, Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) said Thursday.

“The ball is in their court,” said Thompson, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which is probing the campaign abuses. “I don’t want to prejudge them, but [Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s] continued refusal to appoint an independent counsel causes me a great concern as to what the ultimate outcome is going to be.”

Thompson has been criticized because Senate committee hearings last year did not prove his assertion that “high-level Chinese government officials created a plan . . . to subvert our election process.”

But he said he was satisfied with the committee’s work. “With the exception of Watergate, where you had a taping system and John Dean, most investigations leave a lot of unanswered questions,” he said. “This is no exception.”

Asians were “used” by the White House to raise illegal money, Thompson said in response to a question after he addressed Town Hall Los Angeles at the Regal Biltmore Hotel. But he said the involvement of a handful of Asians and Asian Americans who allegedly raised illegal contributions should not taint the entire community.

“Unfortunately, [Asians] got a lot of publicity,” he said.

The episode should not discourage the Asian American community from political activity, he said, noting that “they have made a valuable contribution to our society and they should be full participants in our society.”

Thompson criticized Reno, noting that she has steadfastly refused to appoint an independent counsel although she has appointed independent counsels for lesser figures and lesser allegations.

The decisions about the independent counsel, he said, will “cast a long shadow historically in terms of the rule of law in this country.”

His committee, which closed its investigation in December, will issue a report at the end of January. He declined to go into detail, saying that its contents are being discussed among committee members and some sensitive issues are being negotiated with intelligence agencies.