Reno Seeks Special Probe of Labor Chief

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno asked a federal court Monday to appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations that Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman illegally accepted payments to use her influence for business interests while serving as a White House aide.

The move, concerning an allegation that Reno conceded was anything but clear-cut, will provide yet another test of the nation’s controversial independent counsel law.

Reno’s application, if accepted by a three-judge panel as expected, will result in appointment of the seventh special counsel to investigate members of the Clinton administration since it took office in January 1993. To critics, Reno’s decision in the Herman case illustrates what they charge are flaws in the post-Watergate statute that require the naming of outside investigators on often flimsy evidence.

Reno told the court Monday that, after a five-month preliminary inquiry by career Justice Department prosecutors assisted by FBI agents, the investigators harbor doubts about the truthfulness of Herman’s accuser, West African businessman Laurent Yene. She said that the department’s investigation “has developed no evidence clearly demonstrating Secretary Herman’s involvement in these matters and substantial evidence suggesting that she may not have been involved.”

But, Reno said, she believes herself compelled to ask for an independent counsel because parts of Yene’s account can be corroborated. “We thus are unable to conclude that he is not credible,” she said.

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Yene alleged that Herman entered into a corrupt agreement after selling her Washington consulting firm to a close friend, Vanessa Weaver, and taking a presidential appointment as chief of the White House office of public liaison in Clinton’s first term.

Yene, a Cameroon national who also obtained a major share of the firm, told federal investigators that Herman had an agreement to receive 10% of any business she could facilitate for the company through her White House ties, according to Reno’s statement. He also alleged that Herman directed Weaver to line up illegal campaign contributions for the Democratic Party from clients of the firm, known as International Investments and Business Development.

E. Lawrence Barcella, Weaver’s attorney, has called Yene “an embittered former boyfriend” of Weaver’s whose charges are fabricated.

Shortly after Reno’s decision was announced, Herman professed her innocence during a brief appearance outside Labor Department headquarters, describing the charges against her as “false from the very beginning.”

She said she is “extremely baffled” by Reno’s action, speculating that the decision was based solely on the dictates of the special counsel law rather than the merits of the charges against her.

President Clinton issued a statement calling Herman “a person of integrity” and said that he considers it “unfortunate that, despite no findings of wrongdoing,” federal law requires an outside counsel in such circumstances.

Still, Reno’s statement made clear that the charges against Herman are substantial enough to warrant further investigation based on the intensive preliminary inquiry by career prosecutors in the Justice Department’s public integrity section.

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The Ethics in Government Act requires the attorney general to seek appointment of an independent counsel whenever she receives a “specific” allegation against a high government official from a “credible” source.

Only if the attorney general finds in a preliminary investigation that an allegation lacks specificity or the accuser lacks credibility can the matter be dismissed without naming an independent counsel.

Many legal authorities have said that Congress needs to amend the law to remove the “hair-trigger” mechanism requiring appointment of outside counsels.

Reno, in her court application, said that her department focused on developing evidence to evaluate Yene’s accusations in three areas:

* Whether Herman received or had an agreement to receive money from the company or its principals.

* Whether Herman took any direct or indirect actions to facilitate business for the firm.

* Whether Herman played any role in “the making of illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee” in connection with Weaver or her clients. Illustrating the uncertain nature of the case against Herman, Reno said, “while I cannot conclusively determine at this time that Yene’s allegations are credible, much of the detail of the story he has told has been corroborated, though none of it clearly [incriminates] Herman.

“Additional information developed in the course of the investigation, coupled with inconsistent and evolving explanations by other critical witnesses, leads me to conclude that further investigation of this matter is warranted.”

Reno’s statement said Yene alleged that he brought an envelope of cash to Herman’s home in April or May of 1996, which he said Herman needed for a trip. Yene first made that allegation in a television interview in January.

Reno also said Yene alleged that Herman obtained $250,000 in political contributions to Clinton’s reelection campaign through Weaver’s company from a foreign businessman seeking government help in obtaining a Federal Communications Commission license. The parties were not identified by Reno.

The most prominent independent counsel inquiry of the administration, headed by Kenneth W. Starr, began as an investigation of the involvement of Clinton and his wife in a 1980s Arkansas land deal but now focuses on a variety of allegations, including whether the president encouraged former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky to lie under oath about whether they had a sexual relationship.

Two other independent counsels have looked into charges that former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros lied to FBI agents, and that former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy accepted gratuities from companies doing business with his department. Charges were filed against Cisneros and Espy. Both have denied wrongdoing and are awaiting trial.

In March, an independent counsel was named to investigate whether Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt lied to the Senate about his role in rejecting an Indian casino in Wisconsin.

Another independent counsel resigned two years ago after his subject, Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown, was killed in a plane crash in Croatia.

Former White House aide Eli J. Segal was cleared after an investigation by an independent counsel on conflict-of-interest allegations stemming from his fund-raising activities for a private group while he headed the AmeriCorps national service program.