Reno Makes Ickes Possible Target of Probe

The Clinton administration’s legal woes expanded Tuesday as former White House aide Harold M. Ickes became the latest possible target of an independent counsel’s probe.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno opened a preliminary inquiry to determine if an outside prosecutor should investigate whether Ickes, former White House deputy chief of staff, committed perjury in Senate testimony last year concerning a labor dispute between the Teamsters Union and Diamond Walnut Growers in California.

Announcement of the 90-day inquiry came less than a week after Reno initiated a similar probe into whether Vice President Al Gore misrepresented his knowledge of how funds he raised in calls to Democratic contributors were to be spent in the 1996 presidential campaign. In both cases, investigators will examine the narrow question of whether the men lied to cover up actions they took--not the actions themselves.

But such inquiries can expand as they pursue evidence that goes well beyond their original mandate. This could be particularly sensitive in the case of Ickes, who played a central role in the 1996 reelection campaign as President Clinton’s liaison to the Democratic Party. As such, he was deeply involved in the campaign finances.

Senate investigators allege that Ickes became involved in the Teamsters strike against a Diamond Walnut plant in Stockton in hopes the union would contribute more money to the Democrats.

In his testimony last year to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Ickes denied that the White House helped the union during the Stockton strike.

But the Senate panel later uncovered an internal Teamster memo asserting that Ickes had urged then-U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor to intervene, and an Ickes aide said he asked her to make sure that Kantor followed through.

President Clinton, in a statement Tuesday from Moscow, praised Ickes and voiced confidence that he did nothing wrong.

Ickes’ lawyers, Robert S. Bennett and Amy Sabrin, blamed the review on the “hair-trigger provisions of the Independent Counsel Act” and said the probe and appointment of an outside prosecutor were “unwarranted.”

Reno’s move came just a day before she is scheduled to brief leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary committees on the department’s wide-ranging probe into fund-raising abuses during the 1996 campaign. The inquiry has drawn sharp Republican criticism for Reno’s refusal to seek appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the entire range of improprieties.

Ickes’ statements before the Senate committee concerned a protracted labor dispute involving 500 employees at a Diamond Walnut cannery.

An administration memo identified the bitter strike as one of then-Teamsters Union President Ron Carey’s “biggest problems,” and urged Ickes to “assist in any way possible.” The Teamsters asked Ickes to put Kantor on the case.

An internal Teamsters memo said that, one week before meeting with Carey, Ickes met with Kantor in March 1995, and Kantor “agreed to use his discretionary authority to try to convince the CEO of that company [Diamond Walnut] that they should settle the dispute.”

The Teamsters were major donors to the Democrats in 1995-1996.

In a section of its report titled, “Misleading and Inaccurate Testimony,” the committee said that “documents produced by the White House and other evidence suggest that Harold Ickes assisted the Teamsters Union with the Diamond Walnut strike and other matters in order to encourage Carey and the Teamsters Union to provide more financial assistance to Democratic candidates and the DNC. When asked at his Sept. 20, 1997, deposition what the administration did regarding the Diamond Walnut strike, Ickes responded: ‘Nothing that I know of.’ ”

“In fact, after consultations with the Teamsters Union, Ickes asked Mickey Kantor . . . to contact the management of the Diamond Walnut Co. to attempt to persuade them to change their position vis-a-vis the Teamsters.”