National Perspective : Freeh’s Praise of Prosecutors Raises White House Eyebrows

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh has long been a dissenting voice in the Clinton administration, but his latest stand--quietly singing the praises of two outgoing independent counsels who had won themselves no friends at the White House--surprised even some of his critics Monday.

Kenneth W. Starr, who went toe-to-toe with President Clinton for more than five years as an independent counsel, received praise from Freeh in a personal letter the day after Starr left his post last month. Freeh hailed Starr’s “persistence and uncompromising personal and professional integrity” and even passed along thanks from the FBI’s laboratory scientists--the same division that analyzed former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky’s notorious blue dress.

Freeh also hosted a breakfast in the director’s dining room at FBI headquarters last week for outgoing independent counsel David M. Barrett, according to a source who attended the event. Barrett spent $10 million on a four-year investigation of former Clinton administration Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, which ended in a single misdemeanor plea in September by Cisneros for lying to the FBI about payments to his former mistress.

With Barrett’s wife and four of his five children attending the breakfast, Freeh gave Barrett the bureau’s top civilian award for his “exemplary service” to law enforcement.

The tributes underscored Freeh’s increasingly tense relations with the White House. He has aligned himself in surprisingly strong terms with Clinton’s foes--and distanced himself from the man who appointed him to the prestigious FBI post, observers said.

The Starr letter “reinforces Freeh’s support on Capitol Hill [among Republicans] as an independent voice in a highly unpopular administration. It’s vintage Freeh. He may be one of the best political operatives in the city,” said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who testified during the impeachment proceedings against Clinton.

Even if the administration wanted to cut short Freeh’s 10-year appointment, Turley added, “at this stage, Clinton could not touch a hair on Freeh’s head without declaring all-out war in Congress. He can’t afford to do that.”

When Clinton named Freeh to the director’s job in July 1993, the president hailed his appointee at a Rose Garden ceremony as a “law enforcement legend”--a former New York judge and prosecutor who was “experienced, energetic and independent.”

But Freeh’s independence has proved an increasing thorn in Clinton’s side in the years since.

The critical split, most observers agree, came in 1997, when Freeh recommended that an independent counsel be appointed to investigate allegations of campaign finance abuse by Clinton’s 1996 campaign. Freeh protested when Atty. Gen. Janet Reno rejected that advice, and his concerns were cited frequently by Clinton’s critics.

Former federal prosecutor Charles G. LaBella had also pushed for an independent counsel, making him a pariah of sorts within the Clinton administration. He left the Justice Department earlier this year on bitter terms, but Freeh welcomed him back to FBI headquarters in July to give him an award for distinguished service.

Freeh also found himself at odds with the White House in September over Clinton’s decision to offer clemency to 16 radical Puerto Rican nationalists who had been imprisoned in connection with terrorist bombings in the 1970s. Freeh and the FBI “unequivocally opposed” the offer, according to a draft FBI letter that Senate Republicans used to depict Clinton as reckless.

But one senior administration official, who asked not to be identified, said he was surprised that Freeh would have written such a “fawning” letter to Starr, which was first reported in the current issue of Newsweek. The official added that “it does raise some questions about the propriety” of Freeh’s endorsing Starr’s work, since Starr’s investigation is continuing under another counsel.

This official added that Freeh has aligned himself so squarely with GOP lawmakers that it has given rise to speculation that the director is lobbying for a Supreme Court appointment in a Republican administration.

* Times staff writer Edwin Chen in Oslo contributed to this story.