Suspicion Over Gore Subject of ’97 Freeh Memo

In a memo kept secret for 2 1/2 years, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh warned that the Justice Department was ignoring “reliable evidence” that conflicted with Al Gore’s accounts of his fund-raising activities.

Freeh urged appointment of an independent counsel to investigate Democratic fund-raising in the November 1997 memo to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

“In the face of compelling evidence that the vice president was a very active, sophisticated fund-raiser who knew exactly what he was doing, his own exculpatory statements must not be given undue weight,” the Freeh memo said.

Justice Department officials said the FBI’s analysis was flawed. The dispute, and many others among investigators, was laid bare in 61 FBI and Justice documents released Tuesday by a House committee.

Republicans in both houses of Congress on Tuesday asked why no independent counsel was sought.

Freeh’s memo preceded one by the chief prosecutor in the case, Charles G. LaBella, who accused his Justice superiors of contorting their investigation to avoid triggering the appointment of an independent counsel. The Times was first to report the contents of the LaBella memo.

Freeh and LaBella have testified in Congress to disagreeing with Reno’s decision not to request appointment of independent investigators. The new documents are the first with details of their suspicions about Gore’s truthfulness.

Freeh and LaBella demanded an independent counsel to scour a wide range of accusations, from White House coffees for donors to millions of dollars in foreign contributions to the Democratic Party.

Freeh argued that the Justice Department’s preoccupation with bit players should be replaced by a top-down investigation starting with President Clinton and a “core group” of aides under the theory that “most of the alleged campaign abuses flowed directly or indirectly from the all-out efforts by the White House and [Democratic National Committee] to raise money.” His memo focused in part on fund-raising phone calls Gore made from his government office.