-Caveat Lector-
USA Today has additional information.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/finance/ncfin359.htm
09/22/99- Updated 11:14 PM ET
FBI agents criticize Justice Department
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a rare public airing of friction between the FBI and
its parent Justice Department, bureau agents testified Wednesday that
prosecutors impeded their campaign fund-raising inquiry. The former lead
prosecutor countered by criticizing the agents' work.
The testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee spotlighted
the bitter internal disagreements in the investigation of donations to the
1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign.
Disagreement over the investigation caused friction between Attorney General
Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh. Reno eventually rejected the
director's conclusion that an independent counsel should be appointed.
Disputing Reno's oft-quoted assertions of a vigorous investigation, FBI
agent Daniel Wehr told the committee that the initial lead attorney in the
inquiry, Laura Ingersoll, told the agents they should ''not pursue any
matter related to solicitation of funds for access to the president. The
reason given was, 'That's the way the American political process works.' I
was scandalized by that.''
Wehr, agents Roberta Parker and Kevin Sheridan are still assigned to the
investigation and worked on the case of presidential friend Yah Lin
''Charlie'' Trie, a major Democratic donor who pleaded guilty to campaign
finance violations. Besides the three agents, the committee heard from Ivian
C. Smith, the retired agent who headed the Little Rock, Ark., FBI office.
The four contended that Ms. Ingersoll - who eventually was replaced as lead
attorney - prevented the FBI from executing search warrants to stop
destruction of evidence and micromanaged the case beyond all reason.
But Ms. Ingersoll testified there was ''no smoking gun'' in documents the
FBI discovered in the trash of Trie and a business associate - records
which, the agents concluded, should have been the basis for search warrants
of the subjects' residences.
Explaining her rejection of the search warrant request in the summer of
1997, Ms. Ingersoll said, ''Nothing we saw indicated to us'' that there was
''anything incriminating'' in the documents.
She said the FBI's proposed search warrant affidavit lacked any description
of how the records were relevant.
''We didn't know what the documents were. The agents didn't bring us what
these documents actually were. I would have wanted them (the search warrant
justifications) to be fuller and more complete. The search warrant affidavit
was far from being finalized ... to be presented to a magistrate.''
Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate committee and leader of its
campaign finance inquiry in 1997, appeared upset by Ms. Ingersoll's answers.
''We're not talking about trying to electrocute someone,'' Thompson said.
''We're talking about getting ... to an independent magistrate. It does not
have to be a smoking gun.''
FBI agent Parker, also an attorney, testified that Ms. Ingersoll told the
agents the department ''would not take into consideration'' evidence
involving President Clinton's legal defense fund and obstruction of the
Senate's investigation.
Smith, the retired FBI supervisor, told the committee he was ''quite
astounded at the type of documents being destroyed.''
The committee released a memo by Smith, dated Aug. 4, 1997, to Freeh that
bitterly complained about the prosecutors. He expressed ''a lack of
confidence'' in department attorneys, adding, ''I am convinced the team at
DOJ leading this investigation is, at best, simply not up to the task.''
''The impression left is the emphasis on how not to prosecute matters, not
how to aggressively conduct investigations leading to prosecutions.''
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., senior Democrat on the committee, said the
disputes amounted to a ''culture clash'' between FBI agents and
prosecutors - one that was ''very destructive.''
Republicans have been extremely critical of Reno's decision not to appoint
an independent counsel in the fund-raising inquiry and of her insistence
that a vigorous investigation was being conducted by the Justice Department.
Agent Parker testified that there were 27 pages missing from her spiral
notebook recounting the agents' disagreements with the prosecutors. She said
she had turned over the notes to FBI superiors because Congress sought
information about the disagreements, adding that the pages must have been
ripped out.
Thompson threatened to hold hearings on the disappearance, now the subject
of an internal FBI investigation.
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