From: http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/082300dem-fundraising.html The New York Times August 23, 2000 Reno, Rejecting Recommendation, Declines to Name Gore Fund-Raising Counsel By NEIL A. LEWIS and DON VAN NATTA Jr. ASHINGTON, Aug. 22 -- Rejecting the recommendation of a top Justice Department investigator, Attorney General Janet Reno has decided not to name a special prosecutor to investigate Vice President Al Gore's political fund-raising activities in 1996, government officials said today. The head of the department's campaign finance unit, Robert J. Conrad Jr., told Ms. Reno in June that she should appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Mr. Gore had been truthful with investigators about his fund-raising activities. But the officials said today that Ms. Reno has apparently sided with others in the department who argued against choosing a special prosecutor, a move that would have given new momentum to the criminal inquiry just as Mr. Gore's presidential campaign enters the final crucial months. One Justice Department official said that Mr. Conrad was alone in his recommendation. "No other prosecutor in this matter thought that there should be a need for a special counsel," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The decision by Ms. Reno, which may be announced as early as Wednesday, is the latest chapter in a long-running and often bitter internal debate in the Justice Department over how to deal with Mr. Gore's role in raising money for the Democratic Party and the national ticket in 1996. It would also be the third time that Ms. Reno has rejected a recommendation to seek the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Mr. Gore. In 1997 and again in 1998, Ms. Reno declined to ask a special federal judicial panel to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Mr. Gore. She did so on those occasions over the strong objections of Louis J. Freeh, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and several senior Justice Department officials. Ms. Reno also faced intense pressure to appoint an independent counsel from Republicans leaders in Congress. Mr. Conrad, a career federal prosecutor from North Carolina who was appointed last December to lead the Justice Department's unit devoted to investigating possible fund-raising improprieties, made his recommendation after a four-hour interview with Mr. Gore conducted on April 18 at the vice president's official residence. It was the fifth time the vice president was questioned under oath about fund-raising issues. Law enforcement officials said Mr. Conrad was dissatisfied with some of the vice president's answers in the interview, which was conducted in a far more confrontational manner than previous sessions had been. Mr. Conrad's recommendation for the appointment of a special prosecutor was based on Mr. Gore's responses in two areas: a fund-raising appearance by Mr. Gore at a Buddhist temple in California in April 1996 and fund-raising coffees for Democratic campaign donors at the White House. The news that the vice president will no longer have to face a criminal inquiry comes at an especially good time for the Gore-Lieberman campaign. Buoyed by his performance at the Democratic convention last week, Mr. Gore leads Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the Republican presidential nominee, in several national polls by margins ranging from 1 or 2 points to 5 points, even though none is statistically significant. One day after Mr. Conrad's recommendation was disclosed in June by Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, Mr. Gore decided to release the transcript of the April interview, saying it demonstrated he had been truthful under oath and had nothing to hide. "I think the truth is my friend in this," the vice president told reporters after releasing the 123-page transcript on June 23. "The truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth." The transcript showed that Mr. Conrad, who posed most of the questions, was clearly skeptical about some of the responses. And it demonstrated that Mr. Gore bristled at some questions and showed flashes of anger at others. At one point in the April interview, the vice president insisted that the 103 coffees with campaign donors held at the White House in 1995 and 1996 were not "fund-raising tools" used to raise money for the Democratic Party. But Mr. Conrad reminded Mr. Gore that an inquiry in 1997 by a Senate panel, led by Senator Fred Thompson, a Tennessee Republican, found that supporters at the coffees from November 1995 to October 1996 contributed a total of $7.7 million within one month of having attended them. During the questioning, the vice president also said that he thought he had attended only one of the coffee sessions. The Senate panel reported that he had played host at 23 coffees and attended 8 with the president. When Mr. Conrad confronted the vice president with that contradictory information, Mr. Gore said, "That seems inaccurate to me." Mr. Conrad, who was assisted in the interview by two F.B.I. agents, devoted most of the time to Mr. Gore's understanding of the principal purpose of the Buddhist temple event, a subject Mr. Gore had not been asked about in four previous interviews with investigators from the campaign finance unit. Mr. Conrad asked Mr. Gore about numerous memorandums from aides suggesting that it was widely known that the April 29, 1996, event at the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif., was intended to raise money for the Democratic Party. "You were aware in late February, were you not, that there was a goal of raising $108 million by the D.N.C.?" Mr. Conrad asked, referring to the Democratic National Committee. "Yes," Mr. Gore replied. "Then a couple of months later there is a D.N.C.-sponsored event at the temple, and it didn't raise any fund-raising issues in your mind?" Mr. Conrad went on. "I did not know this was a fund-raiser," Mr. Gore replied. Mr. Gore seemed to bristle at the line of questioning, snapping at one point, "I sure as hell don't recall having -- I sure as hell did not have any conversations with anyone saying this is a fund-raising event." Later in the interview, Mr. Gore inadvertently referred to the temple luncheon as a "fund-raiser." The vice president's personal lawyer, James F. Neal, quickly advised Mr. Gore that he had misspoken. Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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