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Mike Gatone of Chicago, IL, asks:
How could Reno be accused of protecting the president? Hasn't she appointed independent counsels to investigate 5 members of his cabinet, including the President?
Professor Doug Kmiec of Pepperdine Law School responds:
Yes, and of course, that reveals the inconsistency. The investigations into
the late Ron Brown, Henry Cisneros, and so forth, were all triggered by no
less evidence of wrongdoing than that alleged to implicate the president and
vice-president in campaign finance impropriety. Janet Reno came to Justice
as the president's third choice. She was saddled with Webster Hubbell in
the first term who was de facto attorney general by virtue of friendship with the
president until he went to jail in disgrace.
Without a solid political
connection to the Clintons, Janet Reno was widely rumored to be likely
replaced in the second term. Given the widespread distaste for the
independent counsel statute inside the Justice Department, it would have
been comfortable for Ms. Reno to make at least an implicit promise not to be
inclined to farm out any more matters, especially of those higher up the
food chain.
Michael Carvin,
former Justice Department official during the Reagan administration, responds:
The only time she appointed an independent counsel for the president -- for Whitewater -- was after the president decided that the independent counsel was politically necessary. Applying the same standard used for Secretary of Labor Herman's independent counsel would clearly lead to an independent counsel for campaign finance scandals.
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