Memo claims internal turmoil at Justice

Federal prosecutors and investigators urging an independent counsel for campaign finance faced "inordinate political pressure" that worked against any "collegial exchange" on the matter in the Justice Department, according to a memo obtained by CongressDaily.

The department's turmoil was revealed by Charles LaBella, the prosecutor who ran the task force on the issue, in a memorandum written to Attorney General Janet Reno after he delivered his report on the inquiry, with its recommendation that she appoint an independent counsel.

"I do not think we are capable of the type of collegial exchange which would be beneficial," LaBella warned Reno July 20. Urging her to give his recommendation for an independent counsel fair consideration, LaBella noted "the inordinate political pressures which this high visibility investigation carries."

After following all the leads, LaBella wrote Reno that a "big picture" emerged from "a body of evidence, much of it new, much of it woven together for the first time." He added, "The cumulative weight of the information available, when the various investigations are interwoven, has been greater than we recognized when we focused on the individual allegations."

LaBella recalled to Reno he had promised to "investigate aggressively" the matters before the task force. Noting that he and James Desarno, the lead FBI agent on the case, had agreed on a conclusion and given it to her, LaBella said, "I am sure that to the extent the report, or its substance, is shared within the department, the process will become adversarial."

At her weekly news conference Thursday, Reno tried to dispel the notion that LaBella was concerned his argument in favor of an independent counsel would not be weighed seriously, saying, "I think ... as I recall the letter, he made very clear that he thought that it would get a fair hearing from me."

Of her Wednesday meeting on Capitol Hill with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, House Government Reform and Oversight Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., and others, Reno said she is happy to entertain arguments by legislators in support of an independent counsel investigation, but in the end she alone will decide, "free of political pressure, based on what I think is right."

In her most definitive statement on whether she is indeed headed down the road to naming an independent counsel, Reno said doing so would be "the simplest thing that I could do that would cause me the least fuss, bother, work and everything else." But she concluded: "I'm not going to do the simplest thing. I'm not going to take the easiest way out. I'm going to constantly look for evidence that may trigger the statute, but I'm going to try to do it like it should be done."