Justice Rejects Request For Fund-Raising Prosecutor

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Nov. 13) -- The Justice Department Tuesday night rejected a request by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for the appointment of an independent counsel to probe Democratic Party fund-raising.

A Justice Department reply to McCain says the senator's request does not contain "specific, credible evidence that any individual covered by the Independent Counsel Act committed any federal crime."

The letter, approved by Attorney General Janet Reno, was written by Mark Richard, acting head of the Justice Department's criminal division. The letter is similar to one sent to the public interest group Common Cause last Friday rejecting an independent counsel for a probe of Clinton and Dole campaign expenditures.

The Justice Department again noted that it is taking seriously the concerns expressed recently by the press, the public and the Congress about campaign financing practices. The Justice Department told McCain, as it had told Common Cause Friday, that a task force of career federal prosecutors has been created within the criminal division to investigate further the wide range of allegations.

To support his request, McCain had attached press clippings on the activities of former Democratic fund-raiser John Huang, and political contributions from outside the United States. The Justice Department told McCain the allegations fell "far short of the sort of specific facts and reasonable inference upon which one may rely at this time to conclude that a particular covered individual may have violated federal criminal law."

At least one more request for an independent counsel on campaign financing is still awaiting a Justice Department decision. That request was signed by McCain and four House committee chairmen. That request must be answered by November 29th.

In a statement, McCain responded: "I disagree with the decision rendered today by the Attorney General's office not to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the possible violations of federal criminal law by the Democratic National Committee. It is my strong belief that the facts before us meet the test when other independent counsels have been called for in the past.

"The Department of Justice's failure to recognize the need for an unbiased, independent review of the situation is further proof that congressional hearings may be needed to be held (sic) to investigate these serious allegations."

Separately, the Commerce Department released a statement indicating that it would investigate Huang, specifically, his ties to the Lippo group, an Indonesian conglomerate that employed him just prior to his coming to Commerce as an deputy assistant secretary.

Huang later went to work as a vice chairman for fund-raising at the Democratic National Committee. Congressional committees and others want to know if Huang was engaged in fund-raising while working at Commerce.

"The Department of Commerce has referred to its Office of Inspector General records it has retrieved which appear to present questions concerning the conduct of former employee John Huang, during his tenure at the Department," Commerce's statement reads. "All documents which may be relevant have been turned over to the Office of Inspector General.

"This may affect some documents that are the subject of current FOIA [Freedom Of Information Act] and other press inquiries," it continues. "However, we will continue to make documents available as appropriate under the law."

Justice Rejects Request For Fund-Raising Prosecutor

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