Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 13, 1994 TAG: 9401130162
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Attorney General Janet Reno early Wednesday night announced that she would comply and said she had launched an immediate search to identify candidates.
Until this week, Clinton and key White House aides had stubbornly opposed calls for an independent probe of his and his wife's investment in Whitewater Development Corp. when he was governor of Arkansas in the 1980s, insisting that an investigation by three career Justice Department lawyers was enough. Reno, too, has resisted appointing a special counsel, saying her pick would be accused of being politically tied to her.
But in recent days, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers has joined a Republican chorus calling for appointment of a special counsel.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll this week indicated that three out of five Americans say a special counsel should be named to investigate Clinton's partnership in Whitewater. Newspaper editorials have also called for such an independent legal review.
The White House reversal is the latest twist in what many view as a mounting public relations fiasco for the president as the controversy over the investigation of Whitewater has grown.
Senior Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday admitted that the White House has mishandled the Whitewater matter, although he doubted it would have any "lasting effect."
"The damage-control team in Washington did a worse job than the arms-control team in Kiev," he said. "You can always do things better, and hindsight is always 20/20."
Reno said she went along with the White House request for an immediate appointment because of a compelling need "to separate fact from speculation as rapidly as possible."
"The president has so many responsibilities. He must be able to focus on the problems that face America," Reno said at a news conference. "Thus, I do not think we can wait."
Reno previously had said she wanted to hold off on a decision on appointing a counsel until after Congress considered whether to revive a law that would permit appointment of a counsel by an independent judicial panel.
Clinton's move came as Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas called for creation of a special Senate committee to investigate the Clintons' involvement in Whitewater Development Corp. in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, federal regulators announced Wednesday that they had launched a formal investigation into whether the former law firm of Hillary Rodham Clinton and a top Justice Department official misled them about the firm's dealings with a failed Arkansas thrift, an official confirmed Wednesday.
"Our legal division is looking into whether we were misled by the Rose Law Firm back in 1989," said David Barr, a spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "We're looking into all aspects of our dealings with Rose, and nothing has been resolved yet."
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.