Word: burtons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...already offending everybody from prosecutors to the public. Any attack on him now would only give him the moral high ground." Certainly Reno, though she could technically fire Starr if a leaks verdict reflected "moral turpitude," is too embroiled in her conflict-of-interest fight with Dan Burton to ever discipline Starr. As for the White House, the time for spinning against Starr is over; now it's keep quiet and cross your fingers. Only results can save or damn the independent counsel...
WASHINGTON: The contempt is running both ways between Dan Burton and Janet Reno. After Burton's House Oversight Committee finally voted to cite the attorney general for contempt for refusing to play ball with Burton, Reno was icily defiant at an afternoon Q&A, calling the citation "a form of political tampering that no prosecutor in America can accept." In this case, the tampering shouldn't run very deep. The full House would have to endorse any contempt citation, and that vote wouldn't come at least until September. The next stop? Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, who would supervise...
...Janet Reno's staunchest defenders. "Holder's a Republican, but he's stood with Reno through all this. When [task force head Charles] LaBella was insisting on an independent counsel, Holder argued that Justice was able to do the job itself. He abhors independent counsels as much as Reno." Burton and Reno may yet come up with a compromise. But Reno has said she simply wants three more weeks to review LaBella's memo before she makes a decision. Far be it for Burton to shy away from a scrap with Reno, Eric Holder or anyone else -- but waiting another...
WASHINGTON: The bullying of the attorney general continues. GOP hammer Dan Burton wants Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to tackle Clinton/Gore campaign finance allegations. Failing that, he's asked that the administration turn over two memos to Reno (one by FBI chief Louis Freeh and one by prosecutor Charles LaBella, both of whom agree with Burton). But Reno, says TIME Justice Department correspondent Elaine Shannon, isn't about to do either -- even if Burton's committee votes Thursday to hold her in contempt...
...religion to the Justice Department, and they'll go to the wall for it," she says. "Reno doesn't want a bunch of yahoos from Congress rifling through her files." Reno's reticence about appointing independent counsel has nothing to do with loyalty to Bill Clinton, as Burton alleges, but from the fiercest of antipathies for Ken Starr. "Justice is always biased against special prosecutors," says Shannon, "and Ken Starr is Exhibit A. To Reno, he's abused his power, and the last thing she wants to do is unleash another...