Word: civiletti
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After all the oversized headlines and gossip-column innuendoes, it looked as if Hamilton Jordan, 35, President Carter's top aide, had managed to ride out the storm. But last week, seven weeks after the FBI submitted its preliminary findings U.S. Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti recommended that a special prosecutor be appointed to look further into allegations that Jordan had snorted cocaine. Soon afterward, the Department of Justice announced that New York City Attorney Arthur H. Christy, 56, a Republican, had been appointed to the position by a special federal court...
...Civiletti said that he had found no rea son to prosecute Jordan on the basis of evidence turned up so far, but nonetheless felt that he had no choice but to call for a special prosecutor. The reasonlies in the provisions of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, a Watergate-inspired measure designed to keep an Administration from sheltering its own people. When serious accusations are made against an official, the Attorney General must investigate and call for a special prosecutor, unless he finds the charges "so unsubstan- tiated that no further investigation or prosecution is warranted." Oddly enough...
Since Powell, on the Queen with Carter, was standing near by, Carter asked Civiletti whether it would be all right for him to talk to his press secretary about the charge. Civiletti said it would not, so Carter waved Powell away as he listened to the rest of the story. At 4 a.m., two FBI agents boarded the steamer and interrogated Powell, who not only denied the story but said he had never even been to Studio 54. In Washington, Jordan also denied the charge. He had gone to Studio 54 for about an hour once last year, he told...
...these criminal defendants have a clear interest in making false and sensational charges in an effort to bargain for leniency." Rubell said that he would testify against Jordan only "if they [the Federal Government] give us the right situation" and in fact had told two deputies of Attorney General Civiletti: "I am not going to testify unless I have immunity." To TIME, he added: "Sure I have motives, but I swear not one thing I have told you is a lie." Whether Johnny C. will appear also is questionable; Rubell says he is hiding out in Los Angeles "because...
...matter what doubts Civiletti might have, the 1978 Ethics in Government Act requires the Attorney General to order an inquiry into any charges of serious crime against a high Administration official. He has 90 days to decide if appointment of a special prosecutor is warranted. If a prosecution ever becomes imminent, it could lead to Jordan's resignation and a major political crisis. At the moment that seems unlikely-though the White House is bracing itself for yet another unwelcome furor. Carter prepared a statement asserting: "A public official cannot be forced from office by unsupported allegations. Mr. Jordan...