Friday September 1 4:19 PM ET
OIC's Ray's Disclosures Criticized
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Independent Counsel Robert Ray's plan to
divulge his Whitewater conclusions just weeks before voters
decide whether to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Senate is
being criticized by Democrats and some legal experts.
Ray ``is defying the law,'' declared Democratic Sen. Carl Levin,
saying the law requires the counsel to issue his findings under
seal to a court and makes no provision for a separate public
accounting.
``Congress was very clear about this precisely to avoid an
independent counsel releasing or appearing to release a report
for political purposes,'' said Levin of Michigan.
Former Watergate counsel Sam Dash, who quit as an ethics adviser
to the Whitewater probe over a dispute with Ray's predecessor
Kenneth Starr, said Friday that the law limits Ray to submitting
a secret report to the special panel of appeals judges who
appointed him.
``His duty is to submit a final report to the court and that's
the law and it is up to the court's discretion whether to release
it publicly,'' Dash said in an interview.
In a statement, Ray said the U.S. Attorney's manual expressly
authorizes public statements regarding matters that have
``already received substantial publicity.''
``Providing the public with a statement regarding the ultimate
findings and conclusions at the close of this highly publicized
investigation is entirely consistent with that policy,'' Ray
said.
Ray plans to finish his report on the Whitewater investigation,
which examined the first family's business dealings and Mrs.
Clinton's Arkansas law work, before Election Day.
He'll submit the report to the judges who appointed him, and it
will likely remain confidential until early next year so the
Clintons' lawyers and others named in it have time to prepare
rebuttals.
Arthur Christy, the first special prosecutor appointed under the
Ethics in Government Act of 1978, said he recalled making only a
brief public statement when he wrapped up his investigation into
alleged cocaine use by Carter White House chief of staff Hamilton
Jordan. Christy took no legal action against Jordan.
``As I recall it, the statute requires a report to the special
division of the court and that's what he's got to do and I don't
believe he can really issue a statement of findings which are
contained in the report,'' Christy said.
When other independent counsels filed final reports under seal
with a special division of the U.S. Court of Appeals, they issued
terse statements, devoid of criticism, announcing an end to their
investigations.
``I'm surprised'' by what Ray is planning and ``I think Carl
Levin is exactly right,'' said George Washington University law
professor Stephen Saltzburg.
``The court makes a judgment on what to release,'' said
Saltzburg, a former Iran-Contra prosecutor who was a deputy
assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal
division in the Reagan and Bush administrations.
In the recently concluded probe of Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt, Independent Counsel Carol Bruce issued a brief statement
saying she ``will not seek an indictment of Secretary Babbitt or
anyone else.''
In contrast, Ray took Mrs. Clinton and the White House to task in
a three-page news release in June announcing the end of his
investigation into the firings of White House travel office
employees.
Ray accused the White House of ``substantial resistance'' to
providing ``relevant evidence'' to his investigators and said
there was ``substantial evidence'' Mrs. Clinton played a role in
the travel office firings.
That conflicted with the first lady's sworn statements that she
``had no role'' in the decision.
In response to Ray's release, the White House accused him of
``inappropriately characterizing the results of a legally sealed
report through innuendo.''
Ray also issued a two-page statement announcing the end to the
probe of the Clinton White House's gathering of hundreds of FBI
background files of former Republican appointees. In it, he
praised the White House for its cooperation.
Levin criticized both of Ray's previous news releases.
``Mr. Ray has followed this same pattern twice before'' and
``it's contrary to the very explicit requirements of the law,''
Levin said. ``Mr. Ray should refrain from further violations.''
Ray responded that ``there were no complaints, from Senator Levin
or anyone else, that the statements'' on the FBI files and travel
office matters ``violated the independent counsel law.''
One legal expert says Ray's approach seems reasonable, but is
open to abuse.
``I think he's not misbehaving by offering a general public
explanation of what the gist of the report is,'' said former
Iran-Contra prosecutor John Barrett.
But ``for Ray to go further than that without court permission
and disclose detailed evidence about particular people would not
be consistent with the statute,'' said Barrett, now a law
professor at St. John's University in New York City.
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