CRS-37
241
Roberto Suro, “Justice Dept. Defies House Subpoena for Campaign Finance Probe
Memos,” Washington Post, July 28, 1998, at A8.
242
George Lardner, Jr., “House Panel Votes to Hold Reno in Contempt,” Washington Post,
August 7, 1998, at A1.
243
Id. at A21.
244
Sumana Chatterjee, “Panel Steps Up Confrontation Over Campaign Finance Memos,
Voting to Cite Reno for Contempt,” CQ Weekly Report, August 8, 1998, at 2175. For
background documents on the contempt citation against Reno, see “Contempt of Congress,”
report by the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, H.Rept. No. 105-
728, 105th Cong., 2d Sess. (September 17, 1998).
245
Sumana Chatterjee, “Reno Still Faces Citation for Contempt,” CQ Weekly Report,
September 5, 1998, at 2330.
246
Amy Keller, “Burton Pushes Contempt Against Reno,” Roll Call, September 21, 1998,
at 3.
247
“The Contempt Citation” (editorial), Washington Post, September 22, 1998, at A16.
On July 27, 1998, the Justice Department refused to turn over two internal
documents that recommended the appointment of an independent counsel in the
campaign finance investigation. The House committee had subpoened a 27-page
memo to Reno by Freeh and a 94-page report by Charles G. LaBella, former head of
the department’s campaign finance task force. Instead of turning over the two
documents, the Justice Department offered to brief the committee members on the
contents of the memos. Chairman Burton rejected the proposal.
241
After the department’s refusal to release the documents, the House committee
voted 24 to 19 on August 6 to cite Reno for contempt. She warned that release of the
documents would “provide criminals, targets and defense lawyers alike with a road
map to our investigations.”
242
She offered to brief the committee in public session
“on the legal rationale” presented in the two memos, but only after she had made a
decision on whether to seek an independent counsel.
243
At a news conference, she
said that for a committee to ask for an internal department document before she
reached a decision “is a form of “political tampering that no prosecutor in America
can accept.”
244
The following month, Reno gave Chairman Burton access to heavily redacted
versions of the memos, leaving him roughly thirty percent to read.
245
Burton asked
Reno to allow three former prosecutors and a former White House deputy counsel to
review the memos and give their opinions to him and to the House Republican
leadership. She rejected that proposal.
246
She did agree, however, to allow six other
Republican members of the committee to view the redacted copy, but insisted that
Burton withdraw the subpoena and drop the contempt citation.
247
After these attempts
to find common ground failed, Burton moved forward with the contempt citation.
Although the committee recommended holding Reno in contempt, the matter was not
taken to the floor for House action.
As part of the impeachment action against President Clinton, members of the
House Judiciary Committee were allowed to read the Freeh and LaBella documents.