The last remaining U.S. independent counsel, David Barrett, afterspending $21 million over 10 years, on Jan. 12 finally will closedown his investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros'lying to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress.The political significance is that the Barrett report's shockingallegations of high-level corruption in the IRS and JusticeDepartment are likely to be concealed from the public and fromCongress.
A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit releaseof this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure that itspolitically combustible elements never saw the light of day. But ifthat happens, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley will still try toforce its release. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee withoversight of the IRS, he wants the first real investigation of thetax agency.
That investigation would be a long walk into the unknown, withpossibly far-reaching consequences. Prominent Democrats in Congresshave spent much of the last decade in a campaign to suppressBarrett's report. Its disclosures could dig deeply into concealedClinton administration scandals. These vital considerations, not themere continuation of a $58-an-hour independent counsel position, iswhy Republican lawyer Barrett for a decade would not close down hisprosecutor's office.
If this were just about one politician's illicit love life ruininghis political career, Barrett would have ended his operation longago. But an IRS whistleblower told Barrett of an unprecedentedcoverup. The informant said a regional IRS official had formulated anew rule enabling him to transfer an investigation of Cisneros toWashington to be buried by the Justice Department. Barrett'sinvestigators found Lee Radek, head of Justice's public integrityoffice, determined to protect President Bill Clinton.
That triggered intensive efforts to get rid of Barrett andsuppress his report by three of the toughest Democrats in Congress:Sen. Carl Levin, Sen. Byron Dorgan and Rep. Henry Waxman. At the sametime, the powerhouse Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly --representing not only Cisneros but also the Clintons -- was filingmultiple suits with federal appellate judges supervising theindependent counsel.
The sympathetic judges sealed everything concerned with the case,including the report. Barrett was instructed to remain deathly silenton pain of criminal prosecution. Yet Levin, as ranking Democrat of aSenate oversight committee, eight years ago gained access to the rawdata of Barrett's prosecutorial effort after requesting it in a Nov.20, 1997, letter to the judges.
Barrett's 120-page report is followed by a 500-page appendix withmore than 2,500 footnotes. Grassley thought he had an agreement withDorgan to amend the Treasury appropriations bill to close downBarrett's office and publicly release "all portions of the finalreport" except for any "clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy."
But Grassley is not an appropriator, and Democrats in the Senate-House appropriations conference slipped through a critical change.The final language authorized the judges "to protect the rights ofany individual named" in the report. With two out of three judges ona three-judge panel inclined to the Democrats, that means hardly anyof Barrett's allegations will remain in the report made public. Thebill was passed by Congress on Nov. 18 and signed into law Nov. 30.
GOP congressional sources expect Section B of the report, dealingwith the allegations of IRS-Justice corruption, to be eliminatedentirely. The rest of the report will be so heavily redacted to obeythe new congressional language that it will be of scant interest.This long battle to keep Barrett away from opening a probe into whatreally happened in the Clinton administration then will have appearedto have been concluded with an unconditional victory.
But maybe not. Chuck Grassley is a stubborn Iowa farmer who oftendrives the White House and Republican leaders to distraction. He hassaid that if the Barrett report finally emerges as a mutilatedremnant in order to protect the IRS, he will press for legislation tochange that. It may be the last hope for the truth to emerge.
e-mail: novakevans@aol.com
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий