Reno Is Reviewing Claim That Clinton Made Donor Calls

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, reacting to indications that President Clinton may have solicited campaign contributions by phone from the White House, is overseeing an initial review to determine whether an independent counsel is needed to investigate Clinton’s conduct.

Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin acknowledged Saturday that Reno has authorized a 30-day review of the president’s conduct. Individuals familiar with the review said it began within the past few days and that it is focusing on whether Clinton solicited campaign money by phone from the White House.

“The Justice Department is reviewing whether allegations that the president illegally solicited campaign contributions on federal property should warrant a preliminary investigation under the Independent Counsel Act,” Marlin said.

Clinton has said repeatedly that while he does not rule out the possibility that he made fund-raising calls from the White House--a potential violation of federal law--he has no memory of doing so.

Reno’s decision comes as congressional and FBI investigators continue to examine the aggressive fund-raising undertaken by Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and others during the 1996 campaign.

A similar review is already underway regarding fund-raising solicitations made from the White House by Gore.

Clinton, who remained in the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday after accompanying his daughter as she begins classes at Stanford University, learned in the morning of Reno’s decision, according to a White House spokesman. For more than three years, Clinton’s presidency has been shadowed by an independent counsel’s investigation of matters known as the Whitewater affair.

In Washington, the president’s lawyer, David E. Kendall, said he continues to believe that Clinton has violated no law.

“No laws were broken, and any kind of enforcement action would be absolutely unprecedented,” Kendall said. “We intend to cooperate with the Department of Justice, and this matter should be resolved speedily.”

If, by the end of the initial review, Reno concludes that “specific” and “credible” evidence, in the words of the independent counsel law, exists of a crime committed by the president, she would authorize a 90-day examination of the matter. At the conclusion of that “preliminary review” stage, Reno would decide whether to recommend to a special panel of federal appellate court judges that they appoint an independent counsel.

The initial review of Clinton must confront two questions that for now are hotly disputed: Did Clinton make one or more fund-raising solicitation calls from the White House? And, even if he did so, would this violate federal law?

A White House official, declining to be identified by name, said Saturday: “We’ve never been able to find a record or memory of any fund-raising call” by the president. On the other hand, a person familiar with the Justice Department review said FBI investigators now suspect that Clinton may have made fund-raising calls from the White House.

No contributor has yet to say publicly that Clinton solicited them for campaign money from the White House. In both the 30-day and 90-day review periods, the authority of Justice Department officials to obtain information is limited. They may not, for example, issue subpoenas, seek wiretaps or grant immunity to prospective witnesses.

Resolving the question of whether such calls by Clinton from the executive mansion would be illegal is apt to be subjective--and prone to partisan debate.

The law makes it illegal to solicit campaign funds in federal workplaces. However, lawyers disagree over whether the law applies only to soliciting a subordinate on federal property--or whether soliciting by phone to outside individuals not employed by the government would also be prohibited.

Reno, who has come under escalating partisan attack for her department’s months-long review of allegations related to fund-raising for the 1996 campaign, also is overseeing a 30-day review of fund-raising calls placed from the White House by Gore. Gore has acknowledged making more than 40 such calls and has maintained that he violated no law in doing so. The vice president’s aides acknowledged Friday that he has hired two private lawyers to represent him.

Reno to date has declined to recommend appointment of an independent counsel to investigate any aspect of the far-reaching fund-raising irregularities involving the White House or the Democratic National Committee.

But pressure--including threats of impeachment by congressional Republicans--continues to build on the attorney general.

Last week, Reno replaced the head of her department’s task force examining the fund-raising controversy amid concern that the inquiry has been poorly managed. The task force had been led by a career Justice Department lawyer, Laura Ingersoll. She was replaced by Charles G. La Bella, a senior prosecutor with the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego.

Reno in the past week also approved an upgraded 90-day preliminary review of Hazel O’Leary, Clinton’s former secretary of Energy. The review is examining whether O’Leary, while in office, improperly solicited $25,000 for her favorite charity from a Democratic fund-raiser in exchange for meeting with a group of Chinese investors.

Torrance businessman Johnny Chien Chuen Chung made the claim last month in an NBC-TV interview.

The news of Reno’s review came on a day when Clinton had an unusually busy fund-raising schedule, attending three parties in San Francisco to raise close to $1 million for the Democratic Party.

In a speech at the first event, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton defended her husband’s fund-raising efforts.

“I know that in many circles it’s not popular to talk about raising money,” she said during the lunch at the Fairmont Hotel. “But I believe that it is an honor to support the political process in the United States and to stand up for this democracy.”

The luncheon was expected to raise $300,000 from 70 contributors. A late-afternoon event sponsored by the Saxophone Club--the Democratic National Committee’s program for young professionals--was expected to raise $50,000 from 400 participants, according to the DNC.

At the Saxophone Club event, first-time contributor Richard Osman shrugged off the news about Reno’s review and the donation controversy in general.

“Tell me this hasn’t been done for 100 years,” the lawyer said. “It’s like Clinton smoking pot. Who cares? It’s not relevant to what I care about.”

Osman said he thought Reno was opening the review because of political pressure. “She has to.”

Jan Brunelle, also an attorney, was similarly unmoved. “It seems very trivial to me. It’s like someone making a personal call from work. Who hasn’t done that?”

The final fund-raising event was a dinner at the home of Silicon Valley executive Halsey Minor, whose 30 guests were expected to contribute a total of $600,000. Minor, 32, is the founder of C/NET, a San Francisco-based company that creates and runs Internet sites and television programs. The event was co-chaired by John Doerr, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

Times staff writer Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this story from San Francisco.