| For Immediate Release Sep 5, 2001 |
Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 |
Reno’s Decisions to Not Appoint Independent Counsel to Look Into Clinton-Gore Fundraising Obviously Made With an Eye Towards Her Own Run For Elected Office (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, pointed out today that Janet Reno’s campaign for governor of Florida provides the answer as to why she obstructed Chinagate and other fundraising investigations while she was Bill Clinton’s Attorney General. Despite requests from Clinton-appointee Louis Freeh and Reno-hire Charles LaBella, Reno turned down the appointment of independent counsels for Clinton and Gore at least six times. Reno and her liberal defenders have said that her refusal to appoint independent counsels to investigate Bill Clinton’s and Al Gore’s illegal Chinagate and other fundraising illegalities were based on the “facts and the law.” Reno’s run for governor merely six months after she ended her term as Clinton Attorney General belies that defense. “Janet Reno has every right to run for elected office, but her announced run for governor of Florida proves what Judicial Watch and others had been saying for years – she’s just another politician. Does any reasonable person think Janet Reno began thinking about her next job only after she stepped down as Attorney General? She obviously was thinking of running for elective office for some time and made her decisions accordingly as Attorney General. In other words, appointing an independent counsel to investigate Bill Clinton’s accepting bribes from communist China was not a good way for Reno to obtain support from Democrats in Florida for a run for statewide office,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Janet Reno was the most corrupt Attorney General in our nation’s history. Her decisions led to the deaths of nearly ninety innocents at Waco and her failure to abide by the independent counsel law allowed Chinagate-related treachery to take place in plain sight in the Oval Office. Now maybe the ‘Elite Media’ and others will begin to evaluate her actions as Attorney General from a more a honest perspective – that she acted in her position not as a law enforcement officer, but as a political hack,” added Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel. | |