White House Sees Continued Gore Probe

WASHINGTON â€”  Seeking to defuse speculation that appointment of an independent counsel is inevitable, White House aides said Tuesday that they expect Atty. Gen. Janet Reno within days to advance her evaluation of Vice President Al Gore’s telephone fund-raising to a second stage.

Members of the Justice Department task force who are reviewing Gore’s calls have tentatively recommended to Reno that the second stage should be undertaken, according to a source familiar with the matter.

White House aides said they do not believe that the 90-day “preliminary review� would signify a finding that Gore’s calls may have violated the law.

Reno by law has until the close of business Friday to decide whether to open the 90-day review of Gore’s conduct. The vice president has acknowledged making more than 40 fund-raising phone calls from within the White House during 1995 and 1996.

“We expect the attorney general, under these circumstances, will take more time to look into it,� said a senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The tentative staff recommendation to Reno was made orally and will be subject to any questions that she may raise, the source said.

Reno on Sept. 3 authorized an initial, 30-day review of Gore’s White House fund-raising calls. On Sept. 15 she opened a separate 30-day review of evidence that President Clinton also solicited major donors by telephone from the White House. Reno would not have to decide until mid-October whether to advance that inquiry.

Under the independent counsel law, the purpose of the 30-day inquiry is to determine whether the allegation is specific and comes from a credible source.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, meanwhile, intends to revive its inquiry into fund-raising abuses next week by calling former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold M. Ickes as a witness.

Ickes, who is scheduled to testify Tuesday, coordinated the Democrats’ 1996 fund-raising effort from the White House. He is expected to provide an inside look at the campaign’s scramble for donations--although investigators are bracing for a spirited, and even hostile, witness who will defend his former boss.

The Times reported last Friday that, according to a new, eyewitness account provided to authorities by Ickes, Clinton solicited several major donors for contributions within weeks of the November 1994 congressional elections.

Ickes already has handed over thousands of pages of documents and provided hours of closed-door testimony. The public testimony of Ickes, the most senior White House official to be called before the committee and the one closest to Clinton and Gore, is likely to provide a dramatic high point.

“It will be an action-packed day,� one investigator said.

Aides said that Ickes will be questioned about White House coffees, Clinton’s fund-raising phone calls and other matters.

“Ickes is the central figure in a lot of what we’ve heard thus far,� said one investigator.

Because Gore is presumed to be a top contender for his party’s presidential nomination in 2000, Reno’s decision on whether finally to seek appointment of an independent counsel carries great political, as well as legal, significance.

Under the independent counsel law, the attorney general is called upon to determine whether “specific� and “credible� evidence of lawbreaking exists. If Reno were to conclude within the 30-day review that no such evidence exists, she could close the inquiry without advancing to the second, 90-day phase.

The legality of the fund-raising calls from the White House is a matter of dispute. Gore and others at the White House have said repeatedly that they do not believe federal law prohibited the calls.

The White House comments and the recommendation to Reno came as Republicans in Congress intensified their criticism of the attorney general for not having already sought an independent counsel in both the Gore and Clinton fund-raising inquiries.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said Tuesday that Reno’s “apparent unwillingness to appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations of illegal fund-raising by members of the administration casts a shadow over the entire [Justice] Department.�

Hatch made his comments at an otherwise placid hearing on the nomination of Raymond C. Fisher, former president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, to be associate attorney general, the Justice Department’s No. 3 post. The Judiciary Committee is likely to approve Fisher’s nomination.

Times staff writer Marc Lacey contributed to this story.