Dan Burton: “I find it very strange that they are bringing it at this time. We had an investigation going on involving the Secretary…”

“I find it very strange that they are bringing it at this time. We had an investigation going on involving the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Ron Brown, who allegedly took $700,000 in bribes to help lead the fight to normalize relations with Vietnam, and he was cleared by a grand jury in Miami just last week, and yet we tried time, and time, and time again to get a special prosecutor, or a special independent counsel, to look into the charges, and we could not get anybody to help us. We were stonewalled by the White House. We were stonewalled by the Department of Commerce. We were stonewalled by Justice. They said they could not pick anybody to do this because they would be accused of showing favoritism because they were part of the administration. And yet now President Clinton and Janet Reno say they are in favor of this special counsel law. Now, when Janet Reno got involved in the Ron Brown affair, Mr. Chairman, she sent one of her top aides down to Miami to conduct a grand jury investigation, and everybody knows that a prosecuting attorney has great control over whether or not to get an indictment, and, since she sent one of her top aides down, it was no surprise to me that Mr. Brown was exonerated.”