Arlen Specter: “I raised a question with the Attorney General as to why the Department of Justice went to ask the Vice President these…”

“I raised a question with the Attorney General as to why the Department of Justice went to ask the Vice President these questions on April 18. The apparent reason was that the subcommittee had finally gotten subpoenas out to get the Freeh and LaBella memoranda returnable on April 20. So the subcommittee would soon find out that the Vice President had never been questioned about the Buddhist temple fundraiser or about the coffee klatsches and that, in fact, the Department of Justice was embarrassed by that omission. I believe the Attorney General did a substantial disservice to the Vice President in failing to have these matters resolved one way or another at an early stage. I said at the outset, last Thursday, when I discussed the matter as to the Conrad recommendation for independent counsel, that there is a sharp distinction between the level of information evidenced to call for an independent counsel's investigation and the level to return a criminal prosecution. I raised a question with the Attorney General yesterday that her failure to act on these matters in 1997, and when Director Freeh called for an independent counsel in 1998, and when LaBella called for an independent counsel, has now put the 2000 Presidential elections in some state of controversy. These matters should have been cleared up. Why the questioning on April 18?”