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Weekly Press Briefing with Attorney General Reno and Robert B. Fiske

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Weekly Press Briefing with Attorney General Reno and Robert B. Fiske Copyright 1994 Cable News Network, Inc. All rights reserved CNN Weekly Press Briefing With Attorney General and Robert B. Fiske Jr., Former U.S. Attorney General in New York and Independent Prosecutor – Designate Department of Justice January 20, 1994 SHOW: NEWS 9:33 am ET JANET RENO, Attorney General (LIVE): This morning I am announcing that I have asked Robert Fiske Jr. to serve as independent counsel in the Madison Bank matter. He has accepted. A week ago I said I was looking for someone who would be fair and impartial, who has a reputation for integrity and skill, someone who would be ruggedly independent, and I think Mr. Fiske fits that description to a "T". He is an excel- lent prosecutor, having served with distinction as an assistant United States attorney in the Criminal Division and as head of the Special Prosecutions Unit on Organized Crime in the Southern District of New York. He was appointed United States attorney by a Republican president, and his principle, his integrity, and his ability caused the subsequent president to continue him in office. He exemplifies public service at its best, and I am enormously grateful that he has heeded this call one more time. I have talked with Mr. Fiske and told him that I want him to do everything he thinks proper and appropriate to make sure that he is truly independent. Mr. Fiske. ROBERT FISKE: Thank you. I'm very grateful to the attorney general for the trust and confidence that she has placed in me to carry out this important assignment. I am totally satisfied that I will have the independence and complete authority to do this job right. Starting Monday I am going to take a leave of absence from my law firm so that I can work full time to conduct and complete as expeditiously as possible a complete, thorough, and impartial investigation. STAFF: We'll take your questions. Q What will be the scope of this investigation, and will it include Mr. Foster's suicide? Mr. FISKE: The scope of the investigation has been reflected in a regulation which is now in the process of being adopted. It will be 603.1, entitled "Jurisdiction of the Independent Counsel". This resolution has been deliberately drafted broadly. It was drafted by me to give me the total authority to look into all appropriate matters relating to the events that bring us all here today. The specific language authorizes me to investigate whether any individuals or entities have committed a violation of any federal criminal law relating in any way to President William Jefferson Clinton's or Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton's rela- tionships with Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association, Whitewater Development Corporation, or Capital Management Services. In addition to that specific general language, there is further language which gives me the jurisdiction and authority to investigate other allegations or evidence of violation of any federal criminal law by any person or entity developed dur- ing the independent counsel's investigation referred to above and connected with or arising out of that investigation. To answer your-- : (Off mike.) Mr. FISKE: I am about to - I will answer the Question specifically. I know you asked about the Foster suicide. Ques- tions have been raised whether that is related to President Clinton or Mrs. Clinton's relationships with Madison Guar- anty and Whitewater, and that will be one of the things we will be trying to find out. REPORTER: So would you characterize this mandate as - well, I don't want to use a word, but would you say it's nar- row, would you say it's broad? Mr. FISKE: I would say it's very broad relating to the matters as described in the resolution. REPORTER: What kind of time frame do you think you're operating under? Mr. FISKE: My time frame is to finish this as quickly as I can consistent with doing the job right. It's very difficult not knowing the facts, other than what I've read in the newspapers, to try to put any time frame on it. My experience in these matters has always been every time you try to put a time limit on something you're always wrong, it always takes longer. So I'm reluctant to do that, but other than to tell you that I'm going to just start Monday and just go flat out till we're through. REPORTER: But do you have any general estimate whether it's months? Mr. FISKE: I think it's more than a month. REPORTER: Do you anticipate that your role in this is going to be as the courtroom trial lawyer model of prosecutor, or are you going to be more like the Walsh model, a person who brings in investigators and prosecutors who - and you're more of the orchestrator of the - Mr. FISKE: Well, I think when I was United States attorney I was a hands-on prosecutor myself. I prosecuted several major cases personally. But I would also certainly bring into this investigation a number of people who I will find, I think without much difficulty, who will be veryREPORTER: Will you continue to use the Justice Department - any of the Justice Department officials here, I mean attorneys who have been working on this case? Mr. FISKE: I've thought about that, and I've come to the conclusion that without in any way reflecting in any slightest way against their ability and competence, that in order to conduct a truly independent investigation, I should have peo- ple working for me who are not also reporting to the attorney general. Therefore, I will recruit a totally new staff of lawyers to work with me on this, which I would assume will consist primarily of experienced, former prosecutors from around the country. I certainly, though, intend to work with the lawyers in the Justice Depart- ment who have been working on these matters to date so that we will get the full benefit of everything that they have done so that we hit the ground running as fast as we can. REPORTER: How about the FBI, will you be using the FBI? Mr. FISKE: I have talked to Director Freeh this morning. He has assured me that the FBI will be at our complete dis- posal, and I am meeting with him later today to start working out the specifics of that. REPORTER: How many lawyers do you expect to be hiring? Ten? More than 10? Mr. FISKE: It really is hard to say. I think one of the first things I'm going to do, again, starting later today, is meet for the first time with some of the people in the Justice Department who have been conducting these investigations so that I can get first-hand from them an idea of what the scope and dimensions of this are going to be. And I really wouldn't be able to tell you right now how many lawyers I would have to bring in until I have a little better sense of exactly what is involved here. I can tell you, though, it will be a significant number. REPORTER: Will you operate out of Washington or Little Rock? Mr. FISKE: I would expect to open an office in Little Rock. I think that's where the center of gravity of this investiga- tion is. There is already a grand jury sitting there and that is where the base of operations of this investigation will be. REPORTER: Have you seen the files yet in Little Rock? Mr. FISKE: I haven't seen - I have not seen anything. I was appointed yesterday afternoon and I have not even talked to the lawyers in the Justice Department yet who are responsible for conducting the investigation. REPORTER: Would you like to become an independent counsel if that law is passed by the Congress? Mr. FISKE: I'm perfectly happy with the position I have right now. REPORTER: Mr. Fiske, do you expect to talk to the president and the first lady? And if so, do you expect to do it under oath? Mr. FISKE: I would certainly expect that before this investigation is over that I would question both the president and the first lady and that it would be under oath. REPORTER: Mr. Fiske, when Attorney General Thornburgh invited you to be the deputy, some Republicans were criti- cal of your nomination. Have you contacted any Republicans? What is your sense of how they would react to your ap- pointment? Mr. FISKE: I think we'd - you would just have to wait and see. I would hope that there would not be any significant opposition to this. The question that came up before had to do with an issue that I think has nothing to do with what I'm doing here. REPORTER: Just on a personal note, why did you accept the job? What prompted you to - what were some of the con- siderations or reasons why you decided - Mr. FISKE: Well, I think first and foremost I consider this an extremely important assignment. I think it's very impor- tant that someone that meets the attorney general's qualifications do this job. It's important for the country to get this done and get it done as quickly and as thoroughly and as fairly as possible. And when someone asked me to do that, I felt an obligation to respond. REPORTER: Have you ever worked an investigation where - (inaudible) - Mr. FISKE: Could you give me thatREPORTER: Yeah.
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