Published: May 23, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress has refused to halt spending on a decade-old investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros despite Democratic senators' attempt to stop it.
Posted on 05/23/2005 4:10:01 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
Spending Continues on Cisneros Probe Despite Democrats' Efforts
Published: May 23, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress has refused to halt spending on a decade-old investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros despite Democratic senators' attempt to stop it.
Independent Counsel David Barrett said much of the spending goes to overhead costs, such as rent, which is required by law to ensure the independence of his probe.
A Senate provision that would have ended spending on the probe next month was killed during closed-door negotiations on a broader bill paying for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
The bill for the Cisneros investigation had reached nearly $21 million at the end of the September.
"Even waste has a constituency," said Dorgan, who sponsored the measure to end the spending.
Cisneros' office referred calls to his attorney, Barry Simon, and that office said Simon would not comment.
Cisneros admitted in 1999 that, when being considered for a Cabinet job, he lied to the FBI about how much he paid a former mistress. Cisneros, housing secretary from 1993-96, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was fined $10,000.
President Clinton pardoned him in January 2001.
Barrett said he is preparing a breakdown of his spending. The breakdown will show he pays downtown Washington rental rates and his salary is $62 an hour, far less than he charged in private practice. Some expenses for other independent counsels are covered by the Justice Department, but Barrett said he had to start from scratch.
"When I was sworn in and stood on the courthouse steps by myself, I thought what do I do now?" Barrett said. "I had no stapler, no stamps, no paper. That's a very expensive way to do things, but the Congress in its wisdom, decided that's the independent way to do this."
Dorgan said Barrett has submitted an investigation report to a three-judge judicial panel. The senator said Barrett had told his office the probe would continue another 10 months but could not guarantee it would end then.
In an editorial last month, The Wall Street Journal criticized Dorgan's efforts, saying he was trying to squelch the probe because it had shifted from Cisneros to an investigation of an allegation of a cover-up by the Clinton administration that involved the Internal Revenue Service.
Dorgan denied that in a letter to the newspaper also signed by Sens. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who co-sponsored the measure on halting spending. The senators said the judicial panel, not Congress, would decide whether Barrett's report would be made public. They said because the probe was "substantially complete," by law the rest of the investigation should be turned over to the Justice Department.
AP-ES-05-23-05 1849EDT
WISDOM? That's not the word I would have picked.
The report expanded into serious IRS abuses by the Clinton administration. This final funding makes the report public. Methinks also that some other prosecutions may flow out of the information. We'll see....
If he's changed the probe targets because of found evidence doesn't he have to tell Congress or the courts and get authorized like happened in the Clinton independent counsel?
As many as it takes.
This is a shot across the bow to intrenched corruption.
The investigator, for the first time in history(?), has subpoena power.
We're looking at some serious Federal charges for many people coming down the road.
This bill, disguised as saving money, was to stop the investigation and ditch the report. Ditch it. Keep it hidden from the public eye.
He did, and they did.
Hence the subpoena power.
Exposing the Clintons for the felons they are, is money well spent.
Why do I feel like I'm in a Judicial Watch pitch. All I'm saying is that this is not the Clintons, and it does not need to be viewed as an open door to spending.
This may very well be worth the money IMO.
It could have been cleared up several years ago if the Clinton Crime Machine hadn't blocked, stockaded, shredded, yelled, screamed, cried, denied, etc.
I just wish more facts were out. I don't mind an investigation, but 21 million plus on Cisneros? Let's just stop beating around the bush and let the Justice Department prosecute criminals. Not this secret Justice System for politicians.
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