WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, December 2) -- Attorneys for President Bill Clinton said Wednesday they will appear before the House Judiciary Committee next week to defend the president against allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky affair. Meanwhile, Judiciary Committee staff members gained access to secret Justice Department documents crucial to the impeachment inquiry that has been expanded to include campaign fund-raising.

Charles Ruff

Clinton decided to accept an invitation from Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde to have his lawyers appear before the panel on December 8. White House Counsel Charles Ruff and special counsel Greg Craig will represent the president.

The White House also said the president's team may call witnesses and asked Hyde that any new evidence gathered by the committee since Independent Counsel Ken Starr sent his referral to Congress be provided them.

Specifically, the White House is asking for any new evidence the committee has relating to lawmakers' decision to expand the inquiry into campaign finance matters, any new materials Starr may have sent them and any documents sent to the committee concerning Kathleen Willey, an ex-White House volunteer who alleged she was groped by Clinton near the Oval Office.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Court Judge Norma Holloway Johnson granted permission Wednesday to staff members from the House Judiciary Committee to read secret Justice Department memos concerning alleged fund-raising abuses in Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.

Following the ruling, Republican chief investigator David Schippers and Kevin Simpson, deputy chief investigative counsel for the Democrats, reviewed the documents at the Justice Department.

Judge Norma Holloway Johnson

At issue are two unedited memos written to Attorney General Janet Reno by Charles LaBella, the federal prosecutor who headed the campaign finance task force, and FBI Director Louis Freeh. Both reportedly call on Reno to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest and appoint an independent counsel to investigate the matter, a move she has so far rejected.

As ordered by Judge Johnson, Shippers and Simpson were not allowed to copy or take notes of the memos and can only report their contents to committee chairman Hyde (R-Illinois) and the ranking Democrat, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.

Johnson's written order said it was "in the public interest that this limited disclosure be made" to impeachment investigators from the federal grand jury investigation into fund-raising.

Two additional memos that provide Justice Department analysis of the Freeh and LaBella memos will also be available to staff members: one from Lee Radek, chief of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section and one from James Robinson, an assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division.

The GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to subpoena the documents. According to committee spokesmen, Republicans decided to expand their impeachment inquiry into campaign fund-raising after a government employee claimed the LaBella memo contains "allegations of criminal wrongdoing by the president."

Rep. Henry Hyde

Judge Johnson previously rejected a House request for the same memos in a sealed ruling last Friday, but reconsidered the issue at a closed-door hearing Wednesday attended by Republican and Democratic members of the committee as well as representatives from the Justice Department.

The memos are evidence in a federal grand jury's probe into campaign finance irregularities, and thus special permission from Judge Johnson was necessary for them to be viewed by anyone outside that investigation.

Republicans have sought access to the documents for months, but despite threats of a contempt of Congress citation, Reno has repeatedly refused to turn them over, arguing that public disclosure would hurt the Justice Department's ongoing campaign finance investigation.

In a written statement Reno praised the judge's decision. "From the outset we have attempted to work with Congress in every way possible, consistent with the law," Reno said. "Our efforts sought to appropriately balance the Committee's constitutional responsibilities with the needs of law enforcement. We feel that today's court order, granting our motion, has achieved a just balance."

Attorneys for the House Judiciary Committee believed they had a stronger case after the committee vote to subpoena the documents, and argued that a subpoena from Congress overrides the requirement of grand jury secrecy.

Rep. Charles Canady (R-Florida), a member of the Judiciary Committee, applauded the judge's decision, but questioned the limits she imposed.

Rep. Charles Canady

"I think this is a step in the right direction," Canady said. "I personally don't believe that the restrictions on access are necessary or appropriate, but the court has ruled on that. At this stage, we'll proceed on that basis and see what information the staff obtains."

Panel Democrats had opposed expansion of the impeachment probe to include campaign finance, and accused Republicans of going on a fishing expedition for possible impeachable offenses because the allegations outlined in Independent Counsel Ken Starr's referral to Congress on the Lewinsky matter were not enough.

Rep. Robert Scott (D-Virginia), a member of the committee who attended Wednesday's hearing, said, "I think as we get to the specifics, the entire impeachment process will just fall apart on its own weight, because we've been unable to articulate which allegations, if any, are even worth pursuing."

Following a meeting with the president earlier in the day, House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt repeated his belief the impeachment process is in "chaos" and called on the Republican leadership to rein in its Judiciary members.

"What's happening is the members of the committee are driving the process," Gephardt said. "And as I've said many, many times, probably a majority of Republican members in the House want this to go into Travelgate, Filegate, campaign finance reform, and Chinese rocket sales, and probably the Vince Foster matter as well. And they'd be happy to see it go far into next year."

The White House is also calling on Republican House leaders to step in and take charge of an impeachment process Democrats claim is careening off track.

Suggesting that conservative critics of the president were running the show, White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart told reporters Wednesday, "Someone other than Congressman Barr ought to be calling the shots." Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia) is a member of the committee and a longtime critic of the president who has been calling for the his impeachment for more than a year.

Asked about the inquiry, Clinton told reporters, "The Congress in the end has to make its own decisions about what it will do and how it will conduct itself. It's important for me to get on with the work of the country and that's what I'm doing here and that's what I intend to continue to do."

CNN's Terry Frieden and John King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Wednesday, December 2, 1998

• Clinton lawyers will present defense to Judiciary Committee
• Espy innocent of all charges
• Court formally dismisses Paula Jones sexual harassment suit
• Democrats' National Chair Steve Grossman resigns
• Ex-Sen. Bradley may make presidential run
• Gore questions 'compassionate conservatism'
• Legislate five days a week? Some lawmakers cry foul
• Clinton mulls arms-reduction plans
• White House, environs could get $300 million face lift
• Black voting rumor surfaces on Web
• Selective Service starts online registration
• National museum tries to save Star-Spangled Banner
• Clinton raises $1.1 million at two fund-raisers
• Government: Compensating Nixon would be 'national embarrassment'

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