Henry J. Hyde sent the following letter Monday to John Conyers, Jr. in response to Conyers' letter requesting the issuance of numerous subpoenas to the Office of Independent Counsel. The referenced letter to Attorney General Janet Reno is attached as well.

November 16, 1998

Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Minority Member
2142 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear John:

Late on Friday, I received your letter formally requesting to issue more than a dozen subpoenas to the Office of Independent Counsel, line attorneys at the Office of Independent Counsel, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's law firm and several others. I would like to reiterate my concern that I believe that this is nothing more than an attempt to expand the inquiry to investigate the investigator. Our duty under the Constitution, and our mandate under H. Res. 581, is to "investigate fully and completely whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States of America."

I do not find your justification for these subpoenas to be consistent with this mandate. There are appropriate forums to investigate the Independent Counsel; an impeachment inquiry of the President is not one of them. You have written countless letters to the Attorney General criticizing the Independent Counsel. As you know, the Attorney General has the authority to remove the Independent Counsel for good cause; she has declined such action.

As for your request to subpoena line attorneys from the Office of Independent Counsel, I have written to the Attorney General to get her legal opinion on the propriety of such a request and whether it is consistent with her established practices at the Department. The Attorney General has consistently declined to make line prosecutors available to Congress to discuss ongoing cases. While I have reservations about such a policy, I do not think that it would be appropriate to make requests of the Office of Independent Counsel that, if granted, would be met with criticism or sanction from the Department of Justice. Enclosed is a copy of the letter I sent to her today.

As you know, H. Res. 581 allows you the right to refer the question of your subpoenas to the Committee. Please let me know if I should notice your request before the full Committee this Thursday, after we have heard from Judge Starr.

Sincerely,

HENRY J. HYDE

Chairman Enclosures
cc: Honorable Janet Reno
Honorable Kenneth Starr

November 16, 1998

Honorable Janet Reno
Attorney General of the United States
Department of Justice
10th and Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Reno:

I am writing to request your legal advice with respect to the Department of Justice's practice of refusing to identify line attorneys working on particular investigations and refusing to allow them to testify before Congress.

Late Friday, Ranking Minority Member John Conyers wrote to me and requested that the Committee invite line attorneys from the Office of Independent Counsel to testify in the Committee's ongoing impeachment inquiry pursuant to H.Res. 581. A copy of that letter and my response are attached for your review.

As I pointed out in my letter to Representative Conyers, I understand that the Department has a longstanding practice of refusing congressional requests for testimony from line attorneys. In addition, you have even refused to provide this Committee and the Government Reform and Oversight Committee with the names of line attorneys working on the campaign finance task force or line attorneys advising you on whether to move for an independent counsel.

Given your response to such requests of the Department, I would appreciate your providing me with a legal opinion setting forth the rationale for your decisions to refuse to identify line attorneys working on a particular matter and to refuse to allow line attorneys to testify before Congress. I would also appreciate your legal opinion on whether Mr. Conyers' request violates the practice that you have established and followed.

I appreciate your attention to this request. I look forward to your advice on these matters.

Sincerely,

HENRY J. HYDE

Chairman

Enclosures
cc: Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Honorable Kenneth Starr