WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House committee that cited Attorney General Janet Reno for contempt says he will bring the charges to the House floor if “she continues to be recalcitrant” in dealing with the committee’s probe of campaign finances.
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who heads the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, said Sunday he believes he can muster support in the House to find Reno in contempt for failing to turn over papers in the investigation.
Republicans on the House committee recommended Thursday to the full House that Reno be held in contempt for resisting a committee subpoena ordering her to turn over reports recommending that she seek an independent counsel to investigate campaign fund raising.
The attorney general said this week she will not succumb to congressional pressure to turn over the papers, calling it “a form of political tampering that no prosecutor in America can accept.”
Reno has said she expects to make a decision on seeking an independent counsel within three weeks. The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sunday said if Reno does not heed the advice of her investigators to ask a three-judge court to appoint a special counsel, she should consider leaving her post.