WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today the National Legal and Policy Center blasted U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno for her failure to appoint an independent counsel to investigate former White House advisor and union lawyer Harold M. Ickes.
“I can’t think of anyone more deserving of an independent counsel than Harold Ickes,” said NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm. “He’s earned it.”
“For Janet Reno to brush this aside is an outrage,” added Boehm. “There was ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that Ickes mislead Congress when questioned about a Teamsters-White House money-for-influence scam.”
“Anything ex-Teamsters president Ron Carey and his indicted political aide, Bill Hamilton, are mixed-up in, is a recipe for corruption. Ickes’ ties to the corrupt Carey administration need to be investigated,” said Boehm.
“In a March 1996 memo, Bill Hamilton bragged that the corrupt Teamsters ‘ask for and get, on almost a daily basis, help from the Clinton Adminstration for one thing or another.’ Given Ickes’ history of representing corrupt unions, his dealings with corrupt Teamsters officials cries out for investigation,” said Boehm.
NLPC’s Organized Labor Accountability Project is investigating and exposing corruption and abuses in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and other labor organizations. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action. NLPC was a plaintiff in the lawsuit which succeeded in opening the records of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Health Care Task Force. Please visit www.nlpc.org.
Mr. Boehm is available for interview and further comment. Contact Dan Rene at 703-847-3088 or drene@nlpc.org.
Organized Labor Accountability Project