Justice Dept. to Urge End to Counsel Law

WASHINGTON — In a reversal of long-standing policy, the Justice Department will announce today that it now considers the 21-year-old independent counsel law to be “fundamentally flawed” and will not support its renewal when it expires June 30.

The turnabout highlights the continuing deterioration of political support for a law that was once widely seen as necessary to ensure public confidence in the investigation of misconduct by high-level government officials. Now, however, critics say it has given too much unchecked authority and power to those appointed as independent counsels.

Many members of Congress in both parties have said the law should be scrapped or changed dramatically, but today’s expected testimony by Deputy Atty. Gen. Eric Holder will represent the first time the Clinton administration has gone on record against the statute. Holder is scheduled to lay out the department’s position against renewal of the law before a hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee, according to administration and congressional sources.

A source familiar with Holder’s testimony said he will argue that there is no need for the law because the department has the capacity to investigate most official wrongdoing itself. The attorney general would also maintain authority to appoint special counsels whenever it was determined that it could be a conflict of interest for the Justice Department to conduct such an inquiry.

The Justice Department consulted with White House Counsel Charles F.C. Ruff about the testimony, and the White House is allowing the department to speak for the Clinton administration on this subject, according to White House officials.

Republicans have long complained about the law, which was used to initiate investigations of key figures in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But Democratic discontent grew in the wake of the controversial impeachment proceedings against President Clinton that were set in motion by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation of the president’s affair with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.