DiGenova Names 8 Attorneys for Probe of Clinton File Search

WASHINGTON — Independent counsel Joseph diGenova named a staff of eight attorneys Tuesday for his investigation into possible criminal activity by high-ranking White House officials in the pre-election search of President Clinton’s passport and consular files.

DiGenova said he had “brought on board a sufficient number of assistants for a thorough and expeditious investigation,” though he would not predict how long his inquiry would take. “We hope to finish within a reasonable time frame,” DiGenova said, “but I’ve learned it is unwise at the beginning to predict a specific time.”

The number of attorneys hired is larger than originally expected and only two fewer than the number hired initially by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh for the Iran-Contra inquiry, which probed activities involving not only the White House, but also the state and defense departments and the Central Intelligence Agency.

DiGenova’s deputy will be Michael F. Zeldin, a veteran of the Justice Department’s criminal division. Zeldin just completed service as deputy chief majority counsel to a House task force that investigated the October Surprise, allegations that the 1980 Ronald Reagan-George Bush campaign committee had conspired with Iran to delay the release of U.S. hostages in Tehran to deny then-President Jimmy Carter a campaign boost. That inquiry concluded that there was no credible evidence to support the allegations.

One of the seven named associate independent counsels is David H. Laufman, who for the last two years served as deputy minority counsel to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Laufman’s hiring has drawn criticism from several House Democratic staff members, who said Laufman attempted to convince House members that the Bush Administration had done nothing wrong when the passport affair surfaced last October.

One Democratic aide said Tuesday that Laufman had briefly worked under Steven K. Berry, the former minority staff director of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who, as a State Department official, played a role in encouraging the search of Clinton’s passport and consular files. As a result of the findings of a State Department inquiry, Berry was demoted from his position as an acting assistant secretary of state.