GOP Chief Seeks Probe of Flynt

WASHINGTON — Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson demanded an investigation Friday by the Justice Department of Publisher Larry Flynt’s efforts to expose extramarital affairs of prominent Republican lawmakers.

The sole purpose of Flynt’s effort, Nicholson charged, is “to intimidate and to silence members of Congress investigating the president.”

Although the GOP has discounted Flynt’s investigations as the malicious meddling of a pornographer, his revelations have stung leading critics of President Clinton, including Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.) and Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.).

Nicholson said he was adding his voice to a separate request for a Justice Department investigation from the Washington-based Landmark Legal Foundation, a nonprofit group that espouses mainly conservative causes. In a letter addressed to officials of the department’s criminal division, the foundation said that Flynt’s efforts and those of his investigator, author Dan Moldea, could constitute obstruction of a congressional investigation.

Flynt may have violated federal law by allegedly “threatening, intimidating or coercing Republican members of Congress” to remain silent about Clinton’s conduct or face embarrassing disclosures about their own personal lives, the letter said, adding that obstructing Congress is “a felony punishable by five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.”

Nicholson derided Flynt, who publishes Hustler magazine, as “the president’s favorite pornographer,” although the White House has sought to disassociate itself from Flynt’s self-financed inquiries.

The GOP chairman charged that “tactics of intimidation and blackmail aren’t just wrong, they’re illegal, and our attorney general ought to take off her blindfold and begin criminal prosecutions. Such tactics can’t be allowed to succeed in a democracy like ours, and the Justice Department has a responsibility to act.”

Justice Department spokeswoman Chris Watney said that the request for an investigation “is under review.”

However, Alan Isaacman of Beverly Hills, who is Flynt’s attorney, called the demand for an investigation “absurd.”

The publisher’s investigation began last fall when he advertised for tips on the private lives of any Washington politicians involved in the impeachment of Clinton.

Flynt, who was hospitalized with pneumonia earlier this week, is preparing to defend himself against obscenity charges in Cincinnati.