SPECIAL PROSECUTOR LEGISLATION (H.R. 9705)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000700120014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: July 27, 1978
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000`70617
oc(. 7 - /5 9v
27 July 1978
MEMORANDt1M FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Special Prosecutor Legislation (H.R. 9705)
1. I met today with Simon Lazarus, Associate Director, Domestic Policy
Staff, to discuss our concern with subsection 595(a) of H.R. 9705, the
Special Prosecutor legislation. Also present at the meeting in Mr. Lazarus'
office were Mr. John Gavin, Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of
Justice; Susan Geiger, OMB; and Margaret McKenna, Deputy Counsel to the
President. I began the meeting by expressing our concern that the Special
Prosecutor arguably would have the authority under subsection 595(a) to
make public whatever information he deemed appropriate in connection with
his investigative and prosecutorial authorities, including information
that is classified or protected against disclosure by statute.
2. There was agreement that the language of subsection 595(a), coupled
with the language of section 594 which outlines the overall jurisdiction and
responsibilities of the Special Prosecutor, raised sufficient ambiguities as
to whether the Special Prosecutor would have completely independent authority
to disclose publicly information,, so that legislative history would serve the
purpose of making clear that the Special Prosecutor would not be able to
release on his own information that is classified or protected against
disclosure by statute. We discussed also the political problems that
likely would crop up if we attempted to amend subsection 595(a) on the
floor to specify that the Special Prosecutor would not have such authority.
The bottom line is that we will seek to develop legislative history on this
point.
3. We discussed various ways of obtaining the necessary legislative
history, and agreed the most desirable course of action would be to develop
a floor colloquy between a member of the House Intelligence Committee and
the floor manager of H.R. 9705, which Mr. Lazarus speculated would be
Representative Mann. Mr. Lazarus said we could go ahead and do this as
an Administration position. I told him we would go to work on it and
keep him informed. (H.R. 9705 is not yet scheduled for floor action,
but is likely to come up before Congress adjourns.)
4. As the meeting broke, I asked Mr. Lazarus when we would be able
to get together with him to discuss the Civil Service Reform legislation.
He said he would try to arrange a meeting tomorrow.
Chief, Legislation Staff
Approved For Release 2004/10/fiCl-RFIp1g~OOCQ70012P014-7
e oonse
Distribution:
1 - OGC 1 - IG 1 - nT:r Sh ipr?t l - nT r