Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday career prosecutors in the Justice Department were handling the investigation of President Clinton's Arkansas business dealings.
Career prosecutors are professionals within the department who have served through several administrations, Reno told reporters during her weekly briefing.The investigation concerns Clinton's involvement with a savings and loan and a real estate development venture, both of which involve James McDougal, Clinton's business partner and political supporter. McDougal was owner of the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan who is suspected of seeking Clinton's influence with regulators while Clinton was governor of Arkansas.
Calls for an investigation have been heightened by Republicans on the Senate and House banking committees who have expressed interest in files taken from the office of the late Clinton family lawyer, Vincent Foster.
The files, which contain information on the Whitewater Development Corp., were removed from Foster's White House office two days after he committed suicide in July.
The attorney general did not reject Republican demands for a special prosecutor. But Reno said she could not appoint one without clouding the prosecutor's perception of independence.
She said the mechanism for appointing an independent prosecutor has been allowed to lapse and she said it was "very important that there be a mechanism" to set up an independent counsel.
Republicans in Congress have been the main opponents of an independent counsel law during the 12 years the GOP controlled the White House.
Reno said in dealing with investigations concerning the White House, "anything can be ticklish."
"The White House has not done anything improper" to influence the Justice Department's investigation, she said.
She would not discuss details of the investigation, but she said once it was completed, the manner of the investigation and its conclusions would be made public.