ttorney General Janet Reno has decided not to name a special prosecuter to investigate Vice President Al Gore's political fund-raising in 1996, The New York Times reported in today's editions.
According to government officials, the move is a rejection of a recommendation by Robert J. Conrad, the head of the Justice Department's campaign finance unit, who said in June that Reno should appoint a special counsel.
Choosing to appoint a special prosecutor would have given momentum to the criminal inquiry just as Gore's presidential campaign enters its final months.
At issue were Gore's April statements to investigators that he did not recall a fund-raising discussion at a White House meeting two years before. In June, Reno said that she did not think it was realistic to ask for extensive recollection from a meeting from long ago. ''He didn't have the intent to mislead'' Justice Department investigators, she had said. (Globe Staff)
