The Michigan Daily
-Saturday, July 26, 1980
Ten Cents
Sixteen-Pages
President's
men tied to
Anderson
smear plot
WASHINGTON (AP)-An unsigned
political tract prepared by the
Democratic National Committee to
discredit independent presidential can-
didate John Anderson is being
distributed to federal employees by
administration officials loyal to
President Carter, reliable sources
report.
Federal campaign law prohibits the
distribution of political literature ad-
vocating the election or defeat of any
candidate unless the document clearly
states who paid for it.
A DEMOCRATIC Party spokesman
Violent night AP Photo
A Chattanooga policeman dabs at his face Thursday night after
suffering a gunshot wound in racially tense Alton Park, Tenn., a predominantly
black neighborhood where gunfire punctuated a third night of racial unrest.
See stor Page
Civiletti advised Carter
on Billy's Libyan ties
WASHINGTON (AP)-Attorney General Benjamin
Civiletti disclosed yesterday that he and President Carter
discussed Billy Carter's ties with Libya in June. The Justice
Department's internal security division began an immediate
investigation to determine if Civiletti violated the law or
department regulations.
Civiletti said that during a White House meeting with the
president, he advised that Billy Carter probably would not be
prosecuted if he registered, belatedly, as an agent of
Libya's radical Arab government.
BOTH CIVILETTI AND the White House had previously
denied that any such discussion had occurred. After Civilet-
ti's announcement, the president's chief spokesman said the
president discovered a reminder of the conversation about
his brother as he was checking through his personal notes.
Civiletti said his brief exchange with the president took
place on June 17, six days after Billy Carter told Justice
Department investigators he had received $220,000 from the
Libyans. -
The White House issued a statement Monday saying that
on July 1, the president urged his brother to register as an
agent and to fully disclose his activities. On July 14, the
president's brother registered as an agent in the settlement
of a Justice Department complaint.
ON THURSDAY,.THE Senate established a nine-member
panel to investigate Billy Carter's links with Libya and the
role of the White House in the Justice Department's decision
not to prosecute the president's brother for his initial failure
to register asa foreign agent.
Several hours after Civiletti disclosed his conversation
with the president, the Justice Department's Office of
Professional Responsibility opened an inquiry, to determine
whether the attorney general's discussion with the president
violated the law or department rules concerning disclosure of
matters under investigation.
Because Civiletti is the subject of the investigation and the
next highest official in the department, Deputy Attorney
General Charles Renfrew, was a participant in decisions in
the Billy Carter case, progress reports on the investigation
will be made to Solicitor General Wade McCree Jr., the third
highest official in the department.
PRESIDENT CARTER AND his wife Rosalynn both
refused to comment on Civiletti's statement or any other
aspect of the case yesterday as they walked past reporters on
the South Lawn to address a group of florists.
As reporters called questions to Carter, he waved, smiled
and walked on. -
Mrs. Carter said, "I don't have any comments. I think
Jody Powell has already told you everything that I know."
Later, when the president returned to the White House, he
walked past reporters and television cameras so quickly that
Mrs. Carter had to run to keep up.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jody Powell
said, "I think it is important to underline that he (the
president) has not discussed this matter at all with the attor-
ney general or anybody else in the Justice Department,
acknowledged the derogatory material
was prepared by the DNC with the help
of the Carter-Mondale re-election
committee and other Democratic
groups.
But he said it was intended as an "in-
ternal document" only, and he charac-
terized the lack of the legally required
disclaimer as an error.
The spokesman, Robert Neuman,
said distribution of the unsigned 15-
page document, entitled "The Real
John Anderson," was halted shortly af-
ter the material first was circulated
among state party officials at a
meeting in early June.
BUT SOURCES who made the
document available to The Associated
Press with the understanding they
would not be identified said duplicates
have been distributed to government
employees in recent days by political
appointees.
"I have no control of Xerox
machines," Neuman said.
The paper portrays Anderson, a
Republican congressman from Illinois,
as a party regular who, as an indepen-
dent presidential candidate, is trying to
deny a conservative, anti-labor, pro-
nuclear and anti-consumer voting
record. I
A SPOKESMAN for the Anderson
campaign characterized it as "full of
misstatements and misrepresentations
of (Anderson's) views and positions."
The sources said middle-level federal
employees were given copies and told
to feel free to make photocopies and
pass them along to colleagues. A copy
obtained by the AP appears to have
been duplicated numerous times.
Ed Coyle, Anderson's deputy cam-
paign manager, said of the report, "It's
clear they're using the federal
bureaucracy for political purposes, and
I assume they're using Xerox machines
- which are federal property - to do
that. So it's gone beyond a mere
political matter. It raises some serious
ethical questions."
COYLE ADDED that such activity
would violate not only campaign laws
See CARTER, Page 13