Department of Justice Investigation of Billy Carter White House Statement.

The subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary has now made public a confidential report from the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) on its investigation of certain aspects of the Billy Carter matter.

As stated in the memorandum of the subcommittee's counsel, Judge Phillip W. Tone and Michael Davidson, the OPR report "contains no information of any significance which adds to or subtracts from the subcommittee's own report." The subcommittee's own report was released to the public on October 2, 1980.

The subcommittee's counsel also points out that, contrary to the transmittal letter from OPR counsel, the OPR report is not in response to any request from the subcommittee.

Chairman Birch Bayh's statement adds: "Even more puzzling is why Mr. Shaheen (OPR counsel) would provide this type of information to the subcommittee if he truly did not want to make it public. His conclusions and his dealings with the White House are sensitive only as they impact on current politics."

Since the OPR report was delivered to the subcommittee, there have been press reports mischaracterizing the content of the report based on unauthorized leaks. These press accounts characterized the President's response to the investigation as being "uncooperative" or "unresponsire." Neither of these words appears in the OPR report and the report does not so characterize the President's response.

The President has at all times stated his intention to cooperate fully in all legitimate inquiries into the Billy Carter matter and to comply with OPR's request to take a sworn verbatim statement from him. To date OPR has not scheduled a firm date for interviewing the President nor at any time indicated to White House counsel that it felt that the President or any member of his staff was not cooperating fully with the OPR in its investigation.

The facts as to the President's full cooperation are as follows:

OPR informed the President's counsel of its investigation by memorandum dated August 8, 1980. In this memorandum OPR requested access to the appointment and telephone logs of the President and other White House personnel as well as copies of materials forwarded by the President or his staff to the congressional committees reviewing the Billy Carter matter. OPR also stated its intention to take sworn verbatim statements of the President and members of his staff after the requested materials had been collected and reviewed.

The President and most of his staff were absent from Washington the week of August 10, attending the Democratic National Convention in New York City. Upon their return, counsel for the President informed OPR in writing of the President's intention to cooperate fully with the investigation. The President had given the same assurances to the congressional committees investigating the Billy Carter matter. The Senate subcommittee investigation was completed early in October and its report was released to the public on October 2.

All non-classified material furnished by the White House to the congressional committees was delivered to OPR on September 8, 1980, and the classified documents were delivered on October 9, 1980.

On August 26, 1980, counsel for the President met with OPR attorneys to review the names of those persons OPR wished to examine and to identify White House records, in addition to telephone and appointment logs, that OPR wanted to review.

Over the course of the next several weeks, OPR took sworn statements from seven members of the White House staff including Dr. Brzezinski and Mr. Cutler. OPR was also given full access to the appointment and telephone logs maintained by these persons.

Because the President's telephone logs and appointment schedules contain detailed information relating to calls and meetings involving confidential foreign policy and national security matters not relevant to OPR's investigation, it was mutually agreed that OPR would specify those individuals it was interested in, and the White House diarist would extract from the logs all entries responsive to this request. A list of 32 names was furnished by OPR on October 10 and the diarist's review of the logs was completed on October 16 and furnished to OPR.

During its investigation, OPR also asked to review all of the President's private evening notes over a 2-year period. The President makes these notes for his own personal use, and they cover a vast range of events, opinions and observations about various individuals that are highly confidential and wholly irrelevant to the subject matters involved in OPR's investigation. The President had voluntarily furnished to the Senate subcommittee all items in these notes referring to Billy Carter and Libya. These items were supplied to OPR and OPR was also permitted to review all other items relating either to Billy Carter and all remotely pertinent items relating to Libya. Agreed extracts of three such notes were furnished to the Department on October 22.

On October 22, the Department of Justice requested permission to review in their entirety the President's private notes for 43 days. On Monday morning, October 27, officials of the Department of Justice met with counsel for the President, at the latter's request, to discuss this matter. Because of the private and confidential nature of some of the material in the President's notes and the fact that no such material not previously furnished was relevant to OPR's investigation, it was suggested by White House counsel that the Department designate the specific portions of the notes it wanted to review; this might be done by reference to specific events, identified persons, or the like. The OPR attorneys appeared to accept this proposal as reasonable and agreed to furnish such designations. When they are furnished all such items will be made available. It should be noted that the offer to produce these items from the President's private notes goes well beyond what OPR would be entitled to examine under compulsory process.

Suggestions were made from time to time in discussions among counsel concerning agreeable dates for the interview of the President. Although three dates when it was thought the President would be in Washington were suggested, no firm date was set. Counsel for the President offered to arrange an interview in mid-October, on the basis of the material furnished up to that time, but the Department made clear that it did not want to interview the President until it had completed its document review. A similar offer was made on October 27 and rejected by OPR.

The President stated at the outset his willingness to respond under oath to questions relating to Billy Carter and Libya. At no time has any attempt been made by the President, or any member of his staff, to delay the completion of the Department's investigation or to defer the date for the interview of the President beyond the date of the election.