Court Order Or Not, Babbitt
Vows Wolves Won’t Be Removed

ARLINGTON, Va. — Personifying the arrogance so rife within the administration he serves, Clinton Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt told an environmental activist group Saturday that he would defy a court order to remove timber wolves his agency has illegally released.

"No wolves will be removed from Yellowstone on my watch," Babbitt vowed.

Babbitt made his remark during a speech to the National Wildlife Foundation at its 62nd annual meeting. His comments drew a standing ovation from the group and coincided with the third anniversary of the first gray wolf being released back into the wild at the Wyoming park.

Since then, some 165 wolves have been returned to public lands in Yellowstone and central Idaho. Wildlife officials say that, if left alone, the animals will recover sufficiently to be removed from the federal list of so-called "endangered" species.

But a U.S. District Court judge ruled in December that the reintroduced wolves and their offspring must be recaptured and removed. The judge said the reintroduction effort actually diminished the endangered species protection given to native wolves.

In unrelated action, a one-time associate of President Clinton's chief legal adviser was named Thursday the independent counsel to investigate whether Babbitt lied to Congress about his role in rejecting a proposal from a group of Wisconsin Indians for a casino.

The lawyer chosen by a special three-judge panel, Carol Elder Bruce, worked with current White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff in defending Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, during the Senate Ethics Committee's probe into allegations that he did favors for wealthy campaign contributor Charles Keating Jr., a savings and loan operator. Both Ruff and Bruce were members of the law firm of Covington & Burling at the time.

She helped prosecute Edwin P. Wilson and Frank E. Terpil, the former CIA agents accused of aiding Libyan terrorists. Wilson later was sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to kill Ms. Bruce and other law enforcement officials.

Bruce also was a deputy independent counsel investigating allegations of wrongdoing against then-Attorney General Edwin Meese in the 1980s.

Babbitt is accused of misleading a Senate committee about the decision. The casino was opposed by the local community as well other Indian tribes that later contributed $286,000 to the Democratic National Committee

"Ms. Bruce can expect full cooperation from me," Babbitt said. "I'm confident that this investigation will result in vindication for me and this department."

Bruce declined to comment other than to say she was "honored" about her appointment. She is a partner in the law firm of Tighe, Patton, Tabackman & Babbin, also no stranger to ethics investigations. Partner Steven Tabackman was a deputy independent counsel in the investigation into the State Department's search of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport file during the 1992 presidential campaign.

Tabackman and partner Thomas Earl Patton also represented Billy Dale, former head of the White House travel office, in connection with that controversy.

Republicans have questioned whether contributions to the Democrats played a role in Babbitt's decision in 1995 to reject the casino proposal. Babbitt and other Interior Department employees have denied that political influence played any role in denial of the casino license.

In announcing last month that she would seek the appointment of a special counsel, Attorney General Janet Reno said the probe would be limited to whether Babbitt misled Congress, rebuffing Republican efforts to gain a broader investigation into campaign fund-raising practices during the 1996 elections.

Will Dwyer, a spokesman for House Government Reform and Oversight Committee chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., applauded the appointment of Bruce but said he still wanted her purview expanded.

"The jurisdiction of this counsel, we continue to hope, will expand sufficiently to cover what appears to be a host of wrongdoings in not only the Interior Department but as well the Clinton administration and the Democrat National Committee," Dwyer said.

A spokesman for the bands that proposed the casino said they were pleased the investigation will be able to move forward.

"We have been trying to get to the bottom of what happened for almost three years. We are grateful for all the help we can get," said Mark Goff, a spokesman for the Four Feathers Casino partnership, which includes the Mole Lake, Red Cliff and Lac Courte Oreilles bands of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin.