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era ee cn ne at ee et 0-19 (Rev. 109-81) t Hal Gulliver - { ) . . © Exec AD Adm. ___ ct Exec AD Inv. © Cooe ABLES Anat, Dir.: Adm, Servs, —_ Crim. Ine. tdent. 7 fnap. fnsoll. Leb. Lege! Coun. ___ Off, Cong. & Public Affe. Rec. Mgnt. Tech. Serva. Training Telephone Rm, Director's See’y —~ Abscam Probe Carefully Handled This gets around to Abscam and crooked members.of Congress and the handling of the FBJ investigation, but let us begin with Diogenes. - . Diogenes is no longer us, alas. ‘He was the first cynic. That is, he was the founder, in the fourth cen- tury B.C. of what came to be known as the sect of the Cynics. There are Rood stories about him, some no doubt apocryphal. He sup- posedly asked only one mn of Alexander the Great, that the ruler of i much of the known world at the time please stand out of his light. Re was sold into slavery once and was asked what his trade was. Governing men, was the reply. He got to Athens once and Aristotle made reference to him. His nickname was ‘The Dog.” He was known as a man of wit whose specialty was the espousing of conventional wisdoms, to the occasional discom- fort of the establishment of his day. The best known story about Diogenes, apocry- phal or not, was that he sometimes went abroad in the land even in daylight with a lantern in his hand “in search of an honest man.” The FBI, with its Abscam operation, went in " the opposite direction, in search of dishonesty. ere was no lantern, but there was a phony sheik, an FBI informant, who seemed prepared to - Tr rerecmignese err ena HREOC RT RTE RATS MIELE TLE COON AT Ot eR TE COO RE offer thousands of dollars to members of Congress for special favors. You can't swindle an honest fellow, the old saw goes, only someone who is greedy enough to think be is swindling you.. That, in brief, is the story of the FBI Ab seam investigation. Tt comes to mind because of a couple of things. One judge has overturned one of the Ab- scam convictions, on the basis that sornebow the whole thing was improper. Two former staffers in the US. attorney's office in Newark, NJ. — Ed- ward Plaza and Robert Weir Jr. — testified to the House Judiciary subcommittee that they believed the FBI bad behaved improperly in pursuing members of Congress on that Abscam front. Now, there are a couple of things that peed to be said. First, a question of improper action by the FBI should be a proper arena of careful scrutiny. The very notion, as the implication bas it, that any law-enforcement agency is somehow apr tsan . Jously trying to entrap anybody (member of Con- gress or not) is genuinely outrageous. Let the facts be known. The judge's decision in the one case will be examined carefully and po doubt sppealed. Second, let us also examine for a moment’ what we are actually talking about. Members of Congress are a pretty sophisti- cated bunch when it comes to political money. They also understand that there is a clear distinc- tion between campaign contributions and funny- money payoffs. Just about any member of Con- 3-17 96/ - BINCLOSURG coach a eae nea gress willing to hold out his hand for a bribe. , unhappily, can find someone willing to pay a bribe for this favor or that. Yet there is nothing ambiguous about the dif- fetence, say a campaign contribution from some- one who indeed may ask a favor and a straight payoff for some improper action. The FBI Abscam investigation was handled with careful regard for these considerations. No body got a congressman drunk, or put a gun ts anyone's bead, or anything remotely of that na- ture, in order to ask something improper. The members of Congress who offered to take the bucks did just that; they offered to take moneys in a clear context of being willing to do something — - they otherwise would not do. Cash money, mind you, not anything likely to be reported for taxes or on any campaign list of contributions. What we are talking about is not a hard dis tinction to make. US. District Judge George C Pratt, incidentally, examined the objections raised by Mr. Plaza and Mr. Weir when be upheld seven Abscam convictions last year. The judge observed that these two had acted almost to obstruct the investigation, that they were apparently “jealous,” to use the judge's word, of the people beading the federa] strike force running Abscam. t that be. The real point is that there is a differeoce’ between the crooks in public office and the great majority, the honest ones who probably have their own money problems but don’t take bribes. It is a brutal cruelty even to pretend there is no distinction. The Washington Post Daily News (New York) The New York Times The Wall Street Journal The Chicago Tribune The Los Angeles Times The Christian Science Monitor Prinaa- Cos VSer ord! 500 4-8 Date FBIDOS