ast week, FBI Director Louis Freeh belatedly coughed up an incriminating memo from the J. Edgar Hoover drawer of his file cabinet. The December 9, 1996 memo, which the director was apparently saving for a "rain on Reno" day, recounts a conversation Freeh had with the Attorney General. He recommended that she and the Department's public integrity (sic) chief Lee Radek recuse themselves from the investigation of the Clinton-Gore campaign's fundraising.

Freeh quotes Radek telling former FBI Deputy Director William Esposito that he was "under a lot of pressure not to go forward with the investigation" because Reno's job "might hang in the balance."

On Wednesday and Thursday, Esposito and Radek will be appearing before Senate and House committees to explain the comments. One knowledgeable source claims that this memo, from the earliest days of DOJ's fundraising investigation (sic), was finally turned over by Freeh because he was annoyed at the Department's recent criticism of the FBI's Los Alamos espionage investigation.

Freeh's legitimate grievances about Reno's treatment of the Bureau justify his forwarding whatever remains in his "Hoover file" to Hill investigators. She has humiliated the FBI (following last year's Waco disclosures), thwarted their investigations (Los Alamos), and endangered their agents (bad-faith negotiations and surprise raid on the Gonzalez Miami home). It's past time for Louis Freeh to recognize that Janet Reno has his FBI agents serving an incompetent and corrupt master.