The Burden of Billy

(11 of 12)

find out if she had played any part. When he finally did so, she recalled telephoning Billy to ask if his friendship with the Libyans could be used in any way to apply pressure on Iran to free the hostages. She said she could not remember whether this call was made before or after Brzezinski had summoned Billy's help. A White House aide sugggested: "A decent surmise is that Rosalynn mentioned the idea to the President and that he called Brzezinski, and asked him to check it out." Senator Bayh hopes his committee will ask Mrs. Carter to appear at the Senate hearings.

On Friday afternoon, Civiletti held his press conference and dropped his bombshell. Despite repeated White House claims that his department had never discussed Billy's case with the White House—and despite Civiletti's own declaration on the day before that he had not personally done so—his memory had now been jogged. He had, in fact, talked to the President about the sensitive subject. It had been a brief chat on June 17, he said, at the end of a 20-minute meeting on judicial appointments. That was six days after Billy had told Justice Department lawyers about getting his $220,000 from Libya.

According to Powell, the President had also forgotten this short talk with Civiletti. Carter had been reviewing some Oval Office records on Thursday, Powell said, when he came across a note he had made about a "casual exchange" with the Attorney General. The President called Cutler, his counsel, on Thursday afternoon and told him to remind Civiletti of their talk. Cutler did so. But the White House was a bit stunned when Civiletti made the disclosure so public without first warning the President or his staff.

Civiletti insisted at his press conference that his "informal, brief exchange" with the President did not amount to a "discussion" of Billy's case. Remembered Civiletti: "I said that I could not discuss the investigation of his brother under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. I added, however, that in my view Billy was foolish for not having registered long ago. As I recall, the President said something to the effect that his brother is stubborn. The President then asked me what would be likely to happen, under this statute, if his brother registered. Based on my understanding of department practice, I told him that if a person tells the truth and registers, the previous failure to register has not been prosecutable." That had, of course, been the department's long-standing attitude toward Billy and this law.

On Capitol Hill, Senator Dole rose to exploit the opening. He termed the contact between the Executive and Judicial branches "as blatant a violation of confidentiality as one can imagine" and predicted: "This clearly will hurt the President, perhaps fatally." At the Justice Department, top officials were appalled at what their boss had done. The department's Office of Professional Responsibility announced that it will investigate the Attorney General's conduct as a possible obstruction of justice, even if it had been committed unwittingly. Said one such of ficial: "Intentional or not, it was incredibly improper."

At the very least, Civiletti's willingness to talk about Billy's case was bad judgment, as Civiletti almost conceded. Said he: "In hindsight, I