Holbrooke's Fine

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 15, 1999 | by John Elvin

The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department wants to impose a large fine as a civil penalty on Richard Holbrooke, President Clinton's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Holbrooke was chief architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace accord and the recent settlement in Kosovo.

Last year the president selected Holbrooke but never sent his nomination to the Senate when the State and Justice departments began to investigate charges that, after he went back into the investment-banking business at Credit Suisse First Boston, he made illegal contacts with his former colleagues at State. Federal law provides that persons who leave government service may not contact former colleagues for a specified period of time.

The president publicly castigated the Senate for stalling the Holbrooke nomination, only to discover that it was the State Department that was blocking his pick. Some observers speculated that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright herself was quietly siccing the ethics cops on Holbrooke because she saw the brash, headline-grabbing, lime light-stealing diplomat as a potential rival and successor.

Holbrooke admits that he did contact U.S. Ambassador James Laney in South Korea within the prohibited period. Justice wants him to pay a fine of several thousand dollars because the contact was illegal, even if nothing improper occurred.

A White House spokesman says that the president is still behind Holbrooke "lock, stock and barrel." That's just fine.