Cisneros

In "Mandate for Change," the post-election manifesto published by the Progressive Policy Institute -- Bill Clinton's favorite think tank -- the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suffers its usual fate. It is trashed. The president-elect's intellectual allies urge that its budget be cut 6 percent a year for four years. They complain that with 14,000 employees and a $25.1 annual budget, the agency is "far too big. . . has enormous overhead expenses. . .and much of what HUD employees spend their time on has no business being administered from Washington."

WASHINGTON -- After more than 10 years and $21 million spent investigating former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, the last independent counsel from the Clinton era officially ended his probe yesterday, complaining that he needed more time to unravel what might have been a major "cover-up at high levels of our government." "It would not be unreasonable to conclude as I have that there was a cover-up, and it appears to have been substantial and coordinated," said David M. Barrett, a former Republican lawyer who was appointed in 1995 to investigate Cisneros, a Democrat.

When he was being screened for appointment as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Henry Cisneros told FBI agents a falsehood about his financial relationship with his former mistress. He now says it wasn't a lie -- at least not a felonious one -- and he may be right. Some lawyers in the Justice Department agree with his lawyers on that.But not telling federal officials the truth in a situation in which the truth is expected is a serious enough mistake to disqualify Mr. Cisneros from holding a position of trust in the cabinet.

ARLINGTON, VA. -- What a difference a president and a special prosecutor make. During the Clinton presidency, Democrat partisans James Carville and Paul Begala slandered independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr as a sex maniac with a political agenda despite his selection by Attorney General Janet Reno. Much of the media approvingly and uncritically passed along the sliming of this decent man, asserting that President Bill Clinton's problems were about sex and that "everybody" lies about sex. Thus, Mr. Clinton's lies under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky were not a big deal.

On a bumpy ride through the back streets of Baltimore, U.S. Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros got a close look yesterday at the city's unvarnished side, the mostly poor and decaying neighborhoods beyond the downtown business district.Amid the boarded-up rowhouses and overgrown lots, he also glimpsed the redevelopment that the Schmoke administration wants to hasten with an "empowerment zone" designation that could bring as much as $100 million in new federal aid.Maryland Democratic Sens.

Henry Cisneros, President Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, came to Baltimore yesterday, bursting with energy, enthusiasm and ambition. On his first foray out of Washington in his new capacity, the former San Antonio mayor declared that bad though America's urban crisis may be, it can be overcome.One of the benefits of changing administrations in Washington is that a new crew usually is convinced it can triumph in everything the previous bunch failed to accomplish. With the electricity of a gospel preacher, Mr. Cisneros declared that the renewal of America's communities is at hand.

WASHINGTON -- In another blow to the prestige of the Clinton administration, Attorney General Janet Reno recommended yesterday that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate Henry G. Cisneros, the secretary of housing and urban development.Mr. Cisneros, after speaking with President Clinton, told reporters at HUD headquarters that he would "stay and fight," dispelling speculation that he would resign as HUD secretary while battling charges that he lied to FBI agents about payments he made to a former mistress.

WASHINGTON -- One day after ethics charges toppled Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, speculation intensified yesterday about the future of another member of the Clinton Cabinet who is under ethical scrutiny: Henry G. Cisneros, the secretary of housing and urban development.A White House official said Mr. Cisneros has told friends that he would be willing to resign if the controversy surrounding his payments to a former girlfriend became a political liability for the president. Legislative aides involved in housing issues said they feared that in the climate of scrutiny that led to Mr. Espy's forced resignation, "Cisneros is right behind him," as one put it.For his part, Mr. Cisneros said that he has not told the White House that he was prepared to resign.

WASHINGTON -- Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros said yesterday that he has no plans to resign over an investigation into allegations that he misled the FBI."I have not offered my resignation to the White House, nor are any discussions under way about resignation," Mr. Cisneros said in a statement issued by his Washington attorney, Cono Namorato.At the White House, Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers also said that Mr. Cisneros "has not offered his resignation, nor has he been asked to resign."The Justice Department is studying an ex-lover's allegation that Mr. Cisneros, the former mayor of San Antonio, misled the FBI about money he paid her after they broke up and he reconciled with his wife.

WASHINGTON -- After an inquiry into whether Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros misled the FBI about payments he made to a former girlfriend, the Justice Department has found the allegations credible enough to warrant further investigation, Mr. Cisneros' lawyer said yesterday.By moving into the next stage of the investigation, the Justice Department has 90 days to determine whether to recommend the appointment of an independent counsel to conduct a fuller inquiry.Mr. Cisneros' lawyer, Cono Namorato, said he was not surprised by the Justice Department's decision, given the narrow scope of the initial probe -- which looked only at whether the allegations were specific and credible -- and was confident that the investigation would exonerate Mr. Cisneros.

ABC, NBC and CBS all make some version of the on-air claim, "More Americans get their news from (fill in the blank) than anywhere else." Fox and ESPN also make the same kind of claim on sports coverage.But when it comes to the news that will be made at Camden Yards tomorrow night when the Orioles play a Cuban all-star team, the network with the most legitimate right to make the claim is one you might not recognize: Univision, the nation's leading Spanish-language network.Now under the leadership of Henry Cisneros, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Univision reaches 92 percent of Hispanic households in the United States -- a market of 30 million and growing at five times the rate of the non-Hispanic population.

WASHINGTON -- Former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, expressing faith in "the inherent fairness" of the judicial system, pleaded innocent yesterday to charges he conspired to lie to FBI agents about payments he made to a former mistress.Three co-defendants entered similar pleas. U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin set trial for Nov. 4 after all four waived their rights to an earlier date.Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., Cisneros' Washington lawyer, said he needed time to file "substantial" pretrial motions, foreshadowing vigorous defense.

IT'S POPULAR these days to complain about the independent counsel law and how Attorney General Janet Reno has chosen to interpret it.She's too slow to trigger the statute, some complain. Others suggest the probes themselves are too long, too expensive and don't come up with much.Those critics may all be correct. But last week's indictment of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisnernos makes another case: that the independent counsel law sometimes functions exactly as its authors intended, creating a vehicle for the investigation of possible wrongdoing in high places as untainted by politics as possible.

WASHINGTON -- Former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros was indicted yesterday on 18 felony counts of conspiracy, obstructing justice and lying to the FBI about the amount and frequency of payments he made to a former mistress.Cisneros orchestrated a conspiracy, the indictment alleges, to mislead FBI agents who were conducting a routine background investigation of him after his nomination to the Clinton Cabinet in 1992.Three other people, including the former mistress, Linda D. Medlar, were also charged in the 21-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Washington under the direction of David M. Barrett, a special prosecutor who has been investigating the Cisneros case for more than 2 1/2 years.

WASHINGTON -- After 30 months and $4 million, the special prosecutor investigating misstatements by Henry G. Cisneros has expanded the scope of his probe, brought felony charges against Cisneros' former mistress and members of her family -- and may now be targeting the White House itself.In so doing, the special prosecutor, David M. Barrett, has rekindled a debate over the independent counsel law, notably the ease with which such prosecutors can turn small investigations into big ones, and whether they are exceeding the authority intended by Congress.

WASHINGTON -- What's wrong with this picture?The special prosecutor investigating former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros has been at work for 29 months and has spent $3.8 million, according to the General Accounting Office.The task of independent counsel David M. Barrett was to determine whether Mr. Cisneros lied to the FBI about the amount of money he had paid or was paying to a former mistress to support her child.The relationship between Mr. Cisneros and the woman in question was never a secret.

Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden says he expects to meet soon in Washington with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry G. Cisneros to discuss local objections to the controversial Moving to Opportunity program.Mr. Hayden said Mr. Cisneros called Wednesday to propose the meeting. Yesterday, he said, he mailed the secretary videotapes of TV news clips of the raucous MTO protest meetings held in eastern Baltimore County this summer.He said the tapes will give federal officials a sense of local outrage over the program, which will disperse 285 residents of city housing projects to private rental units in Baltimore City and surrounding counties.

WASHINGTON -- In a major rethinking of public housing that is sure to reignite passions over integration, U.S. housing secretary Henry Cisneros yesterday released a plan to demolish urban high-rise projects and disperse their tenants to middle-class neighborhoods.Outlined in a scathing report called "The Transformation of HUD" that Mr. Cisneros sent to Congress, the public-housing plan is a key element of a broad streamlining effort. Congress would have to approve significant changes from current policy, but early reaction was positive.

AS HENRY CISNEROS prepares to leave the Department of Housing and Urban Development, he is hearing lots of praise. One enthusiastic academic even describes him as the best housing secretary the nation has ever had.Baltimore was helped by Mr. Cisneros' performance. He changed the often silly and impractical rules by which HUD had operated. He innovated, simplified, realigned and cut back. Things that had seemed impossible to do -- like demolishing Baltimore's troubled Lafayette Courts and Lexington Terrace high-rise projects along with a total 23,000 problematic units nationwide -- suddenly happened.

WASHINGTON -- Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros -- one of President Clinton's closest advisers, whose tenure was clouded by a messy personal life -- announced his departure from the administration yesterday.Cisneros became the seventh member of the 14-person Clinton Cabinet to announce plans not to return for the president's second term.In a one-page letter to Clinton, Cisneros, a 49-year-old former mayor of San Antonio, gave no reason for his departure, which had been expected. He said only that he had "concluded that I cannot ask to be considered for service in the next four years."