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‘Abscam Vindicated AUS. Senate committee has con- “cluded that the FBI’s Abscam inves- ‘tigation wasn’t so bad after all. : : When the Senate was debating the ‘ouster of New Jersey's Harrison i Williams last spring, it sometimes *. seemed that the FBI was on trial ‘and not the senator. The Abscam operation, which netted six House members in addi- tion to Sen. Williams, was called - “sleazy” and described as “totally .Out of control.” . Soo [ , _ The Senate was so overwrought . at the FBI's invasion of Capitol Hill ‘ that it ordered a special committee : to Jook into Abscam. kkk .. The committee, headed by Mary- “land's Sen. Charles Mathias, now has weighed in with its report. And, lo and behold, it found that the vic- s ; tims’ constitutional rights had not ; ‘been violated. * Tha RA Amitban Jidn'’t find the " Abscam operation flawless. But it “did conclude that the FBI did not |. An optimist is a person who ‘| thinks the “fresh-cut” yule tree won't lose 60 percent of its nee- dles from tree lot to living room. deliberately target members of Con- gress and that “each public official who received money directly or indirectly from an FB] undercover agent understood that the payment was a bribe.” Summing it up, a committee law-. yer, James Neal, said that “the bottom line on Abscam” was that it was “not perfect, but pretty good.” The committee’s chief counsel, _ Malcolm Wheeler, said Abscam’s “most basic problem was that it was not tightly supervised and moni- tored.” : The committee deserves credit for not going off as half-cocked as some of Abscam’s most vociferous critics in the Senate did. kkk It is to be hoped that the FB! will not be intimidated by the grilling it had to go through during the Sen- ate’s investigation of Abscam. Membership in Congress in no way confers an immunity to scruti- ny by law-enforcement officials. Indeed, as holders of the public © trust, Senate and House members should be held to an even higher degree of moral and ethical conduct than ordinary citizens. - . . : ‘ =: = eg re a AS A EE ES LR EN OES SE OF oS “eer = ea ar eR OT TA Te OR ECT FE Ng mera tyne : : we nee ee te eR ATR EERE EI PI PERE EOE th 2 - TOOT IT ee A AG ERE EN ey Rt RE at aR 7 > 7 Te oe prem Le