E-mail Probe New Cloud for Clinton, Threat to Gore

The Justice Department's probe of missing White House e-mails threatens to cloud President Bill Clinton's remaining time in office, but may hurt Vice President Al Gore even more in his race to succeed Clinton.

The criminal investigation, revealed on Thursday, fuelled new attacks by Gore's Republican opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and kept questions over Gore's 1996 fund raising and Clinton administration ethics on the front burner.

The probe seeks to determine whether any documents the department had sought in its probe of 1996 Democratic fund raising + including Gore's activities + were among thousands of e-mails that had not been properly archived due to a computer foul-up.

The investigators are also pursuing charges that White House officials intimidated computer workers to keep the foul-up secret. The White House says the failure to archive the e-mails was inadvertent. Officials involved denied any intimidation.

Gore was also stung on Friday by news the State Department launched a criminal probe of the financial dealings of his campaign chairman, Tony Coelho, although Gore defended Coelho, saying he would "continue to do a terrific job."

Gore spokesman Chris Lehane vigorously denounced the e-mail controversy as the work of Bush partisans.

The cloud created by the Justice Department probe may have a silver lining, however, for Clinton and Gore. The department asked a US district court on Wednesday to delay the Judicial Watch suit so as not to interfere with its investigation.

If the request is granted, a criminal probe by a department that keeps its work in progress under wraps may be viewed by the administration as preferable to a much more public civil case in this election year.

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