Now, a New Probe of Donovan

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The FBI contends that it did not inform the Senate committee about this conversation because "it was known that Jo-Pel and SCC [Schiavone Construction Co.] did business together and, therefore, it was not considered surprising and/or particularly significant that Secretary Donovan's name was mentioned in the conversation between Mr. Masselli and his son." Following up earlier requests for more information about the Donovan investigation, Senators Hatch and Edward Kennedy wrote to FBI Director William Webster last July asking for details of the mysterious "affair." Webster replied that answering such questions "might jeopardize current litigation or violate existing protective court orders." Wiretap results, he insisted, must be kept secret. Said Webster: "All the information currently available in our files concerning the relationship between Secretary Donovan and William Masselli has already been provided to the committee."

Webster's explanation may be totally candid. Still, the phrase "currently available in our files" could also be a key qualification, since the transcripts of the overheard conversations are now technically under protective custody of the courts. They thus could be considered not "currently available" to the FBI.

By the unusual way it has prosecuted Masselli, the Justice Department has virtually ensured that those full transcripts will not become public. The FBI surveillance turned up enough evidence for the U.S. Attorney's office in New York to charge Masselli with leading a hijacking ring and conspiring to sell $100 million worth of synthetic cocaine. However, if Masselli went to trial, the transcripts most likely would have to be produced. Instead, he was allowed to plea bargain. This is a rare concession to a Mafioso who is not, in turn, revealing Mob secrets to investigators. Masselli ended up pleading guilty to the lesser charges of receiving stolen goods and using interstate telephone lines to discuss a cocaine deal. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ross even let Masselli take a vacation in Italy without seeking an increase in his bail and went along with his request to postpone imprisonment until after Christmas. Federal Judge Lawrence M. Pierce was not so obliging: he gave Masselli seven years in prison.

Why permit the plea bargaining? An FBI official in New York claimed that it was done to protect an informant whose identity might have to be revealed in a trial. He said that the decision had been approved at the "highest level of the FBI and the Department of Justice." In Washington, Associate Attorney General Rudolph W. Giuliani contended that the New York prosecutors had acted on their own and that "the department's approval was not sought or required."