Janet Reno dies from complications of Parkinson’s disease
Curt Anderson, The Associated Press
First posted: Monday, November 07, 2016 06:53 AM EST | Updated: Monday, November 07, 2016 05:13 PM EST
MIAMI — Janet Reno, who was the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general but also became the epicentre of multiple political storms during the Clinton administration, died early Monday. She was 78.
Reno died from complications of Parkinson’s disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle D’Alemberte said, adding that Reno spent her final days at home in Miami surrounded by family and friends.
A former Miami prosecutor who famously told reporters “I don’t do spin,” Reno served nearly eight years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, the longest stint in a century.
Her sister, Maggy Reno Hurchalla, told The Associated Press that Clinton called over the weekend said to “tell Janet I love her” and that many others from her career visited or called, including former Florida governor and Sen. Bob Graham. Bill and Hillary Clinton issued a statement praising Reno’s tenure and President Barack Obama called her “an American original” in his own statement.
“When Janet Reno arrived in Washington in 1993, the city had never seen anyone like her before — and hasn’t since,” Obama said. “Her legacy lives on in a generation of lawyers she inspired, the ordinary lives she touched, and a nation that is more just.”
One of the administration’s most recognizable and polarizing figures, Reno faced criticism early on for the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, where sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers perished.
She was known for deliberating slowly, publicly and in a blunt manner. Reno frequently said “the buck stops with me,” borrowing the mantra from President Harry S. Truman.
After Waco, Reno figured into some of the Clinton administration’s controversies and scandals, including Whitewater, Filegate, bungling at the FBI laboratory, Monica Lewinsky, alleged Chinese nuclear spying and questionable campaign financing in the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election.
In the spring of 2000, Reno enraged her hometown’s Cuban-American community when she authorized the armed seizure of 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez. He was taken from the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives so he could be returned to his father in Cuba.
During her tenure, the Justice Department prosecuted the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case, captured the “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski that same year and investigated the 1993 terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Center. The department also filed a major antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. and Reno was a strong advocate for protecting abortion clinics from violence.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch praised Reno’s integrity, and called her a trailblazer and “one of the most effective, decisive and well-respected leaders” in Justice Department history.
Lynch said Reno applied one test: “to do what the law and the facts required. She accepted the results of that test regardless of which way the political winds were blowing.”
Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer, who worked for Reno in Washington from 1995-2000, said, “Even if you agreed or disagreed with her, you knew she was coming from a place of integrity.” He added, “Through her work, through her decisions, she exhibited a lot of strength and a lot of courage.”
After leaving Washington, Reno returned to Florida and ran unsuccessfully for Florida governor in 2002 but lost in a Democratic primary marred by voting problems.
Born July 21, 1938, Janet Wood Reno was the daughter of two newspaper reporters and the eldest of four siblings. She grew up on the edge of the Everglades in a cypress and brick homestead built by her mother and returned there after leaving Washington. Her late brother Robert Reno was a longtime columnist for Newsday on Long Island.
After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in chemistry, Reno became one of 16 women in Harvard Law School’s Class of 1963. Reno, who stood over 6 feet tall, later said she wanted to become a lawyer “because I didn’t want people to tell me what to do.”
In 1993, Clinton tapped her as the first woman to lead the Justice Department after his first two choices — also women — were withdrawn because both had hired illegal immigrants as nannies. Reno was 54.
“It’s an extraordinary experience, and I hope I do the women of America proud,” Reno said after she won confirmation.
A little more than a month of taking office, however, Reno became embroiled in controversy with the raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco.
On Feb. 28, 1993, before Reno was confirmed as attorney general, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents executing a search warrant made a surprise raid on the compound. Gunfire erupted, killing four agents and six members of the religious sect.
That led to a 51-day standoff, ending April 19, 1993, when the complex caught fire and burned to the ground. The government claimed the Davidians committed suicide. Survivors said the blaze was started by tear gas rounds fired into the compound by government tanks, and that agents shot at some who tried to flee. Reno had authorized the use of the tear gas to end the standoff and later called the day the worst of her life.
“It was a dangerous situation,” Reno said during a 2005 lecture at Duke University. “The tragedy is that we will never know what was the right thing to do.”
In 1995 Reno was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after noticing a trembling in her left hand. She said from the beginning that the diagnosis wouldn’t impair her job performance. And critics — both Republicans and Democrats — didn’t give her a pass because of it.
Republicans argued she should have sought appointment of an independent counsel to investigate allegations of Clinton-Gore fundraising violations. Democrats grumbled that she failed to act as a team player.
In early 2000, Reno tried to negotiate the return to Cuba of 5-year-old Elian, who had been rescued after his mother and others drowned trying to boat from Cuba to Florida. He had been placed in the care of a Miami uncle, but his father, who lived in Cuba, wanted him returned to the island.
When Reno decided talks had broken down that April, she ordered an early morning raid by federal agents who seized the boy, enraging Miami’s Cuban-American community.
Reno later said federal officials tried until the last minute to negotiate a voluntary handover and avoid the raid — where Elian was found hiding in a closet and confronted by an agent with a gun.
“We have been to great lengths to resolve this case in the least disruptive manner possible,” she said at a news conference following the raid.
As attorney general, Reno often was teased by late night talk show hosts for her unassuming appearance and no-nonsense attitude. Comedian Will Ferrell memorialized her in a recurring “Saturday Night Live” skit called “Janet Reno’s Dance Party” and Reno visited the skit the night she left the Justice Department in January 2001.
Reno began her career in Miami in the mid-1960s and had her first encounter with the “glass ceiling,” getting passed over for a job at a law firm because she was a woman. She later made partner. In 1972, she lost a race for a Miami-area legislative seat but learned the importance of sticking to her principles from mentor John Orr, a former state lawmaker.
“Don’t equivocate, don’t *****foot, don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth and you’ll wake up the next morning feeling good about yourself,” he told Reno. It became one of her favourite sayings.
After losing that election, Reno was hired by the Dade State Attorney’s office. In 1978, when State Attorney Richard Gerstein decided to step down, Reno became his successor.
As prosecutor, Reno built programs to help reform drug dealers and combat domestic violence. Another program strong-armed deadbeat dads into paying child support, inspiring a rap song named after her.
It included the line: “All the money you get, all the checks you make; Janet Reno will make sure and take.”
She also weathered a 1980 riot after an all-white jury acquitted five police officers for the beating death of a black insurance salesman. Eighteen people were killed in the rioting and crowds chanted Reno’s name, accusing her of being a racist and demanding her resignation. Reno refused.
“To resign was to give into anarchy,” she said.
Reno eventually won support in the city’s black community, attending countless community meetings, church services and parades.
Her last foray into politics was the race for Florida governor. Reno lost the primary to Tampa lawyer Bill McBride despite her name recognition. Republican Gov. Jeb Bush defeated McBride to win a second term.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who also worked for Reno at Justice in the 1990s, marveled at the twists and turns in her journey.
“Hers was a great and uniquely American life and was well lived,” Holder said in a statement. “All who truly knew Janet loved her and all in this nation were made better by her service and by her sacrifice. I will miss her.”
After retiring from politics, Reno served on the boards or as an adviser to several organizations. In 2004 she joined the board of the New York-based Innocence Project, which works to free prisoners who can be proven innocent through DNA testing.
She also spent more time with her family. Shy and admittedly awkward, Reno never married but remained extremely close to her tight-knit family.
Asked to describe her legacy after ending her gubernatorial campaign, Reno quoted George Washington: “If I were to write all that down I might be reduced to tears. I would prefer to drift on down the stream of life and let history make the judgment.”
Associated Press writers Ken Thomas and Jessica Gresko contributed to this report.
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