RENO'S UNTOUCHABLES

By Viveca Novak

Over and over, Janet Reno has said that when it comes to whether or not to ask for an independent counsel to investigate Democratic campaign fund raising, she will rely on the judgment of the true-blue career lawyers in the Justice Department. Reno didn't budge even when it became known that FBI Director Louis Freeh advised her to opt for an independent counsel, saying she would stick with her gang of untouchables. So just who are these folks?

LAURA INGERSOLL, 45 The no-nonsense head of the special task force of roughly a dozen lawyers is a diplomat's daughter who grew up in Europe and South America. Some colleagues compare her to the rather prim Diane on Cheers. They also call her tenacious, smart and ethical. Though she has little experience doing major trials, she's handled corruption cases involving CIA employees. Just last year she extracted guilty pleas from four Agriculture Department employees who rounded up contributions from colleagues and subordinates for a pro-Clinton PAC.

LEE RADEK, 54 A founding member of Justice's public-integrity section in the aftermath of Watergate, Radek supervises Ingersoll's team. An even-tempered, down-to-earth Chicago native, he is known for his street savvy, lawyerly acumen and good judgment. After suffering a heart attack in the early 1990s, he has slimmed down and forsaken the cheap cigars whose stench once pervaded the office. He is passionate about golf (but has little time to play), and his Elvis impersonations for the public-integrity support staff at Christmas are legendary.

MARK RICHARD, 58 Sometimes called "Bigfoot"--he is 6 ft. 7 in. and no ectomorph--this Brooklynite is the institutional conscience of the criminal division and the investigation's acting chief. He has spent almost his entire career at Justice and has had a hand in virtually all the department's major international cases: Noriega, Koreagate, Jonathan Pollard and the Nazi prosecutions. After a diagnosis several years ago of esophageal cancer that some surgeons deemed inoperable, he asked his doctors to gamble on a rare medical procedure that saved him. Colleagues gave him a glass-encased cigarette to keep the nicotine urges at bay.

--By Viveca Novak