Donovan Probe

A special prosecutor is named

"It is a serious investigation, a matter that requires diligence and attention to detail." So said New York Attorney Leon Silverman last week after his appointment by a panel of federal judges as a special prosecutor to investigate the scandals swirling around Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.

Silverman, 60, who describes himself as a political "independent," is a senior partner with the corporate law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson. (Another partner: Sargent Shriver, Senator Edward Kennedy's brother-in-law, and Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1972.) The son of Polish immigrants, Silverman won a scholarship to Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the law review. Although he once served as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and an Assistant Deputy Attorney General under Eisenhower, his 30-year career has been largely devoted to private practice. Said Silverman, who is a former president of the Legal Aid Society and president-elect of the American College of Trial Lawyers: "It would be immodest of me to suggest that I am supremely qualified for [the special prosecutor's] role."

In asking the panel to name a prosecutor, Attorney General William French Smith sought to limit the inquiry to two allegations: that the Labor Secretary was present in 1977 when his former firm, Schiavone Construction Co., paid a $2,000 bribe to a union official; and that Donovan was untruthful at his Senate confirmation hearings. The judges, however, empowered Silverman to investigate "any other allegation or evidence of violation of any federal criminal law by Secretary Donovan." Unlike the Justice Department in its inquiry, Silverman will have authority to grant legal immunity to any key prosecution witnesses. Should the inquiry find supportive evidence, Silverman can impanel a grand jury to seek criminal charges.

Interviewed by TIME, Silverman said that if they seemed relevant to his investigation, he would seek access to court-sealed FBI tapes of conversations by a Schiavone subcontractor, William Masselli, a convicted hijacker and alleged Mafioso. TIME has learned that federal court records, as well as undercover operations, provide evidence of a close relationship between Masselli and Louis Sanzo, the union boss who allegedly pocketed $2,000 in Schiavone funds at a restaurant in New York while Donovan looked on. Until now the Justice Department has maintained that no evidence links Sanzo with Masselli. But Masselli has appeared in court as a defense witness for Sanzo, and in a 1978 taped conversation with an undercover agent, Sanzo clearly describes Masselli as a "very dear friend of mine . . . he's great."

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