
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 1, 1994                   TAG: 9407010076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

REPORT DISPELS 2 SCANDALS

Concluding two matters that have pained the White House, special prosecutor Robert Fiske determined Thursday that Vincent Foster's death was indeed a suicide and declared there would be no indictment of administration officials for discussing a sensitive investigation.

Fiske said Foster's suicide had nothing to do with Whitewater.

The latter findings, completing the first phase of Fiske's work, leave it to the Office of Government Ethics to decide whether contacts between White House and Treasury Department officials were proper. But the contacts were not criminal, Fiske concluded.

In all, Fiske said in a statement, he investigated ``more than 20 different contacts, either face-to-face meetings or telephone meetings,'' between Treasury and White House officials. They involved an investigation by federal regulators of Madison Guaranty - the failed savings and loan once owned by the Clintons' Whitewater business partners, Jim and Susan McDougal.

Fiske's figure represented more communication than the White House previously has acknowledged.

Congressional hearings are expected to focus on the issue.

Another phase of Fiske's investigation will be completed shortly - a review of what the White House did with Whitewater-related documents in Foster's office after his death last July 20. Investigators were not permitted to examine the documents in the days afterward.

Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said the Fiske report clears the way for the government ethics office to review ``whether any ethics issues or conflicts'' were involved in the contacts.

Fiske's criminal investigation now will focus on the business dealings from years ago of then-Gov. Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Arkansas political figures and business people. The inquiry is expected to go well into next year.

by CNB