Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003092451
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Congressional investigators are seeking testimony that Pierce made politically tainted contract awards while he headed the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Reagan administration, sources said Thursday.
The chairman of the House Government Operations housing subcommittee, Rep. Tom Lantos, said his panel will vote next week to grant immunity to Dubois Gilliam.
Gilliam, who was a deputy assistant secretary of HUD under Pierce, is serving an 18-month sentence at the federal prison in Lompoc, Calif., for a conviction in a HUD-related case.
Lantos, D-Calif., called Gilliam "a key player" in awarding HUD grants under several programs, including the secretary's discretionary fund, and said he will provide "critical" new information.
"Mr. Gilliam's testimony will open new areas not dealt with previously by the subcommittee," Lantos said.
Lantos said the panel's Republican members would vote with the majority Democrats next Tuesday to ask a federal court to grant "use immunity" in exchange for Gilliam's testimony. The immunity would bar prosecution of Gilliam based on his testimony to the subcommittee or information developed from that testimony.
Gilliam's testimony is planned for late April.
Lantos said Arlin Adams, the court-appointed independent counsel who is investigating Pierce and other former HUD officials, told him that immunity for Gilliam would not conflict with his investigation.
He said Adams' probe is limited to activities involving HUD's moderate rehabilitation program that provided renovation subsidies for low-income rental housing.
by CNB