Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990 TAG: 9005010182
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The testimony of DuBois L. Gilliam, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence on federal conspiracy and gratuities charges related to his job at HUD, led some members of a House subcommittee to declare that Pierce may have perjured himself when he appeared before their panel last year.
In his only appearance last May before a subcommittee headed by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., Pierce insisted under oath that he always had instructed his subordinates to recommend housing grants on their merits, adding, "I never told these people to fund anything."
Pierce currently is the subject of a criminal investigation being conducted by independent counsel Arlin Adams, a former federal judge, to determine if Pierce illegally favored Republican consultants in awarding multimillion dollar HUD contracts.
Members of the employment and housing subcommittee of the Government Operations Committee, after listening to Gilliam, said that his testimony seemed to be in direct conflict with Pierce's when Gilliam declared, "The policy while I was at the Department of Housing and Urban Development [in the Reagan administration] dealt explicitly with political favoritism. I know for a fact the secretary made decisions [on HUD grants]."
Rep. Ted Weiss, D-N.Y., said that Gilliam's testimony "shows that Mr. Pierce had more than just a casual involvement" in the grant-selection process. And Lantos called Gilliam "the key missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle that this case has become."
Gilliam, who gave his testimony under a grant of immunity from further federal prosecution, was the first former HUD official to contradict Pierce's sworn testimony.
Gilliam told congressmen he based his testimony on personal meetings with Pierce and Dean and on what other HUD officials had reported to him. He served as deputy assistant secretary of the department from June 1985 to September 1987.
However, Paul Perito, Pierce's Washington attorney, attacked Gilliam's credibility immediately after the hearing, calling him "an admitted felon, bribe-taker and fixer who corrupted the office he served."
Gilliam said that he had helped direct a multimillion-dollar program called Urban Development Action Grants. Pierce personally gave him orders on at least three occasions, he said, to fund projects regardless of their merit.
Lists of projects and who was supporting them often were sent to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget, and Pierce received suggestions from those agencies on who should receive the awards, the witness said.
by CNB