ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Webster Hubbell quit government, pleaded guilty to fraud, then got work from several Clinton political friends.
A House panel is demanding that the White House produce documents about efforts to help the president's friend Webster Hubbell find work after he left the government.
Subpoenas have been issued to White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, senior presidential aides Thomas McLarty and Bruce Lindsey and former Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor.
The subpoenas are part of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's inquiry into whether financial aid for Hubbell was arranged to influence his cooperation with Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
The panel also issued a subpoena to former senior aide George Stephanopoulos for documents about any dealings with West Coast businessman Johnny Chung, a frequent White House visitor who took six Chinese businessmen to the taping of one of President Clinton's radio addresses. Stephanopoulos was traveling and could not be reached for comment.
The subpoenas were disclosed as committee Democrats lost a bid to widen the scope of the campaign-finance inquiry to specifically include fund-raising abuses by Republicans.
During a bitterly partisan debate, the committee also rejected a Democratic amendment to end the power of chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., to issue subpoenas unilaterally.
Democrats accused Burton of running a partisan investigation aimed solely at discrediting Clinton and their party.
``If you are continuing down the road of this witch hunt, then grab your brooms and keep going,'' Rep. Thomas M. Barrett, D-Wis., angrily told Republicans.
Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., said the Democratic minority ``seems more interested in changing the subject than cleaning up the system.''
Burton said his panel would also investigate Republicans ``if we find strong indication of illegal activity.'' But he made clear that the probe would continue to focus on ``well-publicized allegations of possible attempts to corrupt the American political process or compromise national security.''
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said allegations of influence peddling by foreign political donors and attempts by China to influence U.S. elections amounted to ``one of the most broad scandals in the history of the republic.''
The subpoenas followed similar ones issued by Starr to Bowles and McLarty to answer questions before a federal grand jury about efforts they made to get job interviews for Hubbell after he resigned as associate attorney general in 1994.
Hubbell resigned April 8, 1994, and later pleaded guilty to defrauding his former Arkansas law firm, where he and Hillary Rodham Clinton had been partners, by overbilling clients nearly $400,000.
Bowles, McLarty and Kantor, who was then U.S. trade representative, helped Hubbell in his subsequent search for employment.
Hubbell secured work from several businesses controlled by friends or financial supporters of Clinton's campaigns and was paid $400,000 in 1994. This included $100,000 from the Lippo Group, the Indonesian conglomerate controlled by the Riady family that is a focus of investigations of Clinton's re-election fund raising.
Hubbell has cooperated with Starr's Whitewater inquiry, but prosecutors have become frustrated with his vague memory about financial transactions.
The House committee also issued subpoenas for presidential aide Marsha Scott and Washington lawyer Vernon Jordan.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that Scott, a longtime friend of the president from Arkansas, relayed messages between the first lady and Hubbell during this period.
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