Starr subpoenas Lippo documents
Starr subpoenas Lippo documents
WASHINGTON (Reuter): Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr has subpoenaed all White House documents on 14 individuals and subsidiaries of Indonesian financial conglomerate Lippo Group, White House officials said Tuesday.
In a memo dated March 5, White House Counsel Charles Ruff asked White House staff to search all their records, including electronic and paper files, telephone logs and other correspondence, for any material related to Starr's subpoena, which was sent to the White House on Jan. 30.
The officials said they believed Starr's subpoena, which follows earlier subpoenas for information related to the Lippo Group parent company, was related to Lippo's hiring of former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell as a paid consultant after he resigned from the Justice Department.
Hubbell, who recently completed a 15-month prison sentence for bilking his former law partners and clients, testified before the Senate that he was on retainer for an affiliate of James Riady, a senior Lippo executive, until he pleaded guilty to two felony counts in late 1994.
The subpoena specifically lists 14 individuals, including Steven Riady and C. Joseph Giroir, the Riady family lawyer and a big donor to the Democratic Party.
Investigators want to know if Hubbell's employment as a consultant with Lippo and other consultant fees -- totaling as much as $250,000 -- were to encourage him to keep quiet about the Whitewater real estate investigation involving the Clintons and associates.
The subpoena lists Lippo Insurance Group, Lippo Insurance Group (Asia) Ltd., Hong Kong China, Ltd., Lippo Securities, Ltd., the Hong Kong Chinese Bank Ltd., and Winterthur Swiss Insurance Bank, Ltd., according to Ruff's memo.
Asked why it took Ruff more than one month to direct White House staff to comply with the subpoena, one official said Ruff "responded as quickly as possible given other requests outstanding."
The White House has to comply with the subpoena by March 14. Starr's office declined comment on the matter.
The prosecutor's inquiry started in 1994 as a probe of the Whitewater land deal involving the Clintons when the president was governor of Arkansas, as well as the failure of an Arkansas savings and loan institution run by James McDougal, a partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater land deal.
It has since expanded to include a number of White House controversies including the firing of the travel office staff and the obtaining of FBI personal files.
NBC News said Starr's office was not seeking to expand its inquiry to include charges of improper fund-raising by the Democratic National Committee and allegations that some foreign interests were seeking to influence White House policy.