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.