Burton Defends Probe, Attacks ‘Stonewalling’ by White House

WASHINGTON — In a defiant defense of his campaign fund-raising investigation, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) on Tuesday accused the White House of “stonewalling” and defended his handling of recorded prison conversations of presidential friend Webster L. Hubbell.

Burton, under fierce attack by Democrats who accused him of conducting a partisan witch hunt, demanded that the opposition stop blocking immunity from prosecution for four witnesses. All four may possess key knowledge of illegal foreign contributions, Burton said Tuesday in a speech on the House floor.

“This investigation has been stonewalled” by the White House, the Democratic National Committee and about 90 individuals who have fled the country or asserted their 5th Amendment right against testifying, Burton shouted.

He accused the administration of conducting “a smear campaign” against him “and everybody else who investigated any aspect of the White House.”

Pressure by Democrats is mounting for Burton’s ouster as the committee chairman heading the House investigation of campaign fund-raising in 1996. Democrats assailed him for using derogatory language to describe President Clinton and for releasing partial transcripts of the Hubbell tapes that left out information favorable to Hubbell and to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Burton ran through a familiar laundry list of issues before his committee: documents that were withheld for months; questions of whether Hubbell received no-work employment to protect the Clintons; and obstacles placed by the Chinese government to prevent investigators from tracking foreign money.

Burton has conceded that “mistakes were made” in releasing selective material from the Hubbell conversations.