No Member of House Being Probed: Wright

House Speaker Jim Wright said today “no member of the House is under investigation” in the Pentagon scandal and he accused Reagan Administration officials of “despicable” leaks linking members of Congress to the inquiry.

Wright (D-Tex.) said he had been told by House lawyers that no subpoenas have been issued for House members nor has any information been sought by investigators.

Five House members have been reported as being under scrutiny, although they have said they are not involved. They are Reps. Bill Chappell (D-Fla.), chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee; Thomas J. Downey (D-N.Y.), Samuel S. Stratton (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Armed Services procurement subcommittee, and Andy Ireland (R-Fla.) and Rep. Roy Dyson (D-Md.), both members of Stratton’s subcommittee.

“I think it’s thoroughly outrageous that people would be leaking statements that (are) thoroughly untrue, absolutely unfounded,” Wright told reporters.

“I don’t think it is in anyway honorable for members of the executive branch . . . to maliciously leak the names of innocent members of Congress with the expectation they can start rumors.

“The rumors are deliberately planned, it appears, and without foundation and it is a despicable thing, in my opinion,” said Wright, who himself is the subject of an investigation by the House ethics committee.