FBI Probing Sullivan Link to Convicted Ga. Official

The FBI is questioning officials at Morehouse University School of Medicine about Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Louis Sullivan’s connection to a former Georgia official convicted of extortion.

The FBI is inquiring about former Fulton County Commissioner Reginald Eaves, who was involved in a financial conflict-of-interest scandal at the Atlanta school, where Sullivan is president.

Dr. James Goodman, executive vice president of the Morehouse medical school, said the FBI “talked to me about a range of issues about Dr. Sullivan’s fitness for the position (of HHS secretary), including (the Eaves matter) and many other things.” He declined to say what other issues the FBI questioned him about.

Meanwhile, Sullivan wants White House permission to maintain his connection with the medical school while he serves the Bush Administration as secretary of health and human services, according to published reports.

The Washington Post and the Washington Times today quoted sources as saying Sullivan requested that he be permitted to take a sabbatical as president of the school, possibly with pay. Acting HHS Secretary Donald M. Newman told a staff meeting Wednesday that Administration officials initially approved the request but later reversed themselves, the Post said.

The Post said Morehouse sources understood that the reversal ruled out a paid sabbatical while Sullivan is at HHS but not necessarily an unpaid leave.

White House counsel C. Boyden Gray told the Washington Times that “nothing has been approved.