Ethics Panel Considering Expansion of Wright Inquiry

The House Ethics Committee is considering whether to expand its investigation of House Speaker Jim Wright in connection with recent testimony on a Texas oil deal and new allegations that surfaced in the press and at a federal criminal trial in Dallas, a panel member said Monday.

There are still unanswered questions about an oil and gas investment that brought Wright a quick profit of $340,000, according to Rep. John T. Myers (R-Ind.), ranking GOP member of the committee.

In addition, he said, the panel must decide whether to investigate published reports that the Speaker once accepted free travel on corporate jets in violation of House rules.

Committee Chairman Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) conferred Monday with Myers but no decisions were made public after their discussion.

Weighing Evidence

“Later this week, we’ll probably make an announcement on how far we’re willing to go,” Myers said. “We have to weigh the evidence we already have. . . . At some point we’ll have to cut it off.”

The committee is looking into testimony in federal court in Dallas that Wright allegedly promised to block legislation opposed by savings and loan associations if they would raise $250,000 to help a Democrat win a special congressional election in 1985.

Wright, a Democrat from Texas who has added five attorneys to his legal team to launch his defense to the committee’s charges that he violated House rules on 69 occasions, angrily denied Monday that he ever was involved in any such trade-off.

“That is emphatically and categorically incorrect,” Wright told reporters, referring to sworn testimony by David Farmer, former chief financial officer of Commodore Savings Assn. of Dallas. “I do not know Mr. Farmer and it’s apparent he does not know me.”

Was Told of Pledge

Farmer, testifying in a fraud trial involving allegations of illegal corporate political contributions by the institution, said Friday that his boss, Commodore Chairman John Harrell, told him Wright had pledged that legislation affecting S&Ls; would be bottled up if thrift industry executives would contribute $250,000 to a political action committee supporting Jim Chapman, who was seeking the seat for Texas’ 1st Congressional District. Chapman eventually won the race.

Wright insisted that he never asked anyone he helped to do a favor for him in return, adding: “That I’ll stand upon as long as I have breath.”

In another development, the Wall Street Journal reported that Wright accepted free plane trips in 1983 from T. R. Jewell, the operator of Jewell Enterprises Inc., a financially troubled chain of nursing homes, in an apparent breach of House rules.

In contrast to his flat denial of the Dallas trial testimony, Wright’s rebuttal was not as strongly worded on this allegation. “I have absolutely no recollection” of such services, he said. “Mr. Jewell gave me a ride and it wasn’t on an airplane. He took me for a ride. I lost a substantial amount of money.”

The Speaker referred to his purchase of $100,000 worth of stock in the firm, which he paid for with a $100,000 loan from the American Bank in Arlington, Tex. Wright lost nearly all of the money when the company became insolvent. However, the New York Times has reported that the Speaker did receive some payments from the firm while other shareholders received nothing.

Asked whether Jewell had helped him get financing to buy the stock, Wright brushed aside the question, saying that the only important thing was that he had paid back the loan.

Meanwhile, the Speaker’s office announced the addition of five lawyers to his defense team to help William C. Oldaker, who has represented Wright during the first phase of the Ethics Committee’s inquiry.

Clark Clifford, 82, a former defense secretary who has been associated with the top levels of the Democratic Party since he was a special counsel to President Harry S. Truman, topped the list. Robert Altman, a lawyer from Clifford’s firm, also was put on the team.

Other counsels named were Stephen D. Susman, a Houston trial lawyer who has represented the Hunt brothers of Texas; Susman associate Neil S. Manne, a former Senate aide, and Rep. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.), a four-term congressman who has been conducting briefings on Wright’s defense with small groups of House members.

“I think we have an extremely strong case to make,” Wright said.

A spokesman for the Speaker said that he would file motions this week with the Ethics Committee, seeking to dismiss the charges and to turn over evidence in the committee’s possession that could be useful in his defense.