Lobbyists Asked to Aid Wright Defense : Help Pay Lawyers’ Fees, 100 Texans Are Urged by Speaker’s Allies

Acting with Speaker Jim Wright’s approval, four of his allies in the House have appealed to leading Texas corporate and labor union lobbyists to help pay the cost of defending him against House Ethics Committee charges, Rep. Charles Wilson (D-Tex.) said Tuesday.

The campaign to defray the fast-rising bills from the Speaker’s eight-lawyer team was started Monday at an Austin, Tex., meeting of more than 100 lobbyists coordinated by Wright’s chief of staff, Marshall Lynam.

Wilson said that the fund-raising was “distasteful” to Wright but was essential because the Speaker would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare his legal defense. Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the Speaker, said that legal defense funds are permitted under House rules.

Defense Foundation Started

The Texans attending the Austin meeting, Wilson said, were told that they could donate to Wright’s campaign fund or to a newly organized Wright legal defense foundation to be based in Ft. Worth. The defense foundation can accept unlimited amounts from individuals, corporations or labor unions that do not have a direct interest in legislation.

In addition, Wilson said, the contributions to the foundation would be made in such a way that Wright would not know who gave money.

“They were all pretty enthusiastic because they know how much (Wright) means to the state,” Wilson told reporters. “We can raise whatever it takes--we’re not going to lose this because we can’t afford the lawyers.”

In addition to Wilson, appeals for funds were made by three other Texas allies of Wright in the House--Jack Brooks, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, J. J. Pickle and Martin Frost.

When asked for comment on the fund-raising drive, House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said that Wright should “step aside” as Speaker until the charges against him have been resolved by the House ethics panel or the House itself.

“The notion that we have a man sitting in the chair raising defense funds is a problem,” Gingrich said. “If we were behaving reasonably, he would step aside and let somebody like (Rep. William H.) Natcher (D-Ky.) serve as an interim Speaker.”

Gingrich Also Accused

However, a spokesman for Wright brushed aside the suggestion by Gingrich, who brought the original charges against the Speaker a year ago and has himself been accused by a Democratic congressman of violating House rules with an unusual $105,000 book promotion fund.

Wilson also rejected the idea, saying that Wright has a strong case in his defense.

“Politically, we’re weak because of the daily pounding (in the press) that we’re taking,” Wilson said. “My advice to the Speaker is to act like a Texas jack rabbit in a hailstorm--hunker down and take it.”

Meanwhile, the Speaker maintained that he was not being distracted by the year-old investigation into his financial affairs.

When told that some members of the House are speculating that the investigation eventually might cost him his leadership post, Wright replied he has read that in the newspapers but that “my colleagues have not said that to me. I don’t think it’s a prevailing sentiment. The important thing is that Congress perform its work and not be distracted.”

In another development, the House ethics panel questioned Henry Simon, an attorney for George A. Mallick Jr., a Ft. Worth developer who is a key figure in the investigation of the Speaker. Other witnesses, including Mallick’s son, Michael, who played a role in an oil and gas investment that led to a quick profit for Wright, are to be questioned later this week.

One of Wright’s new attorneys, Stephen D. Susman of Houston, said that the expanded inquiry into this transaction is frivolous because Wright’s holdings were in a blind trust at the time.

Although Susman once said he would need 30 days to be briefed on the case, he said Tuesday that he would be ready to begin an ethics panel hearing quickly if the committee rules against the Speaker’s motion to dismiss the basic charges on grounds that they have no basis under the panel’s operating rules.

“It’s in the best interests of my client to get this thing done quickly,” Susman said.

Wright is accused of violating House rules on 69 occasions by scheming to evade a House limit on speaking fees and by accepting $145,000 in gifts from Mallick over a 10-year period. The Speaker has denied any wrongdoing but has said that he may have made “technical” mistakes in filing his financial disclosure reports.