Ex-HUD Aide Tells Panel He Won’t Testify

WASHINGTON — A former top official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development refused Friday to appear before a congressional panel investigating the agency or to comply with a committee subpoena demanding records of his dealings with HUD after leaving government.

Lance H. Wilson, in a letter to the House subcommittee, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in refusing to comply with the subpoena or appear before the panel next month as ordered. The subpoena had called on Wilson to produce numerous documents by Friday.

Wilson said attacks on him last month by subcommittee members after he did not appear before the panel as scheduled “made it clear that the subcommittee members have prejudged me and have no intention of affording me a fair and even-handed hearing.”

Wilson’s attorney, Raymond Banoun, also lashed out at the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), other members of the panel and its staff, saying in a separate letter that all had knowingly made inaccurate statements about Wilson during televised hearings that the attorney referred to as a charade.

Attempts to reach Lantos and subcommittee staff members were unsuccessful.

Wilson was former HUD Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr.’s top aide for several years and, after leaving the agency, invested in several projects that received subsidies from HUD. His successor as Pierce’s executive assistant, Deborah Gore Dean, appeared before Congress in May but refused to answer questions, asserting her Fifth Amendment rights.

The subcommittee, in recess until after Labor Day, has been investigating influence-peddling, mismanagement and fraud at HUD during the Ronald Reagan Administration. Testimony and other evidence to date indicates that former HUD officials and prominent officials received special treatment from the agency that helped them reap millions of dollars in government financing and subsidies.