Senate Panel Denies Talk of Immunity for Keating : Ethics: Lawmakers call reports of such discussions incorrect. The committee investigating five senators asks for a probe into document leaks.

Leaders of the Senate Ethics Committee denied Thursday that the committee has ever considered granting limited immunity from prosecution to former savings and loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr. to obtain testimony about his links to five senators.

With public hearings set for next month in the politically charged case, the committee issued a statement saying it “has at no time discussed or considered granting immunity” to the former head of Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn. of Irvine, Calif.

“Reports to the contrary are incorrect,” the statement said.

The Times, citing unnamed sources on the committee, reported Thursday that the possibility of giving court-approved immunity to Keating was under consideration but that members of the panel recognized that such a step would endanger any future federal prosecution of Keating.

These sources insisted on Thursday that their original information was correct, explaining that the idea had been considered by some members of the committee and key staff aides, although views on the idea apparently were mixed.

The sources said that many in the group felt that while Keating’s testimony might be desirable and dramatic, it was not essential to the upcoming hearings--and therefore was not worth imperiling the prosecution of a man whose alleged fraudulent management of Lincoln may wind up costing taxpayers an estimated $2 billion. The failed thrift has been seized by the federal government.

The committee statement Thursday reflected the fact that Chairman Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) and Vice Chairman Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) had rejected the immunity notion “out of hand” without letting it come before the panel for official consideration, according to one source.

“They felt it was a terrible idea,” the source said.

Keating had been summoned before the panel earlier this year in closed session and, upon the advice of his attorney, had refused to testify. He cited his 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination at that time.

Congress has the legal authority to compel such testimony by applying to a federal judge for a grant of immunity protecting the subject from being prosecuted on the basis of any information he discloses to Congress.

The Justice Department must be given 30 days notice before such a grant is given to allow the department time to persuade a congressional panel to abandon its request. Such grants often complicate or thwart later prosecution.

Meanwhile, the committee said it had asked the General Accounting Office to investigate leaks of sensitive committee documents relating to its investigation of the five lawmakers, including Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

The panel said “an outside organization” such as the GAO, the auditing and investigating agency of Congress, would be best suited to conduct the leak probe because “some of these disclosures may have come from the committee itself.”

The panel said it “will not speculate upon motives, but does observe that such conduct discredits the individuals responsible and violates the committee’s rules.”

The investigative materials that surfaced last week showed that three of the senators--Cranston, Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.)--had taken more extensive actions to petition federal thrift regulators on Keating’s behalf than previously believed.

Cases against the other two lawmakers--Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)--are considered weaker. Because McCain is the sole Republican under scrutiny and because the leaked documents focused on Cranston, DeConcini and Riegle, some Democrats have charged that the leaks were motivated by partisanship.

In rules to govern the hearings that the panel issued Thursday, each senator will be afforded a chance to make an opening statement. Witnesses to be presented by Robert S. Bennett, the committee’s special counsel, may be cross-examined by lawyers for all of the senators.

Each senator also may present witnesses on his own behalf.