Cranston Assails Leaks as ‘Malicious’

Sen. Alan Cranston on Monday described as “malicious” leaks to reporters about Senate Ethics Committee plans to discipline him for his role in the scandal surrounding financier Charles H. Keating Jr..

“These malicious leaks constitute a violation of ethical behavior at least as serious as anything of which we senators have been accused,” the California Democrat said in a letter to the committee.

The committee has been investigating charges that Cranston and four other senators received campaign contributions and favors from Keating while bringing improper pressure on regulators looking into activities of his Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn.

According to several published reports, the committee tentatively plans to recommend a public rebuke by the full Senate.

Cranston, who has announced his retirement at the end of his current term in 1992, told the committee he reacted to a published report Sunday of the committee’s intentions with “roaring outrage.”