Inquiry Called on Inmate With Quayle Claim

The Justice Department said Friday its inspector general will investigate allegations that a federal prisoner was silenced during the 1988 campaign when he sought to publicly charge that he once sold marijuana to Vice President Dan Quayle.

Inspector General Richard J. Hankinson agreed to conduct an investigation to determine why Bureau of Prisons Director J. Michael Quinlan canceled a press conference that Brett Kimberlin had scheduled four days before the 1988 election, said department spokesman Matt Jeanneret.

Kimberlin, a convicted marijuana smuggler who is also serving time for planting several bombs that exploded near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, alleges that he sold marijuana to Quayle during the 1970s, a charge the vice president has denied.

Jeanneret said that the inspector general’s investigation was requested by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who concluded in a report that Kimberlin was silenced and repeatedly placed in detention for “political purposes.”

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Gregory L. Bogdan said Hankinson “will find there was no effort on the part of the Bureau of Prisons to suppress Kimberlin. . . .”