White House Not Linked to Passport Hunt, Official Says : Records: A Bush Administration aide says the investigation of the search of Clinton, Perot files is confined to the State Department.

State Department investigators looking into the department’s search of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s passport files have not established a link to anyone at the White House, a White House official said Saturday.

“As far as I know, this investigation is contained at State,” the official said.

Questions of whether high officials of the Bush Administration approved or had knowledge of the search emerged last week as sources disclosed that Elizabeth Tamposi, the State Department official dismissed for her role in the affair, had told investigators that it was approved by a former presidential aide.

The former aide, John F. W. Rogers, is now undersecretary of state for management and is among the department’s highest-ranking political appointees. Although no one has charged that Rogers discussed the search with White House officials, his alleged involvement moved the inquiry a step closer to the President’s inner circle.

“The issue is not what happened, but who told who to do it,” a Capitol Hill source said Saturday.

State Department inspector general Sherman Funk is expected to announce the results this week of his investigation into why, as the November election campaign was reaching its climax, three top State Department officials combed through old passport records of Clinton, his mother and independent candidate Ross Perot.

In a telephone interview Saturday, Funk indicated the investigation was not complete. He suggested that he may have some leads which have not been pursued.

“I can’t comment on any phase of the investigation,” Funk said. Asked when the report would be issued, he said, “As soon as we’ve exhausted our last leads, which should be soon, but I can’t give you an exact date.”

Although only bits and pieces of the story have come out, it seems clear that the State Department officials were looking for damaging information about Bush’s two election foes. Last week, Bush fired Tamposi, the assistant secretary of state in charge of the passport office. No other officials have been disciplined.

According to a source close to the case, Tamposi has told investigators that she informed Rogers of the search. Tamposi said Rogers raised no objection. She considered that to be approval, so she proceeded. Tamposi’s bureau is under the supervision of Rogers’ office.

The New York Times quotes two people it describes as having firsthand knowledge of the investigation as saying Rogers told investigators that Tamposi “did not ask my approval, but informed me on the night of Sept. 30 that she was processing a Freedom of Information Act request that pertained to Mr. Clinton.”

Rogers, 36, is a protege of White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III. Rogers worked for Baker in the Ronald Reagan White House, the Treasury Department and State Department. He remained at State when Baker moved to the White House last August.

Despite the close association between Rogers and Baker, Tamposi told investigators that she has no evidence indicating that the chain of approval reached above Rogers.

In addition to Funk, the General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress, has begun an investigation. The GAO is expected to report its findings after the State Department report has been issued.

Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which first requested the Funk investigation, said the passport search was “un-American and politics at its worst.”

A former Foreign Service officer himself, Pell said the State Department should not be allowed to become “a campaign tool” for the party in power.

Tamposi’s attorney, Thomas C. Green of Washington, said the fired official was aware only that Clinton’s records were being searched.

According to employees of the government’s massive records center in suburban Maryland, the State Department officials required the facility to be kept open long after normal closing hours Sept. 30 to permit a four-hour combing of Clinton’s file dating from 1968.

The next day, the State Department officials widened the search to include Clinton’s mother, Virginia Kelley. And about two weeks later, the same group returned to search Perot’s records.

Although the State Department said the search of Clinton’s file was in response to requests from news organizations under the Freedom of Information Act, a report prepared by the staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee quoted employees of the records center as saying that the State Department officials indicated they were looking for specific correspondence and “expressed disappointment” when they were unable to find it.

When the Sept. 30 search ended after 10 p.m., Tamposi ordered Clinton’s records to be brought to her home. They were later returned. Tamposi has said she wanted to safeguard the records.

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.