Official Pursues New Leads in Passport Case

State Department investigators have obtained new leads that could link the White House more closely to the search of Bill Clinton’s passport records.

State Department Inspector General Sherman Funk “is pursuing leads,” a State Department official said. “There is the strong implication that they are new leads.”

Funk reported last week that the search was conducted in violation of laws and administrative rules by political appointees of the department looking for damaging information about Clinton.

In a brief telephone interview, Funk recalled that he had said last week, when his report was made public, that the investigation will remain open in case new leads turn up. He would not say anything more about the nature of the information he now is considering.

Funk’s original report concluded that White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, knew about the search almost as soon as it began and that other White House political operatives encouraged State Department officials to hunt for anything that could substantiate rumors that Clinton once had considered renouncing his citizenship to avoid military service in Vietnam.

No evidence has been found that Clinton attempted to renounce his citizenship.

But Funk said there was no evidence that the White House had “orchestrated” the search, which was conducted in a way that violated the federal privacy act and drew the traditionally nonpartisan State Department into the Nov. 3 election campaign.

The report was widely criticized by congressional Democrats, who argued that Funk should have tried harder to tie in the White House.

“He said he found no evidence of White House involvement . . . but it certainly appears that there was White House knowledge,” said Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on international operations. At the urging of Berman’s subcommittee, the General Accounting Office has launched its own investigation of the incident. A report is expected in January.

Funk, who cherishes his reputation as one of the government’s most conscientious inspector generals, clearly does not want the GAO, an arm of Congress, to establish a White House link that he failed to discover.

A congressional investigator said last week that the GAO will focus on testimony reported by Funk in which Baker’s White House aides seem to contradict each other.