5 Ex-Travel Office Workers No Longer Targets of Probe : White House: Inquiry continues into activities of two others, the agency’s former top officials. Quintet likely will get other federal jobs soon.

Five former White House travel office employees, drummed out of their jobs in May amid allegations of financial mismanagement, no longer are targets of a Justice Department investigation, officials said Thursday.

While an investigation continues into past activities of the office’s former top two officials, it is “quite likely” that the other five will be placed in similar-paying federal jobs soon, White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said. “Our commitment is to find them comparable employment,” she said.

But Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern declined to rule out the possibility that some of the five employees could become targets as the investigation continues.

And Myers indicated that the White House--which has formally apologized for “insensitive treatment” of the group--has no intention of making any statement to clear them of all wrongdoing.

Nor, she said, would the White House reimburse any of the group for legal expenses. Attorneys indicated that those fees would be substantial. In one case, they could total about $15,000.

Meanwhile, it was learned that the actions of television producer Harry Thomason and of Catherine Cornelius, President Clinton’s distant cousin, will be included in the investigation being conducted by the Justice Department’s public integrity section.

Thomason, Clinton’s longtime friend and television consultant, is one-third owner of an aviation consulting firm and helped initiate the inquiry into the travel office.

Cornelius, who coordinated commercial travel for the Clinton-Gore campaign, proposed replacing the travel office with a scaled-down system similar to the campaign’s.

Stern declined to comment on whether their activities will be examined under federal conflict-of-interest statutes. But another government source, who declined to be identified, said that is the case. “This is being very professionally handled,” Stern said.

The investigation is expected to take months to complete.

The White House stumbled into a public relations disaster in May when it dismissed the employees. Aides said the office was run sloppily and hinted that it might have been run for some employees’ enrichment.

But after it was disclosed that the firings were advocated by White House employees and others with a personal interest in the office’s management, the White House hastily backtracked and put the employees on administrative leave.

On July 2, the White House released an 80-page report saying it erred in firing the employees and in disclosing that the FBI was investigating them. The mismanagement charges, however, were not withdrawn.

The five employees--John Dreylinger, John McSweeney, Barney Brasseaux, Robert Van Eimeren and Robert Maugham--learned they were not targets in letters that they have received from the Justice Department.

The first such letters apparently came in May but the latest was sent in the last several days.

“These were not declination letters,” Stern said. “It’s incorrect to say they have been dropped from the investigation; it is correct to say that, based on what we know now, they are not targets or subjects of the investigation.”

Mark Shaffer, attorney for McSweeney, said he expects to begin talks about finding his client a job soon. McSweeney’s view, he said, is that “a wrong has been done to him and he hopes it will be remedied.”