Delay Expected in Release of Clinton Business Files

President Clinton may take “a couple of weeks” to give the Justice Department personal records about a controversial business venture in Arkansas, the White House said Monday.

Under pressure for disclosure, the White House announced before Christmas that Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton would voluntarily turn over all of their records related to the Whitewater Development Corp.

The real estate venture has been linked to a failed savings and loan that is the subject of a federal investigation, and Republican members of Congress have been pressing for appointment of a special prosecutor. The Administration continued to resist that request on Monday.

White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said the Justice Department will not get the files until the documents are “catalogued” with the help of the White House counsel’s office. The department did not request the documents.

“There’s actually quite a bit of documents. This includes campaign files, personal files,” she said. “They are in the process of being catalogued and will be turned over in the next couple of weeks.”

White House aides said the Clintons’ lawyers are copying and creating a record of all the documents, much as they would in a standard legal proceeding.

Senior White House adviser Bruce Lindsey said: “They are checking to make sure--going back to all the various sources, including the campaign files and others--to make one final sweep to make sure they have everything we’ve agreed to turn over, which is everything we have.”

He said the Clintons’ personal attorney, David Kendall, has been on vacation.

Clinton brusquely turned aside a reporter’s question Monday on his relation to Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Assn. and its head, former friend and political ally James McDougal.

Asked if he supported naming a special prosecutor to look into Whitewater records, Clinton said: “I have nothing to say about that. I’ve said we’ll turn the records over. And there’s nothing else for me to say about that.”

In an interview taped for broadcast tonight on the Fox network program “A Current Affair,” McDougal reiterated previous denials of wrongdoing by himself or Clinton. “You won’t find anything incriminating on me or the President. I certainly have no knowledge of any scandal that would have caused him distress,” McDougal was quoted as saying.

Federal investigators are looking into whether any money from the thrift was illegally diverted to the Whitewater real estate venture, owned by the Clintons and McDougals, and whether thrift money helped pay off Clinton’s political and personal debts.

In a letter to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno on Monday, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) again requested a special prosecutor.