Ex-Carter Aide Named White House Counsel : Presidency: Clinton also acknowledges further staff contacts with federal regulators on Whitewater affair.

President Clinton on Tuesday enlisted eminent Washington lawyer Lloyd N. Cutler in the effort to safeguard the reputation of the White House, even as he acknowledged that his staff had several previously undisclosed contacts with federal regulators about the Whitewater controversy.

In announcing that Cutler would serve as special counsel to the President for 130 days, Clinton said that the additional contacts were incidental, involving mostly follow-up phone calls and informal, hallway conversations about earlier meetings. They had “nothing to do with the substance” of the regulators’ case, Clinton asserted in a press conference that served as a forum for his second lengthy discussion of Whitewater in as many days.

White House aides declined to provide further elaboration about the contacts, which came to light as Administration officials searched their files, trash baskets and phone logs to comply with a request from Whitewater special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. for any documents related to the Whitewater matter.

With the selection of Cutler, who 15 years ago served in the same role in the White House of President Jimmy Carter, Clinton is turning again to a consummate Washington insider.

Introducing Cutler in the White House briefing room, Clinton said the 76-year-old lawyer-lobbyist is a man of “seasoned judgment, impeccable professional credentials and the highest ethical standards. . . . I wanted a Lloyd Cutler type of lawyer, so I just decided I would go to the original first and see how I could do.”

The Whitewater special counsel was appointed by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to investigate the President and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s partnership with the owner of a failed savings and loan in an Arkansas real estate company known as the Whitewater Development Corp.

Among central questions that Fiske will try to answer is whether funds of the S&L; were used to pay off campaign debts of then-Gov. Clinton and whether its funds were diverted to Whitewater. Aides left open the possibility that a review of the documents will unearth still more contacts between White House aides and regulatory officials, although they insisted that those too would be incidental.

The issue of contacts between White House aides and regulators has given rise to new and troubling questions about Whitewater, suggesting that White House officials were meddling in an official inquiry or at least improperly benefiting from information gleaned from it.

The question of improper contacts with investigators, along with other political missteps, forced the resignation Saturday of White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum. Cutler’s temporary appointment will give the White House time to find a permanent replacement as the President’s counsel.

Cutler, describing himself as a senior citizen, said he had to “negotiate hard” to ensure that he would not have to remain in the intensely demanding job for more than a few months. He said that, although he would fulfill all the duties of the position, he would concentrate on “the procedures and actions necessary to maintain public confidence in the integrity and the openness of the presidency.”

“Trust is the coin of the realm,” he said, adding that he thought Nussbaum “had a lot of bad luck.”

Cutler said he had “put a limit on how long I would stay, in part because I know how tough a job this is and I know how old I am, in part because I’m married fairly recently (three years) to a very young and peppy wife and I want to spend some more time with her.”

The 45-minute press conference--carried live by four networks--was another effort by Clinton to demonstrate his willingness to tackle difficult questions. Smiling and even joking as he fielded dozens of queries, Clinton insisted: “I’m very relaxed about this. I didn’t do anything wrong. There’s nothing here.”

Without making a firm commitment, Clinton suggested that he has no intention of invoking “executive privilege” to prevent release of any White House documents. The protection is designed to guard the presidency from undue scrutiny by other branches of government.

“I have no idea what will come up but it is hard for me to imagine a case in which I would invoke it,” Clinton said. “My interest here is to get the facts out.”

Later, Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, met with White House staff members in an East Room session designed to bolster spirits and to encourage the staff to rise above the Whitewater turmoil.

In his press conference, Clinton shed more light on how he may have learned of an Oct. 8 meeting in which White House officials were notified that the Resolution Trust Corp., which is overseeing the liquidation of failed savings and loans, would seek a Justice Department investigation of Whitewater.

Questions have been raised about whether Clinton learned of the request before it became public and thus gained the knowledge improperly. On Monday Clinton said he “probably” learned of the request from Bruce Lindsey, his aide and longtime confidant, although he added: “I literally don’t remember.”

On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Republicans kept up their pressure for special Whitewater hearings, rejecting Democratic arguments that a congressional inquiry would only compromise Fiske’s investigation. Republicans on the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee released a list of 40 witnesses that they hope to call to testify at a March 24 hearing on the performance of the RTC.

The list resembled a Who’s Who of the Whitewater controversy, from senior White House aides to RTC officials and members of the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Ark., where Mrs. Clinton was a partner.

Among the witnesses the Republicans hoped to call are White House Chief of Staff Thomas (Mack) McLarty; Deputy Treasury Secretary and RTC head Roger Altman; Nussbaum; James B. McDougal, owner of the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan; his ex-wife, Susan McDougal, and Hillary Clinton aides Margaret Williams and Lisa Caputo.

Clinton said he would try to cooperate if Congress decides to conduct hearings on Whitewater.

If Congress ignores Fiske’s request that it convene no hearings because of the danger to future prosecutions, “then I think that’s something we would have to take very seriously,” he said. “My inclination would be to obviously participate.”

Aides said that, although other names of candidates were discussed as Nussbaum’s replacement, Cutler was the most serious contender from the beginning.

The President and top aides discussed the choice over the weekend. On Sunday night, McLarty visited Cutler at his home, then returned with him to the White House about 8 p.m. for a two-hour conversation with Clinton.

On Monday, after sleeping on the issue, Clinton told McLarty to offer Cutler the job.

Cutler, wealthy from a long and distinguished legal career, said he had offered to serve without compensation. He said he is considering suggestions that he accept a salary and donate it to the U.S. Treasury to help reduce the deficit, or take a $1-a-year salary. But he asserted that, although he would not leave his law firm--Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering of Washington--he would observe all federal ethics rules designed to prevent conflicts of interest.

Cutler has long been associated with liberal causes but has represented so many interests over his long career that his ideological identity is not always easy to discern.

He has been retained by the leading lights of American industry, from IBM to the Big Three auto makers, whom he helped to avoid threatened car-safety rules that they opposed. His work on behalf of corporations has prompted angry denunciations from consumer advocates, such as Ralph Nader.

He startled Democrats by unsuccessfully pushing for the Supreme Court nomination of conservative appeals court Judge Robert H. Bork during the Ronald Reagan presidency and he championed the unsuccessful attorney general nomination by Clinton of Zoe Baird, a Democrat who worked for him at the White House.

His long and varied career has also given rise to certain ironies.

In their health care reform efforts, the Clintons have made drug companies one of their favorite targets. But their new lawyer was hired in 1962 by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assn. to head off efforts in Congress to control drug prices.

In a related development, a Rose Law Firm courier in Little Rock, who has told a grand jury that he helped shred documents from the files of the late White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster, said Tuesday that the order to do so came after Fiske had announced that his investigation would include the circumstances of Foster’s apparent suicide, the New York Times reported in today’s editions.

Jeremy Hedges, a part-time employee of the firm, told the newspaper that he shared the chore with another courier, Clayton Lindsey. Both couriers have said that they told grand jurors that they knew the papers belonged to Foster because the box and the file folders inside bore Foster’s initials. Both couriers said they saw many of the papers they shredded and none mentioned Whitewater.

Ron Clark, a Rose partner and its chief operating officer, confirmed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that documents were destroyed after Fiske’s appointment but said they had nothing to do with Foster or the Whitewater case. Clark said four Rose firm witnesses--two clerks and two lawyers--are willing to verify as much under oath.

The account of the shredding provides no strong evidence of wrongdoing but does fuel speculation about a possible cover-up. The documents apparently were destroyed before Fiske issued a subpoena for documents in the case.

Foster had worked on Whitewater matters, as a member of the Rose firm and later at the White House.

Times staff writers John M. Broder and Michael Ross contributed to this story. Broder reported from Little Rock and Ross from Washington.

Profile: Lloyd N. Cutler

Background on the new White House counsel:

* Born: Nov. 10, 1917

* Education: Graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School

* Career highlights: From 1968-69, served as executive director of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Served as White House counsel in the Jimmy Carter Administration, 1979-81. Served as a member of the President’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform in 1989. Partner in the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington.

* Personal: Widowed in 1988; married former Rhoda Winton Kraft in 1989. Three daughters, one son from first marriage.

* Quote: “Trust is the coin of the realm.”

Source: Associated Press