RTC Puts 3 Top Investigators Linked to Whitewater on Leave

The Resolution Trust Corp. placed three senior criminal investigators who worked on the Whitewater investigation on administrative leave Monday while the agency investigates unspecified activities related to job performance.

The agency declined to give a reason for the action, but one agency source suggested it was intended, at least in part, to determine whether one of the investigators improperly tape-recorded an RTC lawyer’s comments about the Whitewater probe. All three investigators were involved in preparing formal requests to the Justice Department for criminal investigation into Whitewater and Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan.

The RTC lawyer, April Breslaw, said on the tape that officials in Washington wanted to be able to say that the activities of President and Hillary Rodham Clinton had not caused any losses to Madison Guaranty, according to a copy of the conversation obtained by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa). Madison, which failed at an estimated taxpayer cost of $60 million, was owned by the Clintons’ partner in Whitewater Development Corp.

The senior investigator handling the RTC’s request to the Justice Department for further investigation into Madison, L. Jean Lewis, tape-recorded Breslaw on Feb. 2 during a meeting in Lewis’ Kansas City office.

Breslaw told Lewis that the “head people” wanted to provide an “honest answer” about the Clintons’ role in Madison but that there were certain answers they would be “happier about, because it would get them off the hook.” In recent hearings, Breslaw said she did not know she was being taped.

An RTC spokesman said only that Lewis and two others had been placed on administrative leave with pay while the agency investigates whether any procedures were violated.