Starr Summons Governor, First Lady of Arkansas

Gov. Jim Guy Tucker confirmed Friday that he, his wife and one of their attorneys had been subpoenaed by Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr to appear before a federal grand jury next week.

Tucker said he would attempt to have the subpoena quashed.

An attorney for Tucker said the Arkansas governor would invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer questions if the subpoena was upheld.

“We’ve always said we would be happy to discuss specific items with Mr. Starr or a grand jury, but would not participate in a fishing expedition,” Tucker told reporters Friday.

Starr was appointed to investigate the financial affairs of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, but his probe has since broadened to include many other political and business figures in Arkansas, including Tucker.

Tucker was elected lieutenant governor of Arkansas in 1990, and became governor when Clinton resigned to become President in 1993. Tucker, a Democrat, was elected to a full four-year term in November, 1994.

Tucker released the text of a letter from one of his attorneys, George B. Collins of Chicago, to Hickman Ewing, Starr’s senior counsel, in which Collins accuses Starr of “political purposes.”

Collins said Tucker had provided more than 100,000 documents at Starr’s request, including 30-year-old records from his days as a college student, but had yet to be told why.