Whitewater Panel Probes Meeting : Inquiry: At 1993 gathering, Clinton lawyers sought to thwart the investigation, senator charges.

The head of a Senate investigative panel charged Sunday that President Clinton’s lawyers met on Nov. 5, 1993, as part of “an attempt to suppress the legitimate investigation” by federal officials of the Whitewater case.

The claim by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) is the closest Republicans have come to accusing the president and his aides of participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. In the past, D’Amato has demurred when asked directly if he believes there was a Whitewater cover-up.

In 23 days of public hearings, beginning last summer, D’Amato’s Senate Whitewater Committee so far has failed to find conclusive evidence of obstruction of justice. Just last week, the senator said he feared he would be harshly criticized by his colleagues if he characterized the information gathered so far as evidence of a presidential cover-up.

The Whitewater scandal began as a federal inquiry into allegations that the Clintons benefited from money diverted from a failed Arkansas thrift, which was owned by their investment partner in an Ozarks resort called White Water Estates. But the controversy has widened to include a variety of issues, including the suicide of former Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster.

D’Amato, who leveled his charges on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” indicated his investigation hinges on finding out what happened at the Nov. 5, 1993, meeting in which seven Clinton advisors--all lawyers--discussed Whitewater.

The White House has refused to give the Senate panel notes from the meeting on grounds that they are protected by attorney-client privilege, and members of the panel last week voted to issue a subpoena to obtain the notes.

In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the president expressed a desire to have the issue resolved in the courts. “In all the history of these inquiries, no one has ever asserted before that the president should have no personal lawyer-client relationship. . . . And it seems to me that if that’s going to be the rule, then perhaps a judge ought to decide that and ought to determine what the limits of it are.”

D’Amato accused the White House of “stonewalling” on the subpoena issue. He noted that at least two of the lawyers who attended the November 1993 meeting were then serving as White House officials and had been using their positions to collect information about the ongoing federal inquiries into Whitewater.

“Both these men had contacts, either with the Treasury or with the [Resolution Trust Corp.] or the Small Business Administration, and we believe in an attempt to gather information and in an attempt to suppress the legitimate investigation from going forward,” D’Amato said.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Mark Fabiani said D’Amato’s remarks were an indication that he was “getting desperate.”