Reagan-Era Special Probe Keeps Going, Report Says

The Whitewater investigation racked up $5 million in expenses in the six-month period that ended last September, according to an audit of special prosecutors’ probes that found one from Reagan-era wrongdoing was still going strong.

The independent counsel investigation into influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the late 1980s spent $661,885 between April and September of last year, said a General Accounting Office report released Monday.

Most of the money was spent on salaries and office space, according to the report. Sources close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said independent counsel Larry D. Thompson, who works part of the time on the case with one part-time and one full-time attorney, is winding up his investigation and preparing a final report.

The counsel had one other piece of unfinished business: responding to motions by Deborah Gore Dean for a new trial. Dean, a key aide to former HUD Secretary Samuel R. Pierce and the last HUD official to be convicted, has not been sentenced because she seeking a new trial.

“Our work is not done until she is sentenced,” said Terri Duggan, administrative officer. Thompson was not available for comment.

The 6-year-old probe of allegations that HUD officials dispensed political favors in awarding contracts and obstructed the investigation has resulted in 17 convictions and $2 million in fines.

Kenneth W. Starr’s Whitewater investigation was the most expensive of the six independent counsels covered in the GAO report.

Auditors said Starr’s office had $3.9 million in expenditures, including nearly $1.3 million in salaries and benefits and $1.6 million in travel costs. Much of the travel spending was for FBI personnel.

The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service also spent $979,318 and $75,685, respectively, on employees assigned work for the Whitewater independent counsel during the six-month period, the audit said.

Since it began in 1994, the Whitewater investigation has cost $28 million. The investigation has been expanded to include the White House travel office and FBI files-gathering cases.

Under federal law, independent counsels are appointed by a federal appeals court when wrongdoing by top officials in the executive branch is alleged.