AllPolitics Special Report: Whitewater

Starr Looking At Payments To Hubbell

He's seeking White House documents on 14 people, six companies

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 5) -- There's more evidence that special prosecutor Kenneth Starr is looking for White House documents that may shed light on payments to Whitewater figure Webb Hubbell by allies of President Bill Clinton.

In a memorandum dated today to staff members, new White House counsel Chuck Ruff says they must comply with a Starr subpoena by March 14. Starr's latest White House subpoena was dated Jan. 30.

The subpoena seeks documents on 14 people and six companies with connections to the wealthy Riady family, which controls the Indonesia-based Lippo Group and has long supported Clinton.

Hubbell, a former associate attorney general in the Clinton Administration, received money from several legal clients while he was under criminal investigation by Whitewater prosecutors.

TIME reported last month that Starr was interested in the payments made to Hubbell. Before he was jailed, Hubbell was hired by Indonesia's Lippo Group, which reportedly offered him $250,000 a year for work that remains a mystery. At the suggestion of a Democratic fund-raiser, the Los Angeles Airport Commission paid Hubbell $8,250 a month to lobby the Transportation Department.

Republicans have wondered whether the legal jobs were part of a "hush-money" campaign directed by the White House to keep Hubbell happy and dissuade him from telling investigators what he knows about the Whitewater affair. Hubbell has refused to say how much he was paid by Riady companies or what he did.

"This is all about the money to Hubbell," one lawyer told The Associated Press.

Ruff's memo indicates Starr's investigators are seeking White House documents related to the Lippo Insurance Group, Steven Riady, Little Rock, Ark. businessmen Mark Grobmyer and Joe Giroir and others.