Justice moves quickly this time

WASHINGTON The transparency and speed with which the JusticeDepartment last week sought an investigation of star Whitewaterwitness David Hale contrasted with its usual secrecy andsluggishness. With good reason. Hale represents a potentially farmore serious threat to President Clinton than Monica Lewinsky.

Independent counsel Kenneth Starr's anticipated report to theHouse of Representatives, likely to start impeachment proceedings,will emphasize a disputed $300,000 government loan in the Whitewateraffair. The allegation that Bill Clinton, as president, lied aboutit under oath is buttressed by testimony from former Little RockMunicipal Judge Hale (who accepted 28 months in prison in return forcooperating with Starr). Accordingly, discrediting Hale is a primeClinton defense goal.

That explains Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder'sextraordinary letter last Thursday to Starr asking the specialprosecutor to investigate a charge - from a single, dubious,unconfirmed source - that Hale was paid off by conservative activistRichard Mellon Scaife through the American Spectator magazine.Holder suggested "a conflict of interest or an appearance ofconflict" by Starr because of his association with Scaife.If Starr agrees that a conflict exists, Clinton's principalaccuser would be handed over to a highly politicized JusticeDepartment. This remarkable process violates the practices andprinciples so often piously invoked by Attorney General Janet Reno.Attempts to silence Hale began in 1996. Pulaski County (LittleRock) prosecuting attorney Mark Stodola, a cohort in the localDemocratic political machine, sought to thwart Starr by bringing acriminal case against Hale. He failed. Jim Guy Tucker was convictedand ousted as governor of Arkansas, and James and Susan McDougal werealso convicted - all because of leads from Hale.Hale remains a threat to the president - more now than ever,considering the imminence of Starr's impeachment report. Clinton'sdefenders allege that Hale was paid off by a "vast right-wingconspiracy." In the online magazine Salon, free-lance journalistMurray Waas quoted a funeral home worker from Bentonville, Ark.,Caryn Mann, as saying her then-live-in boyfriend, Parker Dozhier,paid Hale for secret information with funds from the AmericanSpectator provided by Scaife.These charges are refuted by Terry Eastland, who served withhonor and courage in the Reagan Justice Department and was namedinterim publisher to straighten out the conservative magazine'sfinances last year. He learned that to fund the now-discontinued"Arkansas Project" investigating Clinton, Scaife paid the magazine$2.4 million, of which $1.8 million went to a lawyer and investigatorwith connections in the state. They, in turn, paid $1,000 a monthfor clipping newspapers and running errands to Dozhier, who operatesa bait shop and marina."I didn't give David (Hale) any money," Dozhier told me.Eastland said he found "no evidence" of such payments and added, "Idon't think they were made." Hale told me: "They'd have had a fit ifI bought a Coke. I didn't."Apart from Mann's dubious credibility, the speed with which theJustice Department transformed her claims into insinuations aboutStarr is in contrast to Reno's usual languorous pace.While the attorney general normally is adamant against talkingabout ongoing investigations, at her April 3 press conference, shesaid of the accusations against Hale: "I think it must be pursued."Starr's lawyers, though declining to comment, were in factincensed by the Justice Department. They might well be tempted toask these questions: Why was the letter signed by Holder, not Reno?Indeed, did the attorney general herself pay close attention to theextraordinary language of her deputy's letter? Whether she did ornot, the message is sent of a highly politicized Justice Departmentintent above all on protecting Bill Clinton.Robert Novak is a nationally syndicated columnist of theSun-Times.