Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: U.S. demands 3 lawmakers' expense stubs Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 15:01:10 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD U.S. demands 3 lawmakers' expense stubs \BY Paul M. Rodriguez \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed more than 685 expense vouchers relating to the House post office and three Democratic congressmen, including Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The latest subpoena, coming a week before the November elections, demands that the House clerk deliver the previously undisclosed records to U.S. Attorney Jay B. Stephens for presentation to a federal grand jury tomorrow. "All records in your possession of the [House] Bank . . . relating to Congressmen Dan Rostenkowski, Austin Murphy and Joe Kolter" also were included in the subpoena given House Clerk Donald Anderson on Oct. 22. Congressional and federal law enforcement officials, who requested anonymity, said the subpoena links, for the first time, financial activities by members at both the House post office and the now-closed House bank. Allegations linking the two institutions include reports that some House members, officers or employees used the bank, post office and House credit union to operate what amounted to a money-laundering scheme to cover bad checks, gambling debts and shortages in official accounts. Mr. Rostenkowski, of Illinois, and Mr. Kolter, of Pennsylvania, who is retiring this year, had no bad checks at the bank. Mr. Murphy, of Pennsylvania, had six overdrawn checks. None has been tied to any alleged wrongdoing at the bank. The three-page subpoena also seeks all documents or records between Jan. 1, 1984, through April 15, 1992, reflecting goods or services charged to the office account of Postmaster Robert Rota, including vouchers for postal stamps. Mr. Rota, who has declined comment, resigned from office after a series of stories, beginning Jan. 22, about mismanagement and criminal activities at the mail facility. Mr. Rostenkowski, Mr. Murphy and Mr. Kolter are the only members publically linked to the probe. Allegations include improper conversion of stamps to cash, free mailings of personal packages, cashing of campaign and personal checks at the post office, and use of postal clerks to collect campaign contributions at special post office boxes. Six former post office employees, including the chief of staff, have been convicted and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. The congressmen have invoked Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before the grand jury but have complied with subpoenas to turn over their office records, including vouchers for stamps, to federal prosecutors. Several aides also have been subpoenaed. The full House has complied with other subpoenas for an assortment of records, including vouchers and expense records, of the members and the post office. Each of the three congressmen has stated that he has done nothing improper in connection with the post office, which a House task force earlier this year concluded was riddled with abuse and mismanagement largely because of the Democratically controlled patronage system. The latest subpoena follows a flurry of activity during the past 10 days by the grand jury, which has interviewed House officials responsible for paying members' expense vouchers, as well as current and former House employees familiar with the post office and operations of the members involved. The grand jury was empaneled in January. The Justice Department is conducting a separate investigation of the House bank, which was closed last December after it was disclosed that hundreds of members floated thousands of overdraft checks worth millions of dollars. A special prosecutor, retired federal Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey, is working with a federal grand jury and the FBI in the bank probe. So far, Mr. Wilkey has sent letters of exoneration to more than 200 lawmakers who were found to have written insufficient-fund checks at the bank but who were found not to have broken any laws. A spokesman for Mr. Stephens, who has two assistant U.S. attorneys and a senior prosecutor from the Justice Department's Office of Public Integrity working on the post office investigation, declined comment. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM