Special counsel Robert Fiske has chosen a strategy of quick and aggressive action in the Whitewater probe.
Rather than have FBI agents work quietly behind the scenes to gather information slowly, Fiske has taken a high-profile approach. He has:
-- Slapped wide-ranging subpoenas on every possible witness, major or minor.
-- Hurried witnesses before a grand jury in Little Rock.
-- Ordered White House aides to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., starting as early as Thursday.
-- Personally phoned Republican legislators to discourage congressional hearings.
Veteran prosecutors say Fiske has the right strategy.
"A prosecutor would prefer a low-key approach," says Marvin Collins, U.S. attorney in Dallas under Reagan and Bush. "You get more information that way. Unfortunately, when the story is on the front page like Whitewater, you have to take a different route."
In his most assertive move, Fiske subpoenaed six White House staffers to testify before a grand jury about meetings they had on Whitewater with savings and loan regulators.
By expanding the probe to include a possible White House cover-up, Fiske has made the investigation more dangerous for the White House.
White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum lost his job as a result. And White House staffers have hired private lawyers.
The lawyers are working out when White House aides will testify and turn over documents to the grand jury. The appearances could start as early as Thursday, says Allen Snyder, lawyer for White House senior adviser Bruce Lindsey.
President Clinton has pledged full cooperation. Four hundred White House staffers signed papers this week to certify that they had turned over every Whitewater document on their desk or in their trash.
The search appears likely to produce more embarrassment. The White House says the search turned up additional contacts, albeit minor ones, with other agencies about Whitewater.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, one of the officials who will testify before a grand jury, has said he had minor hallway discussions about Whitewater, but only one significant meeting.
Legal experts say Nussbaum got the Clinton staff into trouble because he misunderstood the White House counsel's role.
"He serves the office of the presidency, not President Bill Clinton," says legal ethics scholar Monroe Freedman.
Bush White House counsel C. Boyden Gray says he wanted to help Bush on some legal issues but didn't: "There are times when you simply have to hold back and not get involved."
Fiske, who earned a reputation prosecuting organized crime, appears prepared to pick through every strand of the Whitewater web.
He has offices in three cities - Little Rock, New York and Washington, D.C. - and two separate grand juries.
His Washington office is 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue - six blocks from the White House. The building's other tenants include former Bush campaign manager James Baker and Bush budget director Richard Darman.
By using two grand juries to investigate, Fiske gains several advantages. He:
-- Gets testimony from witnesses outside the presence of defense lawyers, who aren't allowed in the grand jury room.
-- Avoids the slow process of waiting for FBI agents to process paperwork on what happened in an interview.
-- Makes it hard for witnesses to change or soften their story during the lengthy probe.
-- Gets testimony before Congress does, avoiding the chance that congressional immunity might make the information impossible to use in court. That problem plagued Iran-contra prosecutors.
"This strategy is the quickest, fastest, best way. You bring as many witnesses as possible before as many grand juries as you need and knock them off boom, boom, boom," says former federal prosecutor Nick Akerman, who worked for Fiske when Fiske was U.S. attorney in New York.
A two-track investigation
Special counsel Robert Fiske is on a two-track course in looking at President Clinton's and Hillary Rodham Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater land development deal in Arkansas. Six White House aides and four Treasury Department officials have been subpoenaed to appear Thursday at the special counsel's office in Washington. A look at the probes:
IN LITTLE ROCK Fiske has a special grand jury looking at Whitewater and all its tentacles:
-- President Clinton's involvement, both financially and influentially, when he was governor of Arkansas.
-- Hillary Rodham Clinton's role, both as an investor in Whitewater and as lawyer for Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan.
-- Madison S&L run by Whitewater partner James McDougal. Its failure cost taxpayers at least $ 47 million. Questions include: whether state regulators went easy on McDougal and Madison because of the Clinton connection; whether Madison funds were illegally diverted to cover Clinton campaign costs.
-- Possible destruction of Whitewater documents by Hillary Clinton and her Rose Law Firm, a charge denied by the president and the law firm.
IN WASHINGTON Fiske's staffers are looking at the possible obstruction of justice by Clinton administration officials:
-- Conversations between White House aides and Treasury Department officials about a Resolution Trust Corp. investigation into Madison S&L's failure.
-- Confidential information given to President Clinton that the RTC was investigating whether his gubernatorial campaign had received improper donations from Madison. Clinton said he was told about the probe in October, but said he didn't recall who told him.
-- Suicide of White House deputy counsel Vince Foster, a partner with Hillary Clinton in the Rose Law Firm. The probe focuses on both the investigation into Foster's death and possible removal of Whitewater documents from his office by resigned White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum.
-- Possible destruction of Whitewater documents beyond those believed taken from Foster's office by Nussbaum. One sign of the probe: Piles of trash accumulated in White House offices as more than 400 employees were told not to destroy their trash, phone logs or computer files.
