Former HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce admitted Wednesday that his conduct contributed to the federal housing scandal of the 1980s, but the ex-Cabinet secretary in the Reagan administration avoided criminal prosecution.
Independent counsel Arlin Adams released a statement in which Pierce admitted his meetings with personal friends who were lobbying for federal housing funds "sent signals to my staff that such persons should receive assistance.""These meetings and conversations, and my following discussions with staff members, created the appearance that I endorsed my friends' efforts," Pierce's statement, dated Dec. 15, said.
Pierce also acknowledged that he did not testify accurately on Capitol Hill when a congressional subcommittee began looking into HUD.
"Reviewing my exchanges with members" of Congress, "I see that I answered certain questions with broad responses that did not always accurately reflect the events occurring at HUD several years earlier," Pierce stated.
While saying that "I never received a single improper benefit for my actions," Pierce said that "I was the guardian of the HUD gates, and I rested on my post when vigilance was most needed."
Adams said he won't prosecute Pierce because of his age - 72 - poor health and "the conflicting evidence regarding the intent with which he acted, and the absence of any evidence that he or his family profited from his actions at HUD."
Prosecutors said the major investigative phase of their probe of HUD is at an end, but they continue to delve into possible perjury and obstruction of justice by others.
The probe of HUD has resulted in 16 criminal convictions of former high-ranking officials and businessmen and $2 million in criminal fines.
"Secretary Pierce's admissions comport with the proof that the government would have introduced" in a criminal case, the prosecutor said in a statement.
"By his abdication of responsibility, and by his own conduct, Secretary Pierce made it possible for his subordinates to commit crimes and to profit from their betrayal of the public trust," said Adams.