The Senate Whitewater Committee will recommend perjury investigations of testimony by two White House officials and a confidante of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senate sources said.
They are Deputy White House Chief of Staff Harold Ickes; the first lady's chief of staff, Margaret Williams; and Susan Thomases, a New York attorney and Clinton confidante, the sources said.Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., spoke of "a serious number of discrepancies" in the three witnesses' testimony.
But Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., said, "No serious case can be made to back up that charge. The committee owes the public a substantive report after a year of hearings, but this is a play for titillation instead."
The perjury recommendations are expected to be made in the panel's final report, to be issued Monday. The 14-month Senate investigation, which ended Tuesday, is estimated to have cost taxpayers $1.3 million.
D'Amato told reporters the panel planned to recommend to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr that he investigate possible perjury in the testimony of unnamed witnesses. "There will be undoubtedly some referrals" to Starr, D'Amato said.