Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993 TAG: 9303070028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX LENGTH: Medium
LAWYER FOR ROBB DISPUTES WILDER'S VIEW OF PROBE
A lawyer for Sen. Charles Robb has disputed Gov. Douglas Wilder's suggestion that the senator received preferential treatment from the Justice Department during a criminal investigation."If the governor of Virginia is signing on to that [view], he's abandoning what he knows as an attorney is the correct and proper administration of justice in this country," Stuart Ross said.
Robb, D-Va., was the target of a federal grand jury investigation into eavesdropping on a car telephone conversation involving Wilder. The grand jury in January refused to indict Robb.
"I question whether every individual would have received the same treatment," Wilder said Thursday after a bill-signing ceremony. "I have concluded in my own mind there was extra involvement [by the Justice Department] and consideration in this case."
Wilder, a fellow Democrat, is a possible opponent if Robb runs for re-election next year.
Robb said in a statement: "It seems to me the people of Virginia will be better served if we postpone intraparty politics to a more appropriate time and place."
Wilder said his concerns about the way the Robb case was handled were based on stories he had read in The Washington Post and Legal Times, a weekly newspaper.
According to both publications, a Justice Department lawyer was dispatched to read aloud to jurors in January a memorandum saying a decision on indicting Robb was singularly their duty and not the prosecutor's duty.
George Terwilliger III, the former deputy attorney general who handled parts of the Robb investigation, said he wrote a memo to John Keeney, the acting U.S. attorney in the case. In the memo, he asked Keeney to travel to Norfolk and inform the jurors of their role in deciding on an indictment.
Terwilliger said he made the request because there had been allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. He did not elaborate or say what ultimately was said to the jurors.
Alicia Mundy, who wrote the stories for both news publications, said the Bush administration was interested in Robb's case and the president's counsel asked that it be handled carefully. Robb had sided with the Republican president on some key issues, including the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas.
Terwilliger said he has "absolutely no recollection of ever having discussed the Robb matter" with White House counsel Boyden Gray or anybody else in Gray's office. He added that he was never contacted by anyone else at the White House.
Virginia Beach developer Bruce Thompson faces three felony charges in the political eavesdropping case.