
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 27, 1994                   TAG: 9403270080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

`I . . . BLEW OFF STEAM'

A senior White House official inquired last month about removing a prominent Republican hired by the Resolution Trust Corp. to investigate claims arising from the failure of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The sources said senior White House officials George Stephanopoulos and Harold Ickes were alarmed and outraged when they discovered in late February that the RTC, an independent regulatory agency, had hired Jay Stephens to handle possible civil suits growing out of Madison. Stephens severely criticized the Clinton administration after he was fired as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in March 1993.

The White House apparently dropped the subject of reversing the hiring of Stephens after being told by Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman and Treasury chief of staff Joshua Steiner that there was nothing to be done about it.

But the effort to find out whether Stephens could be replaced represents the first time the White House has been shown to have actively attempted to affect the handling of the politically sensitive investigation.

Stephanopoulos said Friday he did not "remember exactly what was said" during his Feb. 25 conversation with Steiner but that he "asked how Jay Stephens came to be retained by the RTC. I was puzzled and blew off steam over the unfairness of that decision . . . Once I got the facts from Josh, that ended the matter, as far as I was concerned."

by CNB