Starr Reportedly To Seek Hubbell Tax Charge

Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr has decided to seek an indictment against Webster Hubbell, the former associate attorney general, on tax evasion charges, USA Today and Fox News Channel said today.

The paper said Starr hoped to pressure Hubbell into cooperating fully with the investigation into the business and political affairs of President Clinton and his wife, Hillary.

The decision to pursue the indictment was made at a staff meeting in Little Rock, Ark., last week, the newspaper said. Fox said Starr would file the charges against Hubbell by the end of the summer.

A source close to Hubbell told The Associated Press that he had not received a letter saying that he was a target of the investigation nor had he been informed that he was about to indicted.

Starr’s spokeswoman, Deborah Gershman, declined comment.

Hubbell, who is a close friend of the Clintons, resigned as the No. 3 official at the Justice Department in March 1994 amid questions about his billing practices at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, where he had worked with Hillary Clinton before coming to Washington in Clinton’s first term.

In a deal with Starr, Hubbell in December 1994 pleaded guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud charges resulting from the bilking of his client of $400,000. He later was sentenced to 21 months in prison and was released in February this year.

Whitewater prosecutors have been investigating a series of payments, reportedly totaling $400,000, from Clinton’s friends to Hubbell made between March 1994 and December 1994 and whether they were designed to discourage his cooperation with the investigation.