from http://dolphin.gulf.net/jan02/Magaziner

       WHITE HOUSE AIDE IRA MAGAZINER UNDER INVESTIGATION

        White House aide Ira Magaziner is under investigation for
lying in court. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has asked U.S.
Attorney Eric Holder to start an investigation of Mr. Magaziner.

        The investigation is the latest  development  in  the  21
month  case involving the legality of the White House Health Care
Task Force led  by  Hillary  Clinton  and  Ira  Magaziner.  Judge
Lamberth  has declared the case moot because he is confident that
the White House has finally released all  papers  from  the  task
force.

        But in an order  released  just  before  Christmas  Judge
Lamberth  strongly  suggested  that  Mr.  Magaziner  deliberately
supplied the court with false information. He said Mr.  Magaziner
may  be  guilty  of perjury, giving false statements and criminal
contempt of court.

        On  March  3,  1993,  Mr.  Magaziner   signed   a   sworn
declaration to Judge Lamberth stating that only federal employees
served as members of the task force. He also stated that the task
force  hired  numerous  consultants  but that these people had no
supervisory roles or decision-making authority.

        The declaration was significant in the  case  because  it
caused  the  Judge  to  deny  requests  to open up the task force
meetings to public scrutiny.

        But Judge Lamberth now says that "We now know,  from  the
records  produced  in  this litigation, that numerous individuals
who were never federal employees did much more that  just  attend
working  group meetings on an intermittent basis, and we now know
that some of these individuals even had supervisory or  decision-
making  roles."                     

        The  question  for  the  U.S.  Attorney  is  whether  Mr.
Magaziner  knowingly  misled  the  court.  The  Judge  raised the
possibility that Attorney General Janet  Reno  may  ask  for  the
appointment  of an independent counsel to  investigate the  case.
The  White  House  and Mr. Magaziner have so far been represented
by the Justice Department in the task force case.

        Judge Lamberth is also expected to rule  that  the  White
House pay the plaintiff's legal cost of $370,000 in the case. The
tab would then be picked up by the taxpayer.