D.C. Chief Federal Judge Faces Probe By Pete Yost Associated Press Writer Tuesday, May 2, 2000; 4:48 p.m. EDT WASHINGTON �� In a rare step, a judicial panel has hired a former U.S. attorney to investigate why the chief federal judge in Washington specially assigned the cases of presidential friends to judges appointed by President Clinton, legal sources said Tuesday. Joe D. Whitley, a Republican who served in the Reagan and Bush administrations as a prosecutor in Georgia and Washington, will conduct the investigation of U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, according to the legal sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity. Whitley will work for the five-judge panel that is overseeing a misconduct complaint against Johnson to determine why she bypassed the normal random case assignment system in a half dozen prosecutions in the fund-raising and Whitewater investigations. In each instance, Johnson, a Democratic appointee, sent cases to judges appointed by Clinton, and in one instance she urged federal prosecutors to request a specific judge appointed by him. The cases included those of presidential friends Webster Hubbell, a Whitewater figure, and Charlie Trie, a key Clinton fund-raiser. After The Associated Press first disclosed special assignments in the Trie and Hubbell cases last year, Johnson wrote a letter saying her decision was not politically motivated and simply was designed to shift complex cas es to judges with open schedules. She has repeatedly declined requests for additional comment. The legal sources at the federal courthouse in Washington say the five judges overseeing the probe will work with Whitley to complete the investigation swiftly, perhaps in a matter of weeks. Based on the findings of Whitley and the five judges, the panel will make a recommendation to the Judicial Council of federal appeals and district judges, who must decide whether to discipline Johnson. The council's decision could be appealed to the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the U.S. court system. Legal experts said the hiring of outside counsel to investigate a judge's conduct is relatively rare. "I can't think of any parallel situation in which it became known that an outside investigator has been hired," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers. "Usually it's all done internally." Whitley declined comment through a secretary at the Atlanta law firm where he works. He served as U.S. attorney in Macon, Ga., from 1981-87, then moved to the Justice Department in Washington where in 1989, he became acting associate attorney general, the department's No. 3 post. From 1990-93, Whitley ser ved a second stint as U.S. attorney in Atlanta. According to courthouse sources, Whitley will interview Johnson and others about why she bypassed a computer system that randomly assigns criminal cases. Johnson's bypassing of the random system disturbed some of her coll eagues, and they have since discarded the rarely used court rule that allowed the special assignments. The sources said it was unclear whether a separate matter � closed meetings among Clinton-appointed judges at the courthouse � also will be investigated. Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, has filed a formal complaint against Johnson. The group released a letter from the federal appeals court stating that the allegation of secret meetings "remains under advisement ." Pressure also is mounting from Capitol Hill. Rep. Dan Burton, R- Ind., has asked Johnson to testify May 17 before his House Government Reform Committee. That committee still has not been told whether Johnson will accept the panel's invitation. Johnson, an appointee of President Carter, assigned the tax evasion case against Hubbell and the fund-raising prosecution of Trie to judges recently appointed by Clinton. She also assigned four other fund-raising cases to Clinton judges, including that of Howard Glicken, a former fund-raiser for Vice President Al Gore. Glicken was sentenced to community service. In that case, Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan wrote the judge pleading for leniency. Initially, the complaint against Johnson for the Trie and Hubbell cases was dismissed by a federal appeals judge. But when Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., disclosed the additional cases, the Judicial Council named the five-judge panel to take a closer look. � Copyright 2000 The Associated Press -- Kathleen "When important issues affecting the life of an individual are decided by somebody else, it makes no difference to the individual whether that somebody else is a king, a dictator or society at large." - James Taggart (1992) <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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