Panel to Subpoena U.S. Attorneys in Contra Drug Probe

A House panel voted Wednesday to subpoena three federal prosecutors as part of its investigation into whether Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III or other high-ranking Justice Department officials improperly halted federal probes into possible gunrunning and drug dealing by Nicaraguan contras and their supporters.

The House Judiciary subcommittee on crime is looking “specifically at some alleged wrongdoing on the part of the Department of Justice,” Chairman William J. Hughes (D-N. J.) said before his panel voted 6 to 4 along party lines to issue the subpoenas to Assistant U.S. Attys. Jeffrey Feldman, David Leiwant and Lawrence Sharf.

The charges against the contras have been the subject of several investigations, none of which have produced any hard evidence of involvement in illegal drugs or arms dealing. Both Administration officials and opponents of contra aid say they believe that any proof of the allegations--particularly concerning drugs--would doom further U.S. aid to the rebels.

The panel is investigating several “allegations of going slow and impeding investigations because of possible impact on contra-aid votes” in Congress, subcommittee counsel Hayden W. Gregory said Wednesday. The gist of the allegations is that “the U.S. attorney (in Miami, Leon Kellner) was contacted by people in Washington” who ordered a slowdown in a Florida investigation, Gregory said.

In addition to the possible impact on contra aid, the subcommittee is investigating a charge that Meese and other Administration officials may have been involved in efforts to delay the 1985 investigations because the probes could have unmasked the Iran arms sales.

Meese Questioned

Meese’s activities already have become a subject for the congressional committees investigating the Iran-contra affair. On Wednesday, the attorney general spent several hours answering questions from investigators for those committees, who want to know whether he had advance knowledge of the Iran arms sales or of the diversion of the proceeds to the contras.

The investigators have questioned whether Meese took part in a plan by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and the late CIA Director William J. Casey to impede congressional investigations by telling the House and Senate intelligence committees a false story that described arms sold to Iran as oil-drilling equipment.

Justice Department spokesman Terry Eastland on Wednesday repeated Meese’s contention that he had no knowledge of the arms sales or of the fund diversion until last November, when he found evidence of the transactions while investigating the Iran operation at Reagan’s request. Meese, who insists that he had no role in any cover-up, will testify publicly before the committees later this month.

Contra leaders have consistently denied any involvement in drug-selling operations. Administration officials have repeated those denials, although the allegations have led Secretary of State George P. Shultz to warn contra leaders that the United States would cut off aid to any organization that did not purge leaders found to be involved in drug dealing.