Clintons Questioned in Whitewater Probe : Inquiry: The First Couple are interviewed under oath by the special counsel. He is expected to release his preliminary report soon.

President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton were questioned under oath at the White House Sunday by special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. about matters related to the Whitewater investigation, including the apparent suicide of presidential aide Vincent W. Foster.

Interviewing the Clintons was understood to be one of Fiske’s last tasks before he issues a preliminary report dealing with the circumstances behind Foster’s death last summer, the subsequent decision of White House aides to remove some files from Foster’s office and contacts between the White House and Treasury Department related to the Whitewater inquiry.

By agreement with Fiske, Congress has been waiting until it receives his preliminary report before it conducts hearings on Whitewater. Republicans are anxious to investigate White House contacts with Treasury officials and other government employees responsible for investigating savings and loan owner James B. McDougal, who was a business partner with the Clintons in the Whitewater real estate development in the Ozark Mountains.

In a written statement, White House Counsel Lloyd N. Cutler disclosed the barest details of the meeting between Fiske and the Clintons. Cutler said the Clintons’ willingness to answer questions under oath is consistent with their pledge to cooperate with the special counsel’s inquiry.

Fiske declined to comment.

White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said Clinton and his wife were interviewed separately--the President for about 90 minutes and the First Lady for about an hour. She indicated that the pair answered all questions put to them without invoking the 5th Amendment or executive privilege.

Although it is still considered unusual for a President to submit to questioning under oath in legal inquiries, several recent chief executives have done so.

Former President Richard Nixon was never interviewed under oath about the Watergate scandal. But his successor, Gerald R. Ford, testified under oath at a congressional hearing about his 1974 pardon of Nixon.

Likewise, Jimmy Carter gave a sworn deposition while President when Bert Lance, his former budget director, was under investigation for financial malfeasance. Ronald Reagan answered questions about the Iran-Contra scandal, but did not testify under oath until after leaving the presidency.

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And George Bush was interviewed about Iran-Contra while he was vice president and again while he was President but after he had been defeated for reelection.

Cutler indicated that the Clintons were interviewed only about Foster’s death and the Treasury-White House contacts during the government’s investigation of McDougal’s Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan.

Foster, a former law partner of Mrs. Clinton, was found dead in a suburban Virginia park more than a year ago with a bullet wound in the head.

Although Foster’s death was ruled a suicide, Clinton’s political critics called for an investigation when it was learned that files relating to the Whitewater development had been removed from his office shortly after his death.

In a rambling note found in shreds at the bottom of Foster’s briefcase, he said: “The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their loyal staff.” It was not clear what he meant.

Following its investigation of the collapse of Madison, the Resolution Trust Corp. sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department suggesting that some of the money from the thrift may have been diverted to the Whitewater development jointly owned by McDougal and the Clintons.

More recently, White House officials were accused of making improper contacts about the investigation with Treasury, which oversees the RTC. As a result of his role in these contacts and in ordering files removed from Foster’s office, former White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum resigned.

Central Whitewater allegations were not raised with the Clintons, according to Cutler. As a result, Fiske and his investigative team are expected to seek yet another interview with the Clintons to question them about their relationship with McDougal and allegations that their partnership in Whitewater was designed as a way to compensate them for political favors.

In addition to Fiske, others present at the interviews of the Clintons were Cutler, Clinton lawyer Donald Kendall, an associate of Fiske and a stenographer.