The Associated Press
Monday, Sept. 20, 1999; 6:41 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON –– White House press secretary Joe Lockhart cited figures from a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee report Monday to back up his claim that the committee has issued more than 700 subpoenas involving investigations of the Clinton administration and the Democratic party.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., questioned that figure on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, saying it was "totally out of line."

Burton has been the House's most aggressive pursuer of alleged White House and administration wrongdoing, investigating scandals from Whitewater and possible illegal campaign contributions to, more recently, the 1993 Branch Dividian siege in Waco and Clinton's granting of clemency to Puerto Ricans linked to a terrorist group.

Lockhart last week said that partisan politics was behind the issuing of more than 700 subpoenas to White House and administration and Democratic Party officials.

In a letter to Burton on Monday, he said Burton's committee, in a report issued last November, stated that in 1997 and 1998 the committee issued 758 subpoenas in connection with Burton's investigations.

"What makes the volume of subpoenas more extraordinary is the fact that they were issued unilaterally" without the approval of Democrats on the panel, Lockhart wrote.

He said Burton also made 643 individual demands for information in connection with his campaign finance investigation between Oct. 1, 1996 and March 31, 1998.

There was no immediate response from Burton's office.