Both Hearings Want Former Justice Department Official

Webster Hubbell, former associate attorney general who was sentenced last month to 21 months in prison, has been called to testify at congressional hearings this week on the Whitewater land deal and the siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.

Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Whitewater, released a list Sunday of the witnesses he plans to call in the first week of hearings, slated to begin Tuesday. Hubbell was the first name on D’Amato’s list.

Last week, Rep. Bill Zeliff, R-N.H., said he, too, plans to question Hubbell at hearings on Waco before his House Government Reform and Oversight panel, scheduled to begin Wednesday.

D’Amato, R-N.Y., is interested in asking Hubbell about the handling of documents in the office of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster after Foster’s suicide.

“Many questions remain unanswered,” D’Amato said. “It’s our responsibility to gather the facts.”

Hubbell resigned from the Justice Department in March 1994 in connection with questions about his conduct at the Little Rock, Ark., law firm where he and Hillary Rodham Clinton had been partners. Last month, Hubbell was sentenced to 21 months in prison for bilking clients of the Rose Law Firm.