2nd Clinton Aide Under Scrutiny Justice Department Probes Personal Investments

The White House acknowledged Thursday that another top member of President Clinton’s national security team is under investigation by the Justice Department for questions about his personal investments - the second such disclosure in as many days.

As President Clinton Thursday was defending national security adviser Anthony Lake, his choice to be director of central intelligence in his second term, from suggestions that he might have had a conflict of interest, a nearly identical set of questions arose about deputy national security adviser Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger.

Berger, whom Clinton has decided to promote into Lake’s current job, was advised in 1994 by White House lawyers that he should sell a longtime family holding of oil stock, according to people familiar with his situation. After initially questioning the lawyers’ judgment, Berger then agreed to sell the shares of Amoco stock but forgot to do it until he was reminded by White House lawyers more than a year later, these sources said.

Although Berger finally did sell the stock, then-White House counsel Abner J. Mikva said he had no choice under federal law but to refer the matter to the Justice Department’s public integrity division, even though he considered the violations to be technical, administration officials said.

White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta and White House Counsel Jack Quinn both said Thursday that Clinton was fully aware of the investigations into Lake and Berger at the time he announced their appointments. The president, they said, believed that both men had committed unintentional and harmless oversights.