Watt Admits One Count In Hud Case

Wiping out 18 felony charges, former Interior Secretary James Watt pleaded guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor count of attempting to sway a grand jury investigating 1980s influence-peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Watt had faced felony counts of perjury and making false statements to cover up his work as a consultant seeking federal aid from HUD after he left government in 1983.

He pleaded guilty to one count of withholding information and documents from the grand jury in June 1990. He faces a possible sentence of up to six months and a maximum fine of $5,000.

As part of his plea, Watt has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine, one of his attorneys, William Bradford Reynolds, said at a hearing before a federal judge.

The government attorneys didn’t explain why Watt was able to reduce the charges against him so drastically.

Reynolds attributed the willingness to reduce the charges to independent counsel Larry D. Thompson, who after succeeding the original HUD independent counsel, Arlin Adams last June, brought in new prosecutors who reevaluated the original charges.

After “a lot of discussions, we came to a place he (Thompson) felt he could come and I felt I could go.”