OFFICIAL VOWS TO PRESS DRUG PROBE

He Warns Justice Not To Interfere

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton vowed Friday to
subpoena federal agents and hold full-blown hearings on a troubled Houston
drug case if the Justice Department continues blocking his panel's effort
to learn whether the case was killed by political interference.

"I'm going to push this as hard as I can," said Mr. Burton of the federal
investigation of Houston rap music entrepreneur James A. Prince and
associates. Mr. Prince has never been charged and has denied wrongdoing.

"This is a major drug investigation," Mr. Burton, R-Ind., said. "People
have been murdered. People have gone to jail - people who are friends of
this man, a man believed to be the kingpin of a major drug organization.

"He gives a million dollars to a church, the vice president goes to that
church, and two days later, somebody [says they're] closing the case?
Something's wrong. They're blocking us because I think they're afraid that
this might be an embarrassment to the vice president."

Justice Department officials wrote to Mr. Burton on Thursday saying that
they would not allow his investigators to question federal Drug Enforcement
Administration agents or officials familiar with the two-year inquiry.

Mr. Prince, 36, contends that he has been unfairly targeted by "rogue"
police officers because he is black, wealthy and rose from a Houston ghetto
to music industry prominence. He has not responded to interview requests.

A spokesman for Vice President Al Gore has said the vice president had no
knowledge or involvement in the Houston matter and has contended that Mr.
Burton is engaging in an election-eve witch hunt.

Neither the vice president's campaign office nor Justice officials could be
reached for comment late Friday.

Information developed by Houston police officers and DEA agents before the
case was derailed last year netted more than 20 convictions ranging from
drug trafficking to police corruption and murder. Those convicted included
several Prince employees and associates.

Mr. Burton said he was particularly troubled that the Justice Department
was taking agents and Houston police officers off the case and importing "a
whole new flock of agents."

The department announced Thursday that DEA Administrator Donnie Marshall is
sending in agents and supervisors with no ties to the Houston regional
office and has invited the FBI to join the investigation of Mr. Prince and
his company, Rap-A-Lot Records.

Justice officials said a congressional investigation was unwarranted
because Attorney General Janet Reno has asked her inspector general to
examine allegations that political interference killed the case.

Mr. Burton said Friday that was a ruse aimed at delaying a badly needed
oversight investigation.

"After the election, if we don't get some cooperation out of the Justice
Department, we will send subpoenas," he said. "If they don't cooperate I'll
do my dead-level best to bring this to the floor of the U.S. House.

"Janet Reno is blocking, and I believe, obstructing justice for political
reasons," he said.

House investigators began skirmishing with Justice officials last week,
after the DEA turned over March e-mails in which the DEA's Houston chief
told superiors in Washington that escalating political pressure forced him
to close the Rap-A-Lot investigation and transfer lead case agent Jack
Schumacher to a desk job.

The e-mails drew intense interest because they were sent within two days of
a campaign stop by Mr. Gore at a Houston church whose financial ties to Mr.
Prince were examined during the DEA investigation.

Houston DEA chief Ernest Howard had told committee investigators earlier
this year that the investigation was ongoing.

The Dallas Morning News reported in October that internal documents
indicate that the DEA's case was suspended in September 1999 after U.S.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., complained on Mr. Prince's behalf to Ms. Reno.

Five Houston police officers involved in the case told House investigators
Monday that Mr. Howard announced in September 1999 - within a month of Ms.
Waters' complaint - that politics had forced the suspension of their
investigation.

The DEA began a yearlong internal investigation of Ms. Waters' complaint
that Mr. Prince was a victim of harassment, brutality and racial profiling.
The agency told its lead agents on the case, Mr. Schumacher and his
partner, Chad Scott, that there was insufficient evidence to support Mr.
Prince's allegations.

Ms. Waters has not responded to interview requests.

Mr. Burton said he would use a hearing if necessary to force Justice and
DEA officials to divulge what happened.

"If the vice president or congresswoman Waters or anybody else was involved
in having this case stopped, this is obstruction of justice," Mr. Burton
said. "I'm a Republican chairman. ... But if this was a Republican
administration, and someone did this, I'd be raising Cain. This is just wrong."

In Houston, the decision to use new DEA agents to investigate Rap-A-Lot
drew scorn from current and former law enforcement officials.

"In this business, you cannot read a file and know the case," said Michael
Hinton, a Houston attorney representing Mr. Schumacher and a former Harris
County organized crime prosecutor. "Officers have to develop informants,
get to know them, gain their trust. The taxpayer is paying out the nose for
the reinvention of the wheel."

Other law enforcement veterans said the latest Justice move was a tacit
admission that the case had been derailed and an unwarranted indictment of
investigators who had endured unfounded misconduct accusations from Mr. Prince.

"Everybody is just stunned that the DOJ is working so bizarrely in this
thing. ... People in the U.S. attorney's office are just shaking their
heads," said Houston lawyer Ron Woods, who served as U.S. attorney for the
Southern District of Texas from 1990 to 1993.

Creating a new task force is "a perfect stalling tactic."

"You can say it's going to take a while," Mr. Woods said. "These
out-of-towners are not going to have the patience to wait around for two,
three years to develop a case."

Any prosecutions developed by the new task force would be handicapped by
the Justice Department's recent actions, he said. Defense lawyers could
challenge information or evidence developed by the original case
investigators, and under the Brady rule, prosecutors would have to disclose
detailed personal information about those investigators. The Brady rule
requires prosecutors' disclosure of all potentially exculpatory evidence.

"It will make it very difficult for federal or state prosecutors if these
people ever develop a case," Mr. Woods said. "I've never seen anything like
this."