HEARINGS CALLED FOR IN TEXAS DRUG CASE

DALLAS (AP) -- Indiana Rep. Dan Burton said he would subpoena federal
agents and hold congressional hearings after the presidential election if
the Justice Department doesn't cooperate with his investigation into
whether a major federal drug case in Houston was killed for political reasons.

"If they don't cooperate I'll do my dead-level best to bring this to the
floor of the U.S. House," the Indiana Republican and chairman of the House
Government Reform Committee was quoted by The Dallas Morning News in
Saturday's editions.

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

Burton's renewed demands to interview federal agents and officials familiar
with the drug investigation of James A. Prince and Rap-A-Lot Records come a
day after the Justice Department wrote him denying such access.

The federal investigation resulted in drug seizures in Houston, Beaumont
and Oklahoma City and convictions of more than 20 people, including a
Houston police officer and some of Prince's associates. The joint Houston
police-DEA investigation was closed in 1999.

The 36-year-old Prince, who has never been charged, has said the DEA used
"Gestapo-type methods" and "criminal tactics" in 12 years of investigations
that showed no wrongdoing on his part. He said he was targeted because he
was black.

Justice officials told Burton his interviews could impact "active federal
criminal investigations."

"It is simply not appropriate that under these circumstances to make DEA
personnel available for the interviews you have requested," Assistant
Attorney General Robert Rabin told Burton in the letter.

Justice officials said a congressional review was not necessary because
Attorney General Reno had asked her inspector general to investigate
"disturbing" accusations that the Drug Enforcement Agency's case was
"politicized."

Officials also announced that a joint task force of the FBI and DEA will
take over a troubled federal investigation.

Burton and others have criticized the task force as a stalling tactic.

Burton said he suspects the case was closed because it could be potentially
embarrassing to Vice President Al Gore, an allegation that has been denied
by the Justice Department and the vice president.

Burton is referring to Gore making a campaign stop last March in Houston
that included a church where Prince gave money.