WEBSTER SPEAKS OUT ON LONG INVESTIGATION

The following is the text of a speech given by Former Attorney General Bill Webster Tuesday:

My purpose today is to call on the Clinton Administration and Attorney General Janet Reno to put an end to what I believe is a gross abuse of the federal justice system.

For the past 12 years, I have had the privilege of public service. In 1980, I was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. From 1984 to 1992, I had the honor of serving as attorney general of this state.

During my tenure as attorney general, I fought to protect consumers and vigorously enforced and defended our state laws as Missouri's top law enforcement officer.

During my campaign for governor last year, my opponents attempted to convince the people of the State of Missouri that I was responsible for some of the problems in the Second Injury Fund. They pointed out that an outside attorney for the fund, Bill Roussin, was abusing the fund. This attorney was working in St. Louis and had been hired by my predecessor.

When I investigated the accusations and determined that Mr. Roussin had acted improperly, I immediately fired him and assisted the United States government in its investigation of his actions. I also filed a civil action to recover money I felt was improperly paid by the fund.

I acknowledge that because Mr. Roussin reported to an attorney in my office, the buck ultimately stopped at my desk. However, I was not aware of his wrongdoing until it was uncovered. When the fund was investigated by the United States district attorney for the Eastern District, the U.S. attorney publicly stated that I was not involved in the wrongdoing.

Unfortunately, prosecutors for the western side of the state saw a chance to take advantage of the headlines generated in the governor's race.

Now the election is over. As a conservative leader, I am a tempting target.

The prosecutors accusations apparently principally involve the Second Injury Fund and a sale of land from my family's business. The prosecutors have found two convicted felons to accuse me of wrongdoing. The first is Mr. Roussin, the individual whom I fired. He was subsequently convicted of a felony for misleading a federal grand jury in St. Louis.

The second is a person who was recently convicted of one of the largest bankruptcy fraud cases in the history of the United States. Both individuals were apparently offered reductions in their jail time in exchange for untruthful testimony about me.

Members of their families have also received favorable treatment from the government. It is interesting that the government has continuously delayed sentencing these individuals although their guilty pleas were entered long ago. As the government attorneys are aware, they only have one year to seek a reduction in the sentences of these individuals pursuant to Rule 28 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The government is apparently holding this hammer over the heads of these individuals.

The case against me also apparently involves other miscellaneous allegations resulting from a witch hunt in which prosecutors have looked into every nook and cranny of my and my family's life in an effort to smear me. They are making a federal case out of things that a local county prosecutor would be embarrassed to investigate, and would find laughable.

They even called my baby-sitter, a grandmother, before a federal grand jury to inquire how my wife and I paid her, despite my offering them our canceled checks. Bill Clinton may have a taxpayer-funded White House nanny, but we didn't. Apparently they want to use headline-grabbing buzzwords and tactics to dignify the most trivial accusations.

This never-ending and unfair process has left a cloud over my name and made it virtually impossible for me, my wife and children to lead normal lives for the past 2 years. All I can say now is, enough is enough. The time has come for this abusive process to end.

I do not believe that it is too much to ask for Clinton administration to provide me with the same sort of treatment as Democratic Senator Charles Robb and Democratic Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, whose grand jury investigations appear to have recently ended. However, as a conservative Republican who successfully defended the Missouri abortion statute before the U.S. Supreme Court, I am concerned about receiving fair consideration.

Therefore, I am convinced that the only way I will be able to clear my name is to address these accusations head on in a fair and open forum. I understand the grand jury will soon be meeting again.

I have done nothing wrong. I did not abuse the trust placed in me by Missouri's citizens. I look forward to the opportunity to let the light of day shine on this process. When all is said and done, I am confident I will be exonerated; I am equally confident the government will be embarrassed about the manner in which this investigation has been conducted, and about the meritless allegations trumped up against me.

Perhaps the taxpayers should demand an accounting of the hundreds of thousands of dollars the government has spent in this process. The abuse of the special prosecutor process regarding Casper Weinberger ought to teach us all to be skeptical of those so obsessed with getting someone that they lose judgment and perspective.

Now that the shock of the investigations has finally settled in, my family and I are ready to fight. We have been sustained by our faith in God, and strengthened by our many friends who recognize how wrong this process is.

If the Clinton administration thinks they can destroy me with the likes of its' convicted perjurers, I say let's go forward now. In the meantime, I will continue to hold my head high knowing that I am innocent of the vile allegations of Bill Roussin and Steve Redford, and I look forward to the day in which the people of the State of Missouri will understand that I have been the victim of a gross abuse of the legal system.

I would welcome the opportunity to answer questions, but I have been strongly advised by counsel to avoid doing so at this time. I'm sure I'll have more to say in the near future.