Assignments of Clinton Judges Probed 
By Janelle Carter
Associated Press Writer
Friday, August 6, 1999; 3:47 a.m. EDT 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked Supreme 
Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to look into a judge's decision to assign cases 
involving President Clinton's friends to Clinton-appointed judges. 

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is a Republican presidential hopeful, told Rehnquist he was 
concerned that the incident ``may have repercussions on the public's confidence in the impartial 
administration of justice by the federal courts.'' 

The Associated Press reported last weekend that U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson 
bypassed a traditional random assignment system and sent a criminal case against presidential 
friend Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie to U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman and similarly sent a 
separate tax case against presidential friend Webster Hubbell to U.S. District Judge James 
Robertson. 

Trie's case was the first major prosecution from the Justice Department investigation of 
Democratic fund raising in the 1996 election. Friedman, appointed to the bench by Clinton two 
years earlier, also was assigned by Johnson to two related cases. 

Several other judges have expressed concern that the assignments had the appearance of a 
conflict of interest. 

Friedman dismissed various charges against Trie. One of Friedman's rulings was reversed on 
appeal, and Trie is to be sentenced in two weeks, probably to probation, on a plea-bargained 
guilty plea. 

Robertson dismissed the tax case against Hubbell, a former associate attorney general, who 
eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor when an appeals court reinstated the case. Robertson 
was later chosen, at random, to handle a felony case against Hubbell that charged him with lying 
to federal regulators. Robertson threw out the central felony count in that case, but again an 
appeals court reversed him, and Hubbell eventually pleaded guilty to one felony count. 

In a letter to the editor published in The Washington Times earlier this week, Johnson said, 
``Politics was not and is never a factor in our case assignments.'' 

Still, Hatch, in his letter written Tuesday, asked Rehnquist to look into the matter using the 
Judicial Conference of the United States, a panel of judges that includes chief justices from each 
judicial circuit. As chief justice, Rehnquist is presiding officer of the conference, which makes 
policy concerning the administration of U.S. courts. 

``I wish to ask you ... to consider whether an examination by the Judicial Conference might be 
warranted,'' Hatch wrote. 
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press