Magazine: Bush Official, Friend Under Investigation

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October 04, 2007 3:36 PM

A Bush administration cabinet secretary is facing multiple federal investigations about whether he lied to Congress when he vowed he never intervened in contracting awards at his department, according to a new report.

The FBI and the Justice Department are working with the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to probe whether HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson arranged for nearly half a million dollars worth of work to go to a golfing partner and friend, according to the National Journal magazine.

At a Senate hearing May 3, Jackson told lawmakers, "I don't touch contracts." Jackson, who was once a neighbor of President Bush's, was facing scrutiny for telling an audience in April 2006 that he once nixed a contract to a company because its top executive opposed President Bush.

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At the time of Jackson's comment, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that President Bush "still supports a man with whom he's had a long and close relationship."

Jackson's golfing partner, stucco contractor William Hairston from Hilton Head, S.C., received more than $485,000 for work with the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), the magazine reported.

Hairston told National Journal that Jackson helped him land the job. 

"The secretary asked me if I would go to New Orleans and help them out," he said in an interview with the magazine. Hairston did not immediately return a call from ABC News.

Hairston confirmed to the magazine that investigators had seized the computer he had used at HANO, and that he believed the investigation was why he had been let go last June.

A HUD spokesman told the magazine that Hairston was one of three construction managers whose names Jackson had passed along, through an aide, to the New Orleans operation, after an employee there said she was in "desperate need of a construction manager."

Jackson did not mislead Congress, spokesman Jerry Brown said.

"Secretary Jackson has always been forthright with members of Congress," he wrote in an e-mailed statement to the magazine. He declined to comment on the investigation.

Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News. The FBI referred questions to the Department of Justice. Department of Justice spokeswoman Jaclyn Lesch said she could not comment on the matter.

A HUD inspector general investigation into allegations that he meddled improperly in contracting issues concluded in September 2006 that it could find no "direct evidence" that favoritism had occurred.

In a statement e-mailed to ABC News, Jackson said he intended "to fully cooperate with any possible investigation to clear my name."

Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?