Won't probe use of FBI by FDR, LBJ

L:A. Times/Washington Post Service WASHINGTON Written allegations by a former FBI assistant director that two presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson, used federal investigators against political opponents, will not be disclosed by the Senate Watergate committee because they are "far, far too personal" and are unsubstantiated, the committee's deputy counsel said yesterday.

Rufus L. Edmisten, the deputy counsel, confirmed the existence of a memo written by former FBI Assistant Director William C. Sullivan alleging that Roosevelt asked the FBI to call off investigations of political allies and make inquiries about the private lives of enemies.

But Edminsten said the memo will not be used as a basis of inquiry by the committee because it "contains personal. cheap shots" based on undocumented recollections of Sullivan, and generally is "rather distasteful.”

"We don't think it servės any useful purpose. It's not based on any established facts," said Edminsten.

The memo, according to Time magazine, said Roosevelt asked the agency to intervene in a probe of his undersecretary of state, Sumner Welles, who had been accused of homosexual activities.

The memo also reportedly accused Roosevelt of asking the FBI to "dig up dirt” on enemies, and charged Mrs. Elanor Roosevelt made "some unusual requests" of the bureau.

The document also claims that former President Johnson sought FBI information about Democratic senators who opposed him, and during the 1964 and 1968 Democratic national conventions set up a special FBI intelligence squad for his personal use.

The Sullivan memo, according to Time, also accuses Johnson of intervening in behalf of former presidential aide Walter Jenkins when Jenkins was arrested in Washington in 1964 in a homosexual incident. One such request involved an attempt to have the FBI trace any possible connections between the man discovered with Jenkins and two members of the Republican National Committes. according to the magazine. Sullivan could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The memo was turned over to the Watergate committee June 27 by former White House counsel John W. Dean III.

Dean has told the committee that when President Nixon learned the FBI had conducted political intelligence operations in Democratic administrations, he asked Dean to obtain examples of those operations from Sullivan.

Sullivan was forced to re-

sign from the FBI in October 1971, after a policy feud with the late director, J. Edgar Hoover.

WASHINGTON The Senate Watergate Committee has subpoenaed an offi-

cer and records from the bank of presidential confidant Charles G. "Bebe" Rebozo in connection with political contributions routed through the Bahamas to the 1972 Nixon campaign, committee sources said yesterday.

ABC News, on its evening telecast, said the subpoenas were reportedly part of an effort to identify suspected key figures who may have arranged illegal contributions to Nixon's campaign. The network said the evi-

dence was sought to confirm claims by at least three committee informants that illegal contributions of more than $2 million were channeled through through gambling casinos in the Bahamas and several Miami

area banks, including Rebozo's Key Biscayne Bark and Trust