President Clinton Signs Helms-Burton Act

  • Share
  • Read Later
WASHINGTON D.C.: Former Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt was sentenced to five years probation for his part in a government housing scandal. Watt pled guilty to charges of concealing documents from a grand jury investigating influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the 1980's. Watt must also pay a $5,000 fine and perform 500 hours of community service. Government prosecutors charged Watt with felony counts of perjury and making false statements to conceal aspects of his work as a consultant seeking federal HUD aid after he left government in 1983. Watt pled guilty to a single misdemeanor charge in exhange for the government dropping 18 felony counts stemming from an investigation by Independent Counsel Arlin Adams. Adams had charged in his February 1995 incictment that Watt had been paid more than $500,000 for his work with appointees at HUD between1984 and 1986.