Bowles Subpoenaed

WASHINGTON: White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles was subpoenaed Friday to testify before an Arkansas grand jury probing the possibility that Webster Hubbell received employment opportunities in exchange for his silence in the Whitewater investigation. The subpoena comes a day after Clinton's former chief of staff, Mack McLarty, was ordered to testify before the same grand jury. According to White House spokeswoman Beverly Barnes, the order requires Bowles not only to testify but to provide any relevant documents in his possession. "He will cooperate fully," she said. Hubbell, who resigned from the Justice Department in 1994 following accusations that he bilked his former Little Rock law firm of hundreds of thousands of dollars, was assisted by Bowles, McLarty and other presidential advisers in finding employment upon his departure. One job secured by McLarty netted Hubbell thousands of dollars. President Clinton maintains that his aides acted out of "human compassion" and didn't know Hubbell had violated any laws prior to his guilty plea. For his own part, Bowles said that he helped Hubbell find employment because he believed he was a competent, honorable man. "I thought to myself that maybe I could help this guy," he said.