By Philip Shenon
WASHINGTON -- Richard C. Holbrooke, President Clinton's choice to be the top American diplomat at the United Nations, denied today that he had violated Federal lobbying laws, the issue that has held up his nomination since the summer. In his first public comments since the disclosure that he was negotiating with the Justice Department over its investigation of an alleged ethics violation, Mr. Holbrooke did not describe the terms of a possible settlement, but said he was confident that the inquiry would end soon. He said his lawyers were involved in "intense discussion" with the Justice Department.
Department officials said a settlement with Mr. Holbrooke, the architect of the Dayton settlement of 1995 that halted the war in Bosnia, would probably be reached within davs. The officials said he had been asked to pay a civil penalty, but would not discuss the amount.
Government officials and former American diplomats say the investigation has centered on allegations that Mr. Holbrooke violated lobbying laws in his contacts with the United States Ambassador in South Korea in early 1996. That was soon after he had resigned from the State Department to become an investment banker in New York.
"I look forward to going before the Senate for what I'm sure will be a tough but fair confirmation process, and I hope to serve soon at the U.N.," he said in an interview on the ABC News program "Good Morning America."
After resigning from the State Department in 1996 to join the investment banking company Credit Suisse First Boston, Mr. Holbrooke was named a part-time Clinton Administration envoy to the Balkans and to Cyprus.
"The so-called contacts that I had in the three years since I left the State Department with Government officials have all been in my capacity as a senior adviser, official, to the Secretary of State," he said. "So any contacts I had-- any contacts I had -- were under that hat and did not violate any laws."
A spokesman for Mr. Holbrooke said the veteran diplomat was not available for an interview and had no comment beyond his remarks on television. Government officials say Mr. Holbrooke has been accused by Justice Department prosecutors of a civil violation of labbying laws when he contacted Ambassador James T. Laney in South Korea soon after resigning as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs. Mr. Laney, who has since left the post, said in an interview this week that Mr. Holbrooke had contacted him with a letter on the banking company's stationery, seeking his help in obtaining an appointment with President Kim Young Sam during a South Korean trip that Mr. Holbrooke planned to take that spring. The meeting never took place, although Ambassador Laney did sponsor a luncheon for Mr. Holbrooke and a handful of senior South Korean leaders.
Officials said prosecutors in the Justice Department's public integrity division believed that the contacts with the Ambassador amounted to a violation of laws limiting lobbying contacts by former Government officials with their former colleagues. Mr. Laney and another senior American diplomat, Winston Lord, the former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, have insisted that Mr. Holbrooke did nothing wrong in contacting the embassy. They said his contacts with Ambassador Laney had been a simple courtesy.
