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THE White House has come under sudden new pressure from the Whitewater prosecutor, Kenneth Starr.

His associates have questioned before a Washington grand jury a Pentagon aide used by the White House to persuade the FBI to release sensitive files on 339 Republicans, including James Baker, the former secretary of state.

A lawyer representing Anthony Marceca, a civilian employee of the army, said his client had "co-operated fully" in the secret session. The implication is that Mr Starr is investigating whether the White House improperly used the agency to unearth damaging information about its opponents.

The official explanation is that, while the approach to the FBI was wrong, it was a bureaucratic mix-up and there was no "dirt digging". It was simply to end a backlog in security clearances at the executive mansion. FBI sources said the dossiers included interviews with friends, neighbours and co-workers of the subject, as well as agency efforts to ascertain the truth of any derogatory information that had been gleaned.

The same jury heard evidence from Hillary Clinton in January about how her long-missing law firm billing records suddenly turned up at her White House quarters two years after investigators first sought them. Mr Marceca's role in the burgeoning new scandal is becoming increasingly curious as he is employed as a civilian army aide in a Pentagon office at Fort Belvoir, near Alexandria, Virginia.

He was a temporary employee in the White House security office from Aug 18, 1993, to Feb 14, 1994, and was specifically asked for by name, according to the army, where he was apparently better known for his work as a fraud expert. He has said he dug out "derogatory information" from some files and handed it to Craig Livingstone, the White House security chief. Mr Livingstone, a Clinton political appointee who worked on the 1992 election campaign, is said to have known Mr Marceca from previous work on Capitol Hill.

The New York Post reported that Mr Starr has a note that says Mr Marceca also obtained a number of dossiers from the army's security clearance facility at Fort Meade, Maryland. The note allegedly says: "In some instances, these files pertained to individuals under consideration for political appointments to positions within the Clinton administration."

Mark Fabiani, a White House spokesman, said the collection of names was a mistake. There was uncertainty about precisely what happened as officials had decided against interviewing people involved "so as not to interfere" with the inquiries of the FBI and Whitewater prosecutors.

11 June 1996: Democrats fight to stem Whitewater tide

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