Cleared

Jordan is vindicated

California champagne spewed into plastic glasses in Hamilton Jordan's corner office at the White House one afternoon last week. The reason: after 33 witnesses had testified before 19 grand jury sessions on whether Jordan had snorted cocaine, the special federal grand jury voted unanimously that there was "insufficient evidence" for an indictment.

The two chief witnesses against the White House Chief of Staff had both changed their stories, according to Special Prosecutor Arthur H. Christy. Steve Rubell, co-owner of Manhattan's Studio 54 discotheque, who is now serving a 3 1/2-year term for tax evasion, originally said last year that he had seen Drug Pusher John Conaghan give Jordan cocaine in the basement of Studio 54 one night in 1978. Conaghan had corroborated that story. But under further questioning, said Christy, each witness said that the other had first told him of the incident. Charges that Jordan had taken cocaine at two California parties in 1977 proved equally unfounded, Christy said.

Under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, the Justice Department must investigate any such charge against a high Government official. For Jordan, exoneration came only after nine months of investigation--and a stunning legal bill of $150,000, roughly three times his annual salary.

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