$300,000 more for Billy Carter?

In the first day of public hearings by a special Senate panel investigat ing Billy Carter's Libyan dealings, Randolph Coleman, a Carter business associate, said the President's brother is to get a further $300,000 from Libya in addition to $220,000 already received. He said Billy Carter sought a $500,000 loan from the Libyans at a time when he was trying to act as a broker for additional exports of Libyan oil. Billy Carter himself is scheduled to appear before the panel on Thursday and Friday.

Next week, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti will be questioned about his role in the Justice Department's allowing Billy Carter to delay registration as a foreign agent for Libya for more than a year; his denial, then admission, that he had talked to President Carter about his brother's case; and his withholding from his own investigators classified information that Billy was being paid by the Libyan government.

The hearings will also include an intelligence briefing and testimony by the head of the Justice Department's foreign agent registration unit, and, possibly, White House witnesses.

Sen. Birch Bayh, chairman of the panel, says the purpose of the investigation is to lay before the public "what Billy Carter did and didn't do, what were his reasons, what the President did, the White House reaction, and the same thing for the Department of Justice." He added, "There has been so much smoke here we need to let the public know whether there is any fire."