Bribery investigation target to cooperate with officials. PENTAGON PROBE UPDATE

The government in the last few days has persuaded one of the targets in the Pentagon bribery probe to cooperate with investigators, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The target is someone whose voice turned up frequently on court-authorized wiretaps installed during the investigation, the source told the Associated Press.

In addition, another target of the probe appears on the verge of cooperating with government investigators, the source said.

Sources familiar with the probe also said that one conversation recorded during the investigation is between former Navy Secretary John Lehman Jr. and his then-aide Melvyn Paisley. The conversation, recorded late last year or early this year, can be interpreted as being a tip-off by Mr. Lehman that Mr. Paisley might be under investigation, the sources said.

In other developments:

Henry Hudson, the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, who is coordinating the investigation, held out the possibility that more information about the scope of the affair may come this week when more of the 38 search warrants issued a week ago are unsealed and made public.

A federal grand jury was empaneled Tuesday in Alexandria, Va. Court sources said the grand jury was expected to study evidence in secret from hundreds of subpoenas and searches probing a process involving more than $100 billion in annual weapons and research contracts.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that 275 subpoenas were issued for the case.