PR Probe Sparks Dispute Over Officials’ Cooperation

The ranking Democrat on the House education committee accused Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings last week of trying to block information from being released in a report by her department’s inspector general on the agency’s controversial public relations arrangement involving the commentator Armstrong Williams.

A spokeswoman for the secretary countered that Ms. Spellings supports the release of the report as originally drafted.

In making his accusations April 14, Rep. George Miller of California also said that the Department of Education’s inspector general, Jack Higgins, told him during an April 12 briefing that the White House had refused to allow investigators to interview White House officials who may have information about the arrangement with the conservative pundit to help promote the No...