Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel investigating Whitewater-related matters, has also begun an investigation.

Mr. Starr and his predecessor, Robert B. Fiske Jr., have taken the President's testimony under oath at the White House on several previous occasions on a variety of Whitewater-related matters.

His activities are being investigated by two Congressional committees, and he has testified before a grand jury investigating Whitewater-related matters.

Ms. McDougal is charged with blocking the inquiry by refusing to testify to a grand jury about Whitewater-related matters despite a judge's order to do so and a grant of limited immunity.

Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel for Whitewater-related matters, is now investigating the matter.

White House officials said they had not questioned anyone in the security office because it might interfere with investigations under way by the bureau and Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel for Whitewater-related matters.

But today's ruling by Judge Howard once again moves Whitewater-related matters to center stage as Mr. Clinton's Presidential campaign is moving into gear.

The primary witness today was Bernard W. Nussbaum, the former White House counsel who spent much of the morning answering questions before the House Banking Committee about his role in Whitewater-related matters.

"What we have here, in my view, is an anomaly," he said, arguing that the payroll records bore out Mrs. Clinton's contention that she had done minimal lawyering a decade ago in Whitewater-related matters.

Whitewater investigators had conducted fruitless subpoena searches for more than two years for the records, which detailed some of Mrs. Clinton's legal work in Whitewater-related matters at the Rose firm.