Indictments for Two

There was a time when they were familiar figures around official Washington; but neither Dr. Martin Sweig nor Attorney Nathan Voloshen has been seen around much lately. Sweig, administrative assistant to House Speaker John W. McCormack for 24 years, was suspended from his $36,000 job after he was linked with the shadowy, 71-year-old Voloshen in an investigation of high-level influence peddling. Voloshen went quietly underground.

Last week the pair made an enforced public appearance in New York. Studiously avoiding looking at each other, they appeared before Judge Edward McLean in federal district court. There they pleaded innocent to charges that they had used the Speaker's name and position to defraud the Government.

Special Favors. The charges stem from a seven-month investigation during which more than 100 witnesses were heard and a deposition taken from McCormack himself. Sweig and Voloshen are accused of improperly using the office, telephone, secretarial staff and good will of Speaker McCormack to secure fees, some as high as $50,000, from people with matters pending before various Government agencies. According to the indictments, Sweig and Voloshen used the power and prestige of McCormack's office to seek reduced sentences for convicted racketeers, to try to persuade the Securities and Exchange Commission to lift the suspension on the trading of Parvin/Dohrmann Co. stock, to influence a tax-evasion case, and to appeal fof special favors for a firearms company. In addition, both men are charged with perjuring themselves before the grand jury by denying that they knew several of the people on whose behalf their influence was exerted.

Handed up earlier in the week by a federal grand jury, the Sweig-Voloshen indictments were a fitting climax to the nine-year career of U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who left office last week after objecting unsuccessfully to the Nixon Administration's attempt to relieve him of his job. Now the case may become a source of embarrassment to Morgenthau's successor, Republican Whitney North Seymour. Continuing investigations into Voloshen's actions in another matter could involve some prominent members of the G.O.P.

Vindication. Beyond reminding questioners that both men must be presumed innocent unless and until they are convicted, Speaker McCormack has thus far declined comment on the plight of his former assistant and friend. He has also strongly denied knowledge of the pair's activities or any wrongdoing on his own part, and has received support from Morgenthau, who took care last week to emphasize that the Speaker was not a subject of his recent investigation. Still, McCormack feels that his image has been tarnished and plans to seek vindication through re-election as a Congressman and as Speaker.

His prospects are good. McCormack is assured the support of his South Boston constituents. Nor are his Democratic colleagues in the House likely to deny him the leadership position he has held since 1962. Though the party's liberals, who failed in their attempt to replace him in 1968, still hope to oust him from the speakership, Southerners and old-line Democrats want McCormack to stay. And they, not the Young Turks, constitute a Democratic majority.

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