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August 3, 1994 - Part 2
(11:30:27) Secretary BENTSEN. Well I am going to try to get better lines drawn insofar as what can and what cannot be done, what authority is in each of these two different institutions, Treasury and the Resolution Trust. I think that the Office of Government Ethics makes some good points in that regard, and what I get is a feeling in the Senate Committee that those things should be done. Senator MACK. I guess what I was really referring to in dealing with the specific issue, though, of the very different opinions and recollections of Mr. Altman, Ms. Hanson, Mr. Steiner, and Mr. Roelle? Secretary BENTSEN. Well let me say, Senator, if the question is, you know how do you get them to work together and the rest of it, and I look at you folks here and I think of my own time in the Senate, and I think of the times I was on the Senate Floor arguing with one or the other of you on the different side of an issue and really going at it, and the next day, we would find we were on the same side of a different issue. So I think they will be able to work together. Senator MACK. Well Mr. Secretary, I have a different point of view. I do not have any more time to pursue it at this time. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being with us this morning. And I have a few brief questions and not really concerning you. But my concern is the lack of aggressiveness on the part of Mr. Fiske that I feel in pursuing the Whitewater and his many, multiple ties to the various members of the Administration. I feel very strongly that he maybe represents more the problem than the solution to clearing up the Whitewater problem and getting to the bottom of it. 31 And that is what I feel, and so I had one or two questions con cerning him. Had you ever met Robert Fiske prior to his appointment by Ms. Reno as Special Counsel? Secretary BENTSEN. Not to my knowledge. You know I am like you. I have met an awful lot of folks. But I do not ever remember having met him, and if I did, I apologize to him. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Are you aware that, you know of course you do know that Ms. Reno is the person that appointed him as a Special Counsel? Secretary BENTSEN. That is right. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Are you aware that Bernard Nussbaum recommended Mr. Fiske for a job with the Iran-Contra prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh? Secretary BENTSEN. No, I am not aware of that. I do know that various Members of this Committee and on both sides of the aisle, made some very commendatory statements about Mr. Fiske at the time he was chosen, and I understand he is a Republican, Senator FAIRCLOTH. I am aware of that too, and I thought more highly of him before he started the investigation than I do after he has been in it awhile. Are you aware that the Robert Fiske law firm represented the company that sold the land to the Whitewater Partnership? Secretary BENTSEN. That what? Senator FAIRCLOTH. That the Robert Fiske law firm represented the company that sold the land to Whitewater Partnership? Secretary BENTSEN. No, no. I do not know that, did not know that. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Were you aware that Nussbaum served on the same side of at least two legal cases with Robert Fiske? Secretary BENTSEN. No, I do not know that. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Were you aware that Nussbaum consulted with Robert Fiske on at least two high level appointments to the Clinton Administration? Secretary BENTSEN. No, I did not know that. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Were you aware that Robert Fiske worked with Robert Bennett, President Clinton's current lawyer on his Paula Jones problems, in a case involving the First American and BCCI? That they worked together, Bennett and Fiske? Secretary BENTSEN. Senator, you know a lot more about that than I do. Senator SARBANES. Mr. Chairman, there is no reason why the Secretary should be aware of these things. I know Senator Faircloth wants to put it in the record, and he maybe should go ahead and read it, but I do not know why he should keep dragging the Secretary, I mean, the Secretary had nothing to do with pickling. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Senator Sarbanes, if I need you to critique my questions, I will ask you to. Secretary Bentsen, this morning on the CBS morning news, Senator Bob Dole said that after watching the hearings yesterday, two things were obvious. 32 First, somebody is not telling the truth. And second, it is obvious that Robert Fiske did not do a very thorough job. Secretary Bentsen, did Robert Fiske talk with you specifically about the accuracy of Robert Altman's testimony at the January 24th RTC Oversight Hearings? Secretary BENTSEN. No, he did not. Senator FAIRCLOTH. So Robert Fiske did not talk with you about the discrepancies between the number of White House RTC contacts that he found and the number that Robert Altman reported at the hearing?
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August 3, 1994 - Part 2
(11:35:50) Secretary BENTSEN. No, he did not. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Do you know of any evidence that Robert Fiske investigated to determine whether Roger Altman withheld information from Congress? Secretary BENTSEN. Senator Faircloth, I do not have that detailed information. Senator FAIRCLOTH. So the point being, so when Robert Fiske said evidence does not justify criminal prosecution of any Federal statute, have no reason to believe that he even investigated the possibility of criminal withholding information from Congress. So if he did not talk to you, he did not. That is all. I yield the rest of my time. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. What I am going to do also, I have had a couple of Members ask me, unrelated to you, Senator Faircloth, it would be helpful to them because they get absorbed in a line of questioning, and they do not see the timing clock. If they could receive a note from a staff member as their time has expired, so they will know that so they can then stop in an orderly way themselves, rather than have to be interrupted, and I ,would prefer that as well. So we will endeavor to do that and pass a note to Members as the clock expires so they know that and that they can manage the time accordingly. Senator Kerry. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR KERRY Senator KERRY. Thank you very much, Mr, Chairman. Mr. Secretary, welcome, and thank you for taking time to be with US. What was the date that the freeze was put into place when you began to collect Secretary BENTSEN. What? Senator KERRY. What was the date that you began to collect the information, a freeze on computers and documents was put in place? Do you recall approximately when that was? Secretary BENTSEN. I would say it was in March. I cannot give you the exact date. Senator KERRY. Early March, I think. I just wanted to take a moment to commend you for that. I think that our colleagues and the country ought to be aware of the meas- 33 ure, the full measure of compliance that has taken place here, even the safeguarding of documents. The reason we have a Josh Steiner diary, the reason we have these contradictory documents from people is because you saw your duty and understood that this was serious and that the Treasury Department was going to be beyond reproach with respect to that. I might say it is in direct contrast to prior experience up here. I think you and the Department are to be commended for that, and the Administration is to be commended. Last night, we received a document that had been previously redacted. The White House gave it to us. Pages of document outside of the scope but they unredacted it and made it available. I just want to commend you for it, Secretary BENTSEN. Thank you, sir. Senator KERRY. I want to ask you a few questions if I can in a couple of areas that I think are very important to the Committee, as we try to struggle to reconcile different recollections here and testimony. I also want to try to understand the standards we are dealing with. You and others have cited the report to you from the Office of Government Ethics and appropriately, you in your opening said, from this report, that there are many contacts that are troubling. You did not gloss over that, you mentioned it. There are also citations about problems between Treasury and RTC and you have mentioned those today. What still disturbs me is, I think it is a good report as far as it goes. I have read the analysis, I agree with most of the analysis, but it is a very strictly legal document, making judgments about the specific worst case scenarios of the Federal law as they apply. Let me give you an example. One of the areas they examined was the principle that employees shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual. I would assume you would agree that an employee of the Treasury Department should act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any public organization or individual where that individual might be affected by actions. Secretary BENTSEN. I think when you get into a situation that I cited earlier with the White House where, under certain conditions, it would be quite proper to give non-public information in order that their responsibilities can be discharged.
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