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July 18, 1995 - Part 1
(10:15:50) Many of the questions that have been raised, I think, are obviously subject to differing interpretations, and that's one of the things this Committee will have to carefully examine in the days to come. It's also important to recognize that as Deputy White House Counsel, Vince Foster dealt with a range of matters. In effect, there are important privileges with respect to those papers: executive privilege and attorney-client privilege. For instance, we know there was a file dealing with Supreme Court nominees. That's a file over which the executive clearly can assert privilege. Also, attorney-client privilege, since Foster was using some of the personal papers of the Clintons in order to prepare some of their official statements as the Chairman indicated at the beginning, can be asserted. For example, there were mandatory financial disclosure statements that were required. So, as we look at the handling of these documents, I think we need to keep that dimension also in mind. Now, it's my expectation that the Committee will be able to work through the witnesses in the days to come in a very careful and appropriate manner, so as to place ourselves in a position to evaluate the testimony. As I said, the Independent Counsel has indicated that his inquiry has passed beyond this issue and, therefore, we were given the green light; not that we are necessarily bound by that, but it's an important consideration. We've been trying to harmonize our activities with those of the Independent Counsel. Finally, let me just say in closing that these hearings have a tremendous potential to become highly emotional. I've already outlined the fact that much of the conduct we've been examining occurred in the aftermath of the suicide, in the nature of that stressful incident. I think it's very important for the Members of this Committee to try to maintain this inquiry in a civil, rational way. We're here to try to find out what the facts are, to hear the witnesses out, to try to resolve differing recollections and differing interpretations and then to evaluate that. But I think it's extremely important, both for us and for the public, to hear the testimony in full before we undertake the evaluation. I was always taught that's how you're supposed to do it, and I'm hopeful that's what this Committee will do as we now set upon the task of carrying through the fair, impartial and thorough hearings with which we have been charged by the Senate. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator Dodd. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD Senator DODD. Thank you, Senator Sarbanes. Is there about 10 minutes left? 12 The CHAIRMAN. I think it's about 10 minutes. If the Senator needs additional time Senator DODD, I thank the Chairman. Mr. Chairman, let me just begin by saluting you and Senator Sarbanes for the very fair and balanced way that I think you've gone about setting up these hearings. The matters before us, as you have pointed out and Senator Sarbanes has suggested, are far too important, I think, to be turned into a political football, and I think it is to your credit that this has not yet happened. Mr. Chairman, I hope we will conduct these hearings, as Senator Sarbanes has just said, in the same spirit of fairness that has characterized their planning.
Thousands Watch As Youth Leaps To Death From Hotel
Shaky dull in contrast and imagery While thousands of horrified spectators jam Fifth Avenue. John W. Ward, 25, defies rescue attempts and ends eleven hours of agonizing suspense by leaping to his death from a 17th floor window ledge of the Gotham Hotel. John Ward seen standing on ledge as people try to coax him back through the window. Police officer on telephone, people seated on double decker bus look up to the sky at jumper, trampoline ? Police officer covers body in the street.
World Wide News Events - Air Raid Toll High
Shaky dull in contrast and imagery - DOS Horror and destruction is wide-spread as Japanese bombers rain death on the city and its civilian population, with pitiful scenes as rescue workers search for victims. Meanwhile girl battalions train for duty with machine guns, marching past camera.
Thousands Homeless In Flood
Shaky dull in contrast and imagery - DOS 13 inches of rain fell in 3 days and turns the Colorado river valley into a watery sea of submerged towns and villages. Several lives are lost and damages run into the hundreds of thousands. Sign for Riverside Camp, flood waters are up to the roofs of the cabins (cottages).
July 18, 1995 - Part 1
(10:20:26) We on this Committee should remember what we're not. We're not the FBI. We're not the Grand Jury or a Grand Jury. We're not prosecutors, nor are we defense attorneys. We're United States Senators carrying out the mandate of this institution and the mandate of a very, very specific resolution. Our charge in this set of hearings is to answer a narrowly tailored question: Did anyone at the White House impede the police investigation of Vince Foster's tragic suicide? That is our mission. Our charge during this phase is not to delve into the details of President Clinton's and Mrs. Clinton's land transactions or to audit their tax returns or to spin wild conspiracy theories. We're going to hear about what people did or did not do in the midst of their grief at a very, very emotional time. We may hear about sloppiness We're probably going to hear about mistakes. We're going to hear a lot about gossip and speculation. But let me emphasize there has never, never been any suggestion that the police wanted to review Whitewater or any substantive file in Vince Foster's office. They were investigating a tragic, tragic suicide. We're going to hear about discrepancies in testimony from witnesses doing their best, in my view, to recollect specific details in the midst of a highly charged emotional event from 2 years ago. I hope, Mr. Chairman that we'll do our best to keep everything we hear and learn during these hearings in that context. We cannot look at people's actions, in my view, in July 1993 in a vacuum, plot them out like steps in a chemical reaction or subject them to the cold microscope of rational analysis. I think we must examine these events for what they were, deeply human reactions to a deeply human tragedy. Mr. Chairman, there are few human experiences more traumatic than experiencing the suicide of a family member, a close friend or colleague, and I hope that each and every one of us will try to put ourselves in the shoes of those who lived through that tragedy. In examining this aspect of our hearings, I think we should ask ourselves how would we have reacted if this would have happened to someone on one of our staffs or to one of our childhood friends ' In the minutes and, literally, minutes and hours and days after this terrible suicide of a very decent man, friends and colleagues understandably acted on instinct, in my view, more than careful thought or plotting. One of the most traumatic and perplexing of human tragedies, a suicide. You've just been informed that some 13 one you're very close to, known all your life, has taken his life. How do you react? What are you thinking about? The people involved here were emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted, in my view, and we cannot expect people in such situations to exercise the clearest possible judgment in every case. The context, Mr. Chairman, is also important because of the nature of the office in question. We're not talking about a crime scene here; the tragic suicide occurred in Fort Marcy overlooking the Potomac River. The suicide of a lawyer does not mean that it is open season on that attorney's files. There are legitimate privacy and executive privilege issues involved, as Senator Sarbanes has pointed out. Think about it, if you would, in terms of a doctor/patient relationship. If your family doctor took his own life, would you want the police rummaging through your personal medical records in your doctor's office? Obviously we have different standards when we're talking about the President of the United States, but I think we should all at least acknowledge the understandable instinct to protect the privacy of the material in Vince Foster's office. To date, Mr. Chairman, as you and Senator Sarbanes in part have pointed out, we have spent at the Federal level more than $10 million in reviewing what is known as Whitewater. Independent Counsels, two offices, IS prosecutors, dozens of FBI agents and IRS agents, this Committee's work, independent investigators, press inquiries. It has been voluminous.
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