July 20, 1995 - Part 4
July 20, 1995 - Part 4
(13:20:50) Mr. ROLLA. No. You'll have to ask Detective Markland. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. In terms of your investigation and under- standing that this is not a perfect world when you get into issues of executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, the privacy rights of, Mr. Foster, whose attorney was present-the family attorney present during the search on the 22nd-you now had the FBI the Secret Service, the Department of Justice, the White House Counsel, the private attorney all crammed into Mr. Foster's office. But if it had been a situation where you would have be lowed access and there wasn't all of these issues of executive lege and attorney-client privilege and precedent to deal with an attorney had simply invited you in and said have a cup of coffee this is a horrible event. We're all in mourning and in shock. Lees?, look at his desk. Is there a note? Let's look in the drawer; let's look for his appointment calendar. If you had gotten that material earlier on without all these other agencies being brought into it, would that have satisfied you? Sergeant Braun? Ms. BRAUN. If I was involved in that part of it, yeah. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Your sense as the week grew on, when there' were criticisms in the press about the Park Police and there was all this publicity, was that you may have been unfairly targeted for: not being as diligent in the investigation when there were things, beyond your control that were occurring because of these issues of privilege and sensitivity; is that so? Ms. BRAUN. That's correct, Mr. ROLLA. That's correct. Mr. HINES. That's correct. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. I have nothing further. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Sarbanes. Senator SARBANES. No, I think we're complete on this side. The CHAIRMAN. We also are finished. I think we could go over and over the various nuances as it relates to obstruction or interference, but I think we have a good idea factually as to what took place, what your roles were, I believe that you did the best you possibly could under very difficult circumstances. I want to commend all of you for your candor, your integrity and honesty as it relates to both carrying out your duties and for your testimony here, and the written depositions that you have given us previously. We thank you. Senator BENNETT. Thank you. Mr. ROLLA. Thank you. Mr. HINES. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. We'll now bring on your second panel. Senator SIMON. Mr. Chairman, what is your- The CHAIRMAN. Senator Sarbanes, on behalf of the Minority, has requested that we take a break. So I intend to swear in this panel and we'll take a break until 2 p.m., but at 2 p.m, sharp we will resume the proceedings. So just for the purposes of Senator SARBANES. Mr. Chairman, let me make a point because all our people came on the premise that we would go until 1 P.M. That was the understanding, I think, of all the Members. Obvi- 209 ously, we're going to have to start going longer if we're going to work through our list, but I think we need a little more notice. I know some of the Members have made commitments for this after-noon. The CHAIRMAN. Senator, let me say this to you. I have no intent, as I think we've demonstrated, of culling or curtailing any opportunity from any Member to pose any question that he or she deems important, but I do understand unless we get this started and continue it, that this could drag out interminably. So I don't believe by proceeding we're cutting off anybody's rights to proceed and raise questions and issues later on, but I do think we have to get it started.