July 25, 1995 - Part 5
July 25, 1995 - Part 5
(15:20:17) Mr. WATKINS. I believe she did, yes. Senator FAIRCLOTH. You believe? You don't remember whether she did or not? I believe you'd remember that, wouldn't you? Mr. WATKINS. It is my recollection that she did deliver to me a press statement from the White House Communications Office. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Now, this is important. Did she deliver anything else to you, any other document that night other than a press release? Mr. WATKINS. No, sir. Senator FAIRCLOTH. That's all? Mr. WATKINS. That's all. Senator FAIRCLOTH. All right. I thank you. The CHAIRMAN. In the time remaining I'm going to just-Mr. Watkins, I understand it was a very difficult, confusing time, and I understand you arrived at the house, Vincent Foster's house-terrible calamity, you knew Mrs. Foster, you knew Vince, you knew the people there, Even the officers weren't quite certain as to the time that they arrived, in the area maybe of between 10 p.m. and 10:30. There comes a time, apparently at 10:34, when you notify Patsy Thomasson of Vince's death. The pager showed 10:34. When you testified to this, you said the only reason was to ask Patsy to look for a note, was to look for a motive. But you said when you initially called her you just wanted to let her know, inform her of Vince's death, and I believe that you did. That would be natural. But you then said let me know where you are which would lead some people to believe that not only did you want to bring this to her attention, but that you also wanted to see if she was in the position--and I think reasonably so--to go to the White House and to go to his office to look for a note, because you said everybody was troubled about what was the motive. 308 Now, is that a fair statement? Mr. WATKINS. Yes, sir, that's a fair statement. Yes, sir. -my other questions, The CHAIRMAN. I am not going to ask you but, you see, some Members become concerned when you say-you seem to be saying I wanted to let her know arid then there was a period of time and I heard people talking about--- Mr. WATKINS. No, that's what 1-1 misunderstood what you said then. My recollection is that I beeped Patsy to notify her of Vince's death. When she--when we talked-in the time between beeping her and talking to her there was general discussion about a note. I told her, advised her of Vince's death when I did talk to her and, at that time, asked her to go to his office and look for a note. The CHAIRMAN. OK. All right. Mr. WATKINS. That's what I The CHAIRMAN. You have to understand, between the time you sent out the beep and by the time she returned the page, you had your conversation. She took a cab and went from Georgetown to the White House all within a period of 15 minutes. So I'd have to suggest to you it does not sound as if there was a long period of time after the initial communication. It almost sounds like you reached out to her to tell her he died and to get on over to check and see if there's a note. I don't find anything wrong with that, Again, it's a hectic night, but that's the way the fact pattern appears at least to me. Yes, Senator Dodd. Senator DODD. I was struck by that too, the time sequence. Clear this up for me because I think last night going over the transcripts, the way I understood it, Ms. Thomasson was leaving the restaurant when the beep came in, she wasn't in the middle of a meal. I was struck by her necessarily urgently running down. But as I went over that-and someone can correct me if I'm wrong-but as I am trying to recollect the reading last evening, she was actually on the way out of the restaurant when the message came, and made the call, told her friends what had happened and went, So while there may have been a sense of urgency even if she was in the middle of a meal, I was struck by the fact that she had completed the meal and was preparing to leave at the time The CHAIRMAN. I believe that to be the case. Senator DODD. I was more satisfied myself, having raised the same question of the time sequence.