July 25, 1995 - Part 5
July 25, 1995 - Part 5
(15:50:53) Ms. THOMASSON. Yes, sir. Mr. CHERTOFF. In your conversation with Mr. Watkins later that night, did you tell I-Am what areas you had been searching? Ms. THOMASSON. We never discussed where I looked. CHERTOFF. Did you tell him you'd looked in the briefcase? THOMASSON. I don't recall telling him that. I don't recall discussing where I looked, except to say I looked in Vince's office. Mr. CHERTOFF. You had no discussions about the particulars of where you should have looked or shouldn't have looked? Ms. THOMASSON. He didn't have a habit of telling me how to do my job. He just asked me if I would go do that for him. Mr. CHERTOFF. After you went down to your office and first tried to reach Mr. Watkins, did you go back up to the White House Counsel's suite at any further point that night or in the early hours of the following morning? Ms. THOMASSON. No, sir. Mr. CHERTOFF. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Let's go, even though we have some time remaining, to the other side. Senator Sarbanes, Senator SARBANES. Mr. Ben-Veniste. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Thank you, sir. Ms. Thomasson, once you received the page on your beeper, which is a portable device that you carried with you-you have with you here today, do Thomasson has held up a beeper. That device prints out a message for you and in this case the message, as has been clarified here, was for you to call a Mr. Watkins and provide your location number; correct? Ms. THOMASSON. Yes, sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. So you called the White House communication Center in response to Mr. Watkins' message; correct? one you? The record should show that Ms. Ms. THOMASSON. Yes, sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. At that time, you were at a pay phone at a busy restaurant in Georgetown? Ms. THOMASSON. Yes, sir, 320 Mr. BEN-VENISTE. After you got put through to Mr. Watkins, you went directly to the White House? MS. THOMASSON. Yes, Sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. So the notion is that at 10:34 you received the first message, you returned the message, you get in a cab with your friends who insist on staying with you because they see that you are upset? Ms. THOMASSON. Yes, Sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. And you are driven in the taxi to the White House. Now, on a Tuesday night at about 10:30, was there much traffic, as you recall? Ms. THOMASSON. I don't recall there being a lot of traffic, no, Sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Those were in the days before all these barricades were around the White House Ms. THOMASSON. Yes, Sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. -that has obstructed traffic to some extent about which we hear a good deal from our local government? MS. THOMASSON. Yes, Sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. That ride going from Georgetown to the White House was, in your view, how many minutes? Ms. THOMASSON. Ten or 15 minutes, Mr. Ben-Veniste. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Once you got to the White House, you indicated that you departed your friends because you did not want to be delayed by clearing them through the process to have them get admission to the White House? Ms. THOMASSON. Yes, Sir. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Then who did you speak with? Ms. THOMASSON. In the White House? Mr. BEN-VENISTE. At the White House when you arrived there. Ms. THOMASSON. When I opened my office and went tip to the first floor, I saw several people that I knew that were on the first level outside of the Chief of Staffs Office. I saw Bruce Lindsey. I saw Dana Lawrence. I saw John Emerson and his wife. I saw several people that I knew and we stopped to talk and to console each other and discuss what had happened. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. That was my next question actually, whether you brushed those people off and said I've got to get going now or whether you stopped and spoke to them of this tragedy. You consoled them and they consoled you? Ms. THOMASSON. I stopped and spoke to each one of them that I met up with and consoled and was consoled by them. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Then, at some point thereafter, you made your way to the second floor to the Counsel's suite? Ms. THOMASSON. Right. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Approximately how much time do you feel that you spent in Mr. Foster's office, all told, looking in the places that you've already mentioned for a note? Ms. THOMASSON. I think it was approximately 10 minutes, Mr. Ben-Veniste.