August 4, 1994 - Part 10
August 4, 1994 - Part 10
(21:00:29) Hearing footage resumes: Senator HATCH. grave concern about the fact that Mr. Stephens' firm and we understood they had been retained and we -understood Mr. Stephens in particular was going to be working with the RTC on that." Mr. ICKES. You're reading correctly. Senator HATCH. OK. And that's correct? Mr. ICKES. Yes. Senator HATCH. OK That's all I have. Thank you. Senator SARBANES. Thank you very much, Senator Hatch. Mr. ICKES. But I just want to clarify, Senator Hatch, that the President never asked me to do anything about it and I never did anything about it. Senator HATCH. I didn't ask you, you know. That's fine. That's a good clarification. Senator SARBANES. Senator Dodd. Senator DODD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to point out I can't recall now which of our colleagues inquired of Mr. Ickes about his deposition-I'm referring to page 132 of his deposition, regarding the rationale for Mr. Altman's decision to recuse himself-and went down to part of that Sage, line 14. I thought the question of that should be in clude in the record if we're going to keep a full one, because then the question was did he go on to explain at that time what he thought the reasons for recusing himself were. long that line, "Answer."-Mr. Ickes--"there were questions a both from myself, Mr. Nussbaum and I think others to determine the basis and as I recall, the gist of his basis was that he was-had a long and well-known friendship with the President and that he was considering recusing himself to eliminate any possible conflict 444 or appearance of conflict." It seems to me that is very important if you are going to have a full transcript of what the conversation was at that time, so you get a full picture. Now, Mr. Chairman, a lot has been made of these Steiner diaries and some are relying on them more than others. Mr. Podesta, on the last page of your opening statement, the top paragraph, you say that "in the several days following Mr. Altman's February 24th testimony, I spoke by telephone to Mr. Steiner on three or four occasions." Then you go on to say "on February 25th Mr. Steiner told me that Mr. Altman had recused himself from Madison matters." Disregarding that we have that particular line and considering the Steiner diaries in which Mr. Steiner says gracefully dodged the question or words to that effect. Gracefully ducked the question; much has been made of that. Now you had by your own testimony here in your opening remarks-and, by the way, he wrote that entry on the 27th of February so, it's contemporaneous with your conversations with Mr. Steiner on the 24th and the 25th and possibly beyond that. Now, are you familiar with the Steiner diary description of Mr, Altman's handling of the February 24th testimony? Mr. PODESTA. I know he used that term. Senator DODD. He used that term. Now, in your conversations with Mr. Steiner, I presume you talked about the February 24th testimony? Mr. PODESTA. Senator, to the best of my recollection we had two conversations about recusal Senator SARBANES. Mr. Podesta, if you could pull that mike closer to you. Senator DODD. I'm looking at your opening statement today "in several days following Mr. Altman's February 24th hearing, I spoke by telephone to Mr. Steiner on three or four occasions." Mr. PODESTA. Correct. Senator DODD. Maybe-I'm sorry, I jumped ahead. During those conversations, did Mr. Steiner characterize for you how Mr. Altman handled the testimony before this Committee? Mr. PODESTA. No, Senator, no, he did not. Senator DODD. Did you ask him at any point how he would characterize Mr. Altman's testimony? Mr. PODESTA. I think those conversations were very brief. I don't believe I asked him how he would characterize the testimony. He informed me of the Dennis Foreman conversation on the February-on February 1st. He informed me that Mr. Altman was thinking of recusing himself, that conversation occurred on February 25th followed very shortly by a call that said that he had recused himself. Senator DODD. I'm curious about this Mr. PODESTA. We did not discuss the substance of Mr. Altman's testimony. I had that conversation with Mr. Altman and he never characterized that to me.