August 4, 1994 - Part 11
August 4, 1994 - Part 11
(22:25:29) Let me turn to the meetings and contacts. On September 29, 1993, 1 attended a meeting with Treasury official including Treasury General Counsel Jean Hanson, in my of- 468 fice. That meeting, which was convened by Treasury officials,, concerned a report the Department was about to issue on the Waco incident. At the end of the meeting, Jean Hanson drew me aside and asked to speak to me. Ms. Hanson said that the RTC had made or was about to criminal referrals to the Department of Justice related to kansas savings and loan association. She told me that the Clintons were not objects of the referrals, that is, they were not potential defendants. She said one of the referrals related to certain checks that had.,,.. gone to a Clinton gubernatorial campaign and there was a question whether these were proper campaign contributions. She said the Clintons were mentioned as possible witnesses. Ms. Hanson said that she was telling me about the referrals because she believed that this information would soon leak to the press. She believed the White House should be in a position to respond effectively and promptly to press inquiries. I called in Cliff Sloan, a member of my staff who had been at the Waco meeting. I asked Ms. Hanson to repeat to him what she had just told me. As she did that, Ms. Hanson added that she thought Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman might have previously' sent me some material relating to this subject. I told her I did not. recall that. Sometime later, she told Mr. Sloan she had been mistaken, and that Mr. Altman, in March 1993, had merely faxed to me a 1992 New York Times article concerning the Clintons' Whitewater investment. I subsequently found that article in my files. But I do not recall having received it or ever read it in March 1993 or any time until I discovered it in my files. I asked Mr. Sloan to be Ms. Hanson's point of future contact if she needed to speak further with us regarding press inquiries. That concluded the discussion with Ms. Hanson. It lasted about 5 minutes. Following the discussion, Mr. Sloan or I told Bruce Lindsey what Ms. Hanson had told us. Mr. Lindsey, a Senior White House Advisor at that time normally responded on behalf of the White House to press inquiries concerning Arkansas matters. That was the September 29th meeting. The next contact I recall occurred on October 14, 1993. On that date a meeting took place in my office between Treasury and White House officials. Jack DeVore, an Assistant Treasury Secretary for Public Affairs, had called Mark Gearan, the Director of White House Communications, the day before to ask for the meeting. Mr. DeVore explained to Mr. Gearan that the Treasury had received press inquiries related to the Madison referrals. He wanted to explain how Treasury would respond to those inquiries, Mr. Gearan asked me if the meeting could take place in my office. He called me on the phone and said could we have this meeting in your office, Jack DeVore just called me. And I was happy to receive this call. I was happy because I had previously issued memoranda to the White House staff-similar to those of my predecessors--counseling that contacts with agencies concerning pending adjudicative or investigative matters had to be cleared through the Counsel's Office. And that's what Mark Gearan was in effect 469 doing. We recognized that such contacts were potentially sensitive, and that, as a general proposition, they should not occur. However, there was no flat prohibition. We recognized that sometimes a contact would be necessary to enable the White House to discharge its official functions. In each instance, the Counsel's Office was to be involved in order to ensure that the contact was limited to an exercise of official functions and it did not entail any effort to interfere with or direct the outcome of the adjudication or investigation. I agreed to the meeting that Mr. Gearan had described to me because I believed it would serve an official function. It was important for the White House to understand what Treasury was going to say to the press so the White House could promptly and effectively respond to press inquiries it would inevitably receive.