July 18, 1995 - Part 1
July 18, 1995 - Part 1
(10:20:26) We on this Committee should remember what we're not. We're not the FBI. We're not the Grand Jury or a Grand Jury. We're not prosecutors, nor are we defense attorneys. We're United States Senators carrying out the mandate of this institution and the mandate of a very, very specific resolution. Our charge in this set of hearings is to answer a narrowly tailored question: Did anyone at the White House impede the police investigation of Vince Foster's tragic suicide? That is our mission. Our charge during this phase is not to delve into the details of President Clinton's and Mrs. Clinton's land transactions or to audit their tax returns or to spin wild conspiracy theories. We're going to hear about what people did or did not do in the midst of their grief at a very, very emotional time. We may hear about sloppiness We're probably going to hear about mistakes. We're going to hear a lot about gossip and speculation. But let me emphasize there has never, never been any suggestion that the police wanted to review Whitewater or any substantive file in Vince Foster's office. They were investigating a tragic, tragic suicide. We're going to hear about discrepancies in testimony from witnesses doing their best, in my view, to recollect specific details in the midst of a highly charged emotional event from 2 years ago. I hope, Mr. Chairman that we'll do our best to keep everything we hear and learn during these hearings in that context. We cannot look at people's actions, in my view, in July 1993 in a vacuum, plot them out like steps in a chemical reaction or subject them to the cold microscope of rational analysis. I think we must examine these events for what they were, deeply human reactions to a deeply human tragedy. Mr. Chairman, there are few human experiences more traumatic than experiencing the suicide of a family member, a close friend or colleague, and I hope that each and every one of us will try to put ourselves in the shoes of those who lived through that tragedy. In examining this aspect of our hearings, I think we should ask ourselves how would we have reacted if this would have happened to someone on one of our staffs or to one of our childhood friends ' In the minutes and, literally, minutes and hours and days after this terrible suicide of a very decent man, friends and colleagues understandably acted on instinct, in my view, more than careful thought or plotting. One of the most traumatic and perplexing of human tragedies, a suicide. You've just been informed that some 13 one you're very close to, known all your life, has taken his life. How do you react? What are you thinking about? The people involved here were emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted, in my view, and we cannot expect people in such situations to exercise the clearest possible judgment in every case. The context, Mr. Chairman, is also important because of the nature of the office in question. We're not talking about a crime scene here; the tragic suicide occurred in Fort Marcy overlooking the Potomac River. The suicide of a lawyer does not mean that it is open season on that attorney's files. There are legitimate privacy and executive privilege issues involved, as Senator Sarbanes has pointed out. Think about it, if you would, in terms of a doctor/patient relationship. If your family doctor took his own life, would you want the police rummaging through your personal medical records in your doctor's office? Obviously we have different standards when we're talking about the President of the United States, but I think we should all at least acknowledge the understandable instinct to protect the privacy of the material in Vince Foster's office. To date, Mr. Chairman, as you and Senator Sarbanes in part have pointed out, we have spent at the Federal level more than $10 million in reviewing what is known as Whitewater. Independent Counsels, two offices, IS prosecutors, dozens of FBI agents and IRS agents, this Committee's work, independent investigators, press inquiries. It has been voluminous.