July 18, 1995 - Part 2
July 18, 1995 - Part 2
(11:00:23) Let me put this into context, for we're not talking about a few isolated instances of people misspeaking. The pattern of what I would have to call deception began during the 1992 campaign with the frantic efforts of the campaign staff to keep a lid on the story of the land dealings surrounding Whitewater Development. As we learned in our last hearings, it carried over to the White House and the Department of Treasury in their efforts to give the President and the First Lady heads-up and tip-offs about the contents of criminal referrals which were being worked on by independent agencies. It then led to efforts to keep friends of the President either in charge of, in control of, or able to influence the ongoing investigations. Now, these hearings will begin to discuss how it led to White House staff frantically searching for the Whitewater files, finally removing the files and not telling us the truth about it, or not telling the public the truth about it. First, whether the files were taken out; second, who took them; third, where they were stored; fourth, what happened to them; and fifth, whether we even have a complete set of files today. As we have already seen this morning, these files had nothing to do with national security; they had mostly to do with the Clintons' political security. That takes me back to what I said at the .closing of the Whitewater hearings last year. We have heard many times about the need for an open Government, about the need to restore the faith of the American people in their Government and about the need to make the public service something that the socalled best and brightest would seek out. Over the course of these hearings, we have seen many public servants, some career, some in their first job. As a rule, I think it is important to remember that many of them are very impressive people whose dedication to what they perceive as their job cannot be questioned. We also saw in a few instances a second phenomena at work, the blurring of lines between the public responsibility of their positions and their private commitment to protect the President and the First Lady, sometimes at all costs. I believe that this is a tone set from the top: that the ends do justify the means, that somehow the public is best served if the President's interests are served, whether that be his private interest, his political interest or the interest of the Office of the Presidency. It is this ethical blurring, coupled with a set of standards that seems to imply if you are not indicted, you are fit to serve, that has gotten several Administration officials, both current and departed, in trouble. 24 This once again leads me back to the central question, Why? Why have sincere people cut corners, shaded the truth, evaded responsibility and occasionally, I believe, outright lied? What does the clear pattern of tip-offs and heads-up coupled now with late night searches, failure to secure Mr. Foster's office, interference ill the Foster suicide investigation and the bizarre control of the socalled official search of Mr. Foster's office 2 days after his death mean? We now know that on Tuesday, March 23, 1993, Roger Altman was made aware of the first criminal referral affecting the President. We also know that within hours of receiving that in-formation, a background article which explained the links between Madison Guaranty, Whitewater and the Clintons was faxed to the White House. What we don't know yet is what did the White House do with this information and how the Department of Justice's work on those referrals was affected. We now know that there was a fierce internal debate in the White House, led by Mr. Foster, over how to handle the Whitewater tax returns. In the hours and days after he died, his office was searched for these files. These files were removed, and law enforcement was not informed of their existence until months later. We know that in May and June 1993, the Small Business Administration was working on putting together a criminal case against Arkansas Judge David Hale and Capital Management Services. A case which would find Mr. Hale accusing the President of pressuring him to make an illegal loan to Jim McDougal and which eventually led to Mr. Hale's conviction; and now, apparently, the indictment of the current Governor of Arkansas. We also know that at the same time RTC employees in the Kansas City office were working on nine additional criminal charges against Madison Guaranty, again touching on the Clintons. We know that the Little Rock U.S. Attorney's off- ice was working on the Hale case in July 1993, culminating in a search warrant being issued the same day, July 20, that Mr. Foster committed suicide.