July 19, 1995 - Part 1
July 19, 1995 - Part 1
(11:52:13)(tape #10110 begins) to be easy, but I hope we can do that. If we do, we will serve the American people well, and if we do, I will tell you afterwards I voted wrong when I voted against creating this Committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Senator, thank you for your very thoughtful statement. That is not to mean that all of our other colleagues have not made thoughtful statements. Senator Murkowski. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR FRANK H. MURKOWSKI Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you and Senator Dole for appointing me to be a Member of this Special Committee. It's my hope that the Committee will provide a service to the public in finally resolving hopefully most, if not all, of the issues relating to Whitewater, and finally putting to rest the questions surrounding the death of White House Counsel Vincent Foster. When the United States Park Service Police discovered the body of Vincent Foster on the Federal park land in Virginia, many questions were raised about the Park Service's handling of the investigation At that time I was the Ranking Member of the Energy Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Park Service. At that time I tried to get the Subcommittee to make some inquiries and potentially hold some hearings relative to the jurisdiction which we had. The Park Service Police declined, saying that the matter was under the Department of Justice and, therefore, was out of their area of jurisdiction. 38 Mr. Chairman, there have been numerous stories in the press as to the events surrounding the death of Vincent Foster, who did what in the White House in the hours and days following his death. What we do know is certain, that the Federal law enforcement personnel, including the Park Service Police, the FBI and the Justice Department, were impeded by the White House in conducting their investigation. Law enforcement officers were denied access to documents In Vince Foster's office. Instead, all the documents in his office were screened by Bernard Nussbaum, many of which were packaged in boxes and sent to the Clintons' personal living quarters. As evidence will show, Bernard Nussbaum and other White House officials visited Foster's office soon after his death in an effort to locate a note that might explain his motive for committing suicide. Law enforcement professionals know that in the vast majority of suicides, a note is left and the absence of such a note could be an indicator of some other motive. (09:29:06) Opens to various shots of Senate hearing room where Senators, the press and audience are slowly filling the room (09:37:35) Hearing begins: INVESTIGATION OF WHITEWATER DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION AND RELATED MATTERS WEDNESDAY, JULY 19,1995 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS, SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE WHITEWATER DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION AND RELATED MATTERS, Washington, DC. The Committee met at 9:30 a.m., in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building, Senator Alfonse M. DAmato (Chairman of the Committee) presiding. OPENING COMMENTS OF CHAIRMAN ALFONSE M. DAMATO The CHAIRMAN. The Committee will come to order. Yesterday we were not able to conclude our examination and the inquiries that were being put forth to Mr. Hubbell. It was the decision of the Committee to put over the rest of the questioning from our colleagues until today. We thank Mr. Hubbell for being with us again and I will turn to Senator Shelby for the questions that he is going to put forth. Senator Shelby. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY Senator SHELBY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Hubbell, yesterday we left off talking about a conversation that you apparently had had with Phil Heymann who, just to put it back in the record, was the Deputy Attorney General over at the Justice Department at that time; is that correct? CONTINUED SWORN TESTIMONY OF WEBSTER HUBBELL FORMER ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Mr. HUBBELL. That is correct. Senator SHELBY. We were trying to get into the record about some of the difficulties that Mr. Reymann apparently had with Mr. Nussbaum, who's the White House Counsel, over how the search of, Vince Foster's office was conducted or was to be conducted. Would you just, for the record this morning, tell us again what was the difficulty that Mr. Heymann had with Mr. Nussbaum's attitude about searching the office of the White House Deputy Counsel? Mr. HUBBELL. Obviously, Mr. Heymann is the one who did this because I was in Little Rock at the time, but what he related to me was that any 74 Senator SHELBY. When you got back over to the Justice Department is when lie related to you this? Mr. HUBBELL, That's correct. Senator SHELBY. At that time, you were the number three person at the Justice Department? Mr. HUBBELL. That's correct, What he had told me is he and Bernie had had some discussions about how the review of the files would occur. Then, when, I believe, the Park Police, FBI agents and several people from the Justice Department were there, that Bernie had wanted to go about it in a different way. Senator SHELBY. What did Mr. Heymann say to you about Nussbaum's idea of searching the office? Obviously, this was the crux of the conversation. Mr. HUBBELL. The crux of the conversation was actually that the Park Police had complained about the procedure and that he had to talk to Bernie about it to get it resolved. Senator SHELBY. The Park Police, who were doing the initial investigation of the death of Mr. Foster and so forth, had complained to the Justice Department?