July 19, 1995 - Part 1
July 19, 1995 - Part 1
(10:05:16) Mr. HUBBELL. I didn't sleep very well that night, as you can imagine. Senator BOND. We can understand that. Mr. HUBBELL. But one of the concerns I had was that somehow the cleaning people would go into that off-ice and clean up the trash cans and maybe pick up notes that may have dropped on the floor and what a tragedy that would be for everybody to go in the office the next morning and the trash would be cleaned out and we wouldn't, at least, have the opportunity to see if there was some- thing in the trash that would give insight into Vince's state of mind. Senator BOND. Now, Mr. Hubbell, that was the first thing that came to your mind, and you testified to that yesterday, that you were concerned about the cleaning people. But, also, were there not other considerations as to why that office should be sealed? Mr. HUBBELL. At the time that's what I was thinking about. Obviously, these hearings are about other considerations, but at the time I was thinking more of an inadvertent removal of something out of the office. Senator BOND. Now, let me ask you in your professional position, you served as an attorney, a judge, a high-ranking official in the Justice Department. Stepping aside from the tragedy of your close friend, Mr. Foster, in your professional position, if you were called upon to supervise or to have influence over the handling of a scene where there had been a tragic death, not a natural death, of a high-ranking official, what would be the concerns that you would have about sealing the office of such an individual? Mr. HUBBELL. One, something inadvertent being taken out of there that might give insight into Vince's state of mind, Senator BOND. Two would be Mr. HUBBELL. The second would obviously be to try to make sure that we knew what Vince might have been working on to see if that would give any insight into what happened. Senator BOND. What other considerations would you have generally, not speaking about Mr. Foster, but where there's a suicide or a violent death of a high Government official, what other concerns should a responsible prosecutor or lawyer or judge be concerned about preserving evidence Mr. HUBBELL. You would obviously want to see if there were personal records in there that might reflect, in the case of a violent death like this, that there was something amiss, something wrong happened. Senator BOND, That could be-number one, it could be a question of whether it was murder or suicide. If it were suicide, there could be a question of whether there was a scandal, or whether there was a breach of security or whether there was other foul play connected 83 with that death. Is that a fair statement? Mr. HUBBELL. That is correct. Senator BOND. So these are the reasons that one would, in good legal practice--investigation of a crime scene--ensure that the office of the victim is sealed? Mr. HUBBELL. Yes, except I would disagree. This was not a crime scene. Senator BOND. Excuse me, strike that. I appreciate that. It's not a crime scene, but the office of a victim of a violent death should be secured. Now, you've indicated that documentation of the contents should proceed. Could you describe for us what you mean by "documentation"? What should be done with the contents of an office under this Mr. HUBBELL. Again, Senator, I'm doing this out of speculation, and I have never personally been involved in a situation like this, and I hope none of us ever are again. Senator BOND. We hope so. Mr. HUBBELL. But I would think that there would be, at some point, some inventory of what was in the office, if possible. Senator BOND. If you were representing a client in a civil or a criminal matter, and the opposing party, whether it be a prosecutor or a private party, wanted to get access to a whole office full of documents, and you might have various privileges to assert, you would, in your normal practice of law, make some accounting of those documents and develop a privilege log or something like that, would you not? Mr. HUBBELL. In a perfect world, yes. Senator BOND. But this would be good practice. You would develop a log of the information that was in the office or the site for which a subpoena had been served?