July 19, 1995 - Part 1
July 19, 1995 - Part 1
(10:25:38) Senator GRAMS. It was your assumption at that time that had been taken care of? Mr. HUBBELL. Yes. Senator GRAMS. You were under the impression that the office had been sealed that night of July 20, 1993? Mr. HUBBELL. That was my impression, yes, at that point. Senator GRAMS. Now, the fact, in your opinion-and one of the questions and concerns I had, and we've heard a lot of this-was that the White House was very concerned about possible national security issues, possible sensitive nominations that were impending in the office, attorney-client privilege. If the White House would have been so concerned in those Members of the Administration that came there, why didn't the White House immediately ask to have that office sealed and to ensure the integrity, to ensure an inventory was done, to make sure that nobody was going to see the sensitive material? But yet the White House never did that. Instead, three Members of the Administration went into the office and at will were looking through the files with no supervision? Mr. HUBBELL. I don't know that that occurred. I don't know what happened, whether the office was locked or not locked. I assumed it was, What I wouldn't be surprised about is that Mr. Nussbaum go in and at least look on the top of the desk to see if there was a note, I think that would be logical and appropriate. Senator GRAMS. But the White House never did ask to have it sealed, even as of late the next morning, and then there was no lock, there was only a guard posted at the door. We've heard a lot of concern here about national security and everything else, but yet the White House itself never took those steps even though the Park Police were asking for them, even though people like yourself with your legal background and training indicated that this might be a concern, that we want to maintain the integrity of this office. 89 Mr. HUBBELL. Senator, I really don't know. I heard somebody say yesterday that the office was locked. It was opened for an hour and then relocked, but I don't know what happened. Senator GRAMS. That night? Mr. HUBBELL. Yes. Senator GRAMS. But I'm talking about the hours following that and even into the next morning when you had assurances or a thought that the office had been sealed. Even at that time there had been no steps taken to ensure the integrity of that office? Mr. HUBBELL. I don't know what was done, Senator. I wasn't there. Senator GRAMS. Should they have done that, in your opinion? Mr. HUBBELL. I believe they should have locked the office, yes. Senator GRAMS. Now, removing yourself from this set of circumstances and I know the traumatic time that you and your friends went through at this time, but if you could remove yourself from this pertinent case and say it was some other case involving similar circumstances maybe, would you have been questioning the White House role, the interference or the delays rather than the Park Police and the Department of Justice being given that type of access? Would you have had some concern, in your position with the DOJ, of the White House stepping in in this case? Mr. HUBBELL. It's hard for me to answer that question because I don't know that the White House did anything. I mean, there's a presumption that I can't make yet because I don't know what the White House did, other than I know that Bernie was involved in the review of certain files. I don't know that the White House did anything else one way or the other, so it's really hard for me to presume that. I don't think, with hindsight, that it was inappropriate for somebody, the White House Counsel, given the time constraints of the review of the office, that somebody in the White House Counsel's Office would have had to be part of that supervision. When I told Bernie to stay out of it, I really, to be honest with you, wasn't thinking about executive privileges or things of that sort or when the office was going to be reviewed. But it's really difficult, because I just don't know what was done, for me to sit in judgment. I can't sit-the one thing I can say is that I can't segregate the events. You just can't do that. This was a man who had become a brother to Bernie Nussbaum, who had become a brother to Maggie Williams, who was-people were just in such shock, and their feelings were overcoming us all, that you can't segregate what was done from the emotions of the day. I couldn't do that, and I don't know how anybody else could.