July 19, 1995 - Part 1
July 19, 1995 - Part 1
(10:35:24) In addition, it looks to me as if there were a number of very significant legal questions that arose in terms of how to handle the contents of the Foster office. You just made a couple of notes. There May indeed have been personal files, I suppose even in the latter decade of the 20th century, Presidents are allowed to have some Personal files. The concept of executive privilege, not established by this Administration but by the Administration of George Washington and accepted by every Presidential Administration since that time, and the question of attorney-client privilege, all of which are very legitimate issues. I think to your credit you recognized, in light of the emotion, in light of the legal complexities that hey, look, maybe, Bernie, you ought to step aside. I'm paraphrasing. Is that the essence of what you were suggesting to Mr. Nussbaum? Mr. HUBBELL. I was suggesting that he think about it, that in making those decisions, that be one of the considerations he make. In other words, before you jump in and grab this ball, think about whether you ought to grab it or not. That's what I was suggesting, that that be in the thought process. Senator BRYAN. I ask that question because we had a very thoughtful colloquy with Mr. Nussbaum last year and it dealt with issue of recusal in the context of Mr. Altman's role, wearing the 92 two hats as he did of Acting Head of the RTC and Deputy Sec- retary of the Treasury. Very clearly, Mr. Nussbaum had a view of recusal that is -very different than my own, and I think, frankly, did not have a broad sensitivity to public perception and Senator Shelby and I ques- him intently on that. Mr. Nussbaum is a great advocate, about that, but I think lie has a blind side. My question is in the context of what occurred, what we have now learned are the mistakes that have been made. What kind of advice do you give us in terms of how we deal with these kinds of, issues, if, heaven forbid, prospectively any other Administration left in this kind of a situation, specifically with respect to this con- cept of recusal and the very difficult conflicting personal emotions and the legitimate public policy questions that arise as to the han- dling of the contents of an officer of the Federal Government who also have personal records of the President, who may have records that are subject to attorney-client privilege and who may have records that are protected by the executive privilege? Mr. HUBBELL. Senator, the first thing is I pray that this event never occurs to any Administration. Senator BRYAN, We all join you. But I think that it's helpful to look at this thing, what have we learned, what could we have done to have precluded this conflict from arising? Mr. HUBBELL. I think certainly, in light of what this hearing is about, we know that there will be if this ever occurs again, a ton of questions about why we won't accept-we haven't learned enough about depression. This country needs to know a lot more about depression and what kind of disease it is. But somebody that position, people are going to ask what was in his office, what would have brought this on? If I could give Bernie any advice today, it would be to have more Southern litigator approach, and that is to perhaps handle the documents in a more inventory-type manner, so there is no question about what those files were, preserve the privileges, consider what they are, but have a way that everybody can know that those documents were handled in what I call a Southern litigator approach. Senator BRYAN, Where I'm coming from, Mr. Hubbell, it se to me the role of the White House Counsel needs to be thoughtfully defined when you have these kinds of situations. You may not be saying it publicly, but it strikes me instinctively you had some reservations about having someone who had close personal feelings, very strong feelings-that's one reason why they say that a lawyer that represents himself has a fool for a client. I suspect that you had some reservations about making some of those decisions in light of the strong personal feelings that everybody had?