July 19, 1995 - Part 2
July 19, 1995 - Part 2
(12:15:21) Senator SIMON. Finally-and then I will yield some time to our counsel if anything remains-you have testified that he was worried about the travelsituation. At one point you say in your deposition, "He seems to have blown it out of proportion." At another point you say: He was upset about, you know, The Wall Street Journal, the question mark and the paper and the editorials, And, after I had gone through four or five, you know, I had gotten to the point where I was joking about them. I was trying to get him not to be upset about them. He was upset about the travel situation. Did he at any point indicate to you that he was upset about the Whitewater situation? Mr. HUBBELL. Vince never raised with me Whitewater as a concern. He never raised it. He did raise the Travel Office. He did raise other issues, but Whitewater was never mentioned. Senator SIMON. I thank you. I yield the balance of my time. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Thank you, Senator Simon. Mr. Hubbell, I'd like to pursue some questions put to you by Senator Hatch earlier with respect to privilege and waiver of privilege. The question of waiver of privilege has come up, and I would like it if you could explain what you understand occurs if someone takes privileged matters, "someone" being an attorney, and discloses just a part of that in terms of whether there can be an argument that having done so, hecan no longer claim privilege for the balance of the material? Mr. HUBBELL. My understanding is based on practicing in Arkansas, again, I have to tell you, and that is that there can be, under some circumstances, a limited disclosure and you don't waive the privilege. On the other basis, there can he inadvertent disclo- 122 sure and you do waive the privilege, but it usually relates to the issue. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. It relates to the type of proceeding, if you're in a court proceeding, and whether there is a court order or written agreement with respect to a limited waiver; is that what you are Mr. HUBBELL. That's correct. Usually it's very difficult to talk about it in these terms because my experience, and I think most people's experience, is your dealing with discovery in a court proceeding where there are pretty straightforward rules and precedent. I'm hesitant to be an expert when I don't know if there is any precedent out there at all when it relates to executive privilege or attorney-client privilege and this Committee. I just, I-again, I refer everybody to the best lawyer I know on these issues, and that's Walter Dellinger. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. I'm sure Mr. Dellinger appreciates that spot, and the comments you made are well deserved. With respect to the practice of law in New York, I think you would be probably the first to say that an inadvertent or partial waiver of the privilege might be seized upon by others as waiving the entire privilege in any given situation. Mr. HUBBELL. I hate to admit this, but even in Arkansas I've seen some lawyers jump on an inadvertent or partial disclosure and claim total waiver of the privilege. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. So, when Bernie Nussbaum had put on his New York litigator's hat, in your view, this might be one of the things he was concerned about? Mr. HUBBELL. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Now, you were responsible for the matters in the Civil Division of the Justice Department; is that correct? Not the Criminal Division? Mr. HUBBELL. That's correct, although the Civil Divisions, I have to be candid, each have a criminal component. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. With respect to-I see my time is up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's all right. The CHAIRMAN. If counsel wants to conclude, I'll let you do that. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. No, I'm finished. That's fine. The CHAIRMAN. OK. Mr. Hubbell, I think one of the questions was put to you by Senator Simon about whether or not you discussed with Vince Foster any of his concerns over White- water, and you said no. Yet before you indicated there were discussions with respect to Whitewater, so you don't really mean that he had never spoken to you about Whitewater concerns? Mr. HUBBELL. I hope I did not convey that we never talked about Whitewater. The CHAIRMAN. That's the impression Mr. HUBBELL. I didn't mean to. The CHAIRMAN. OK I just wanted to clarify that.