July 19, 1995 - Part 3
July 19, 1995 - Part 3
(12:35:19) Mr. HUBBELL. I know what Susan has told me, and that is that Vince consulted with several private attorneys about the Travel Office, about whether they should hire independent counsel with regard to the hearings that were going to come Lip, and he wanted her evaluation of the Travel Office report done by the White House. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Sarbanes. Senator Sarbanes, I believe that we have one other Senator who wants to ask some questions; he's not going to take 10 minutes. Senator Bennett, will you have any others? Aside from that, we are ready to wrap up this part of it. I make inquiry and certainly Senator SARBANES. I have a few questions that I put in. I think some of my colleagues may have some. Why don't I go ahead while they're considering the matter? Mr. Hubbell, I want to clear up this questioning first from Senator Simon and then from Senator DAmato. As I understood Senator Simon's question, it was whether you knew that Vince Foster was upset about Whitewater in the sense that that would have been a cause or a factor in his tragic death. You indicated, as I understand it, that that was not the case; is that correct? Mr. HUBBELL. That's correct. He certainly never expressed any level of concern greater than that he was working on the matters, that Senator SARBANES. Concerning Mr. HUBBELL. "Concern" is a word that has a lot of meanings. What I'm trying to say in response to your question and Senator Simon's and Senator D'Amato's question is, as you look back on the things that Vince seemed to be upset about, Whitewater was not one.of them. If that helps. Senator SARBANES. I think-that's clear, He was working it out as a problem, but that was in the normal line of business. In terms Of the things he was upset about, that was not one of them, as you understood it. Mr. HUBBELL. As he expressed to me. Senator SARBANES. All right. Now, was your concern about closing the office the real worry that the cleaning people might remove 128 something that was relevant to understanding this entire situation? Mr. HUBBELL. Yes, it was. I can imagine if we worked here today and somebody said the cleaning people had gone through and cleaned out all the waste baskets in the Counsel's Office that night, that that would be of concern to a lot of people. That was my concern that evening. Senator SARBANES. I have no doubt about it. If the cleaning people had thrown out things, that would be a big focus around here too. Mr. HUBBELL. Yes. Senator SARBANES. Something going amiss. Mr. HUBBELL. Yes. Senator SARBANES. When you told Bernie to stay out of the mat- ter, was it you thought he was just too personally close to really have an objective view of things as he worked on it? Mr. HUBBELL. I'd like to say that I gave this a lot of thought, but I didn't. I just had an instant reaction that Bernie ought to stay out of it. Vince was like a brother. I didn't really think about privileges, and I didn't know what the matter was. I didn't know what the Park Police were going to do, but I thought there wasn't any reason why Bernie couldn't stay out of it, and that way he wouldn't be criticized for being involved. Senator SARBANES. Of course, at the time that he reviewed the files, which took place with the Park Police, the FBI and the Department of Justice all being present, you were weighing then questions of privilege and so forth. An obvious person to do that would be the Counsel. I mean, Vince Foster was a Deputy Counsel to Nussbaum, so if anyone knew about the work that was going on in the Deputy Counsel's Office, it would be the Counsel, would it not? Mr. HUBBELL. Yes, I think I said-and, believe me, I know that Bernie can speak for himself-as you look at it today, I don't have a good answer of who could have done that but Bernie. I mean, I really don't have a good answer to that question especially with the time constraints. But that's just me being a lawyer, looking at it now, 2 years later.