July 25, 1995 - Part 3
July 25, 1995 - Part 3
(12:00:27) Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Mr. Gearan, with respect to the conversation you had with Mr. Heymann on the 29th, was Mr. Gergen present? Mr. GEARAN. Yes, he was on the phone. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Who else was on the phone? Mr- GEARAN. I don't recall anyone else on the phone. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. On that occasion, sir, was it correct that you knew that, in addition to Mr. Gergen, that Mr. Collier had voiced some question about whether the Administration should take something of a different tack in terms of its cooperation with the police? Mr. GEARAN. I was not aware of any concerns by Mr. Collier, no. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Did you subsequently learn that Mr. Collier had spoken to Mr. Heymann? Mr. GEARAN. I know it's referenced in my notes, but I'm not aware of it, no. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. Is it fair to say, sir, that there were others in the Administration who had a concern that perhaps Mr. Nussbaum had been too close to Mr. Foster, too close to the situation and that it was time to take a step backward? Mr. GEARAN. I'm certainly aware of the Justice Department view which referenced that perhaps there are people too close to Vince, as my notes reflect. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. For example, with respect to the question of the release of the content of the torn-up note, was it the decision you came to that the timing of the release of the content should be left to the police rather than to the White House? Mr. GEARAN. That was what Mr. Heymann recommended to us, that it be left to the investigators, which is what we did. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. In fact, that is the course which the Administration followed? Mr. GEARAN. That's correct. Mr. BEN-VENISTE. I have nothing further at this time, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. We have a vote, but I think we ran at least start Senator Mack's round of questioning. Then, at that point, we will have another vote after this one, this is a live quorum call. That will take us well past 12:30 by the time we finish, so it's my intent that we will adjourn after Senator Mack's questioning so that we can make the two votes and then we'll resume at 2 p.m. 282 There are other questions of this panel that our Senators will put to them, then we will go to Patsy Thomasson which will be the next panel, With that, Senator Mack. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR CONNIE MACK Senator MACK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Gearan, I want to direct my questions to you this morning. I do so, I must say, with some ambivalence. I honestly feel that you have-and I think it's obvious in the notes that we've gone through-that you have made every effort to put yourself in a position where you can answer some very difficult questions that are going to be posed to you throughout the day on many, many different subjects. In fact, you made the comment just a moment ago that you make every effort to get that information, and I commend you for doing that. On the other hand, though, I see so many misstatements, so many things over time that have been stated by members of the White House staff all the way to the President of the United States that over time turn out to be inaccurate. That's the reason that I have some ambivalence about these questions and the discussion that we're going to have. But I welcome you here this morning and I will proceed. Mr. GEARAN. Thank you, Senator. Senator MACK. In a December 22, 1993 interview, when asked about the files that were removed from Foster's office , the President stated he didn't "know what's in the file" and he stated that there was, again, "this one file, and know if there were any more, but there was this file which related to work he had done before he came to work at the White House. There was never any indication that anyone wanted to see it, Obviously, if anybody feels that there is some relevance to any ongoing investigation, we'll do whatever we can to cooperate." The President is implying that there was only one file. This is the file that I referred to earlier in these hearings, one small file; and that Foster wasn't actively working on Whitewater. Looking at the larger stack of documents, which the Committee later obtained, what the President said about one file wasn't correct, was it? Mr. GEARAN. Senator, I don't know in the instance of the President's interview how extensive he was referring to it. I'm aware that he said he was aware of the limited scope of what was presented, but beyond that I'm not