July 25, 1995 - Part 4
July 25, 1995 - Part 4
(14:35:42) Senator HATCH. OK. Did it occur to you that this bag might contain some of Mr. Foster's papers or information from his office? MS. MATHEWS. When I first sought to get the bag, yes, sir, it did But after the time at which I learned that he didn't have one in his office, one, and then it turns out that there wasn't-it wasn't ever dumped. So at the time when I learned it wasn't in the office, that's the point at which I thought my question wasn't quite so rel- evant, I I Senator HATCH. But it was Mr. Nussbaum-and maybe I've got this wrong, and correct me if I'm wrong-it was Mr. Nussbaum that told you to burn the burn bag, right? Ms. MATHEWS. Yes, sir. What he told me was to process it appropriately. He told me two things: One, that there was not a burn bag in Vincent Foster's office and, two, that the materials, the commingled materials that I had, should be processed as they normally are processed. Senator HATCH. Did you know exactly where the burn bag came from or is that unclear? Ms. MATHEWS. The commingled bag that I received came from the uniformed division of the Secret Service. Senator HATCH. OK. Now, let me just ask you this question: Did Mr. Nussbaum tell you or anyone else if anyone had wanted the burn bag destroyed? MS. MATHEWS. No, sir, he told me to process it as it's normally processed and it is my understanding, though I've never seen it actually happen, that that's what the Secret Service does, Senator HATCH. I see. Did he tell you if he or anyone else had ordered Mr. Foster's office searched? Ms. MATHEWS. No, sir, he did not mention that to me. Senator HATCH. Were you aware of anybody being in Mr. Foster's office or searching it? MS. MATHEWS. No, sir, I was not aware of that, Senator HATCH. OK, Mr. Gearan, on December 23, 1993, you stated, and I quote, "the President today has instructed his personal attorney"-I assume that's Mr. Kendall-"to provide appropriate law enforcement authorities at the Department of Justice with all the documents relating to the Whitewater Development Corporation"-could I just finish this question-"including those in the files of Vincent Foster which were turned over to their personal attorney after Mr. Foster's death." That was in The New York Times. Now, I want to make sure that this Committee and the American people know about all of the documents relating to Whitewater. So, Mr. Gearan, can you state for the record that the documents in the hands of David Kendall and the documents still in the hands of the White House are all of the documents relative to the Whitewater investigation? Mr. GEARAN, Based on my understanding, yes, sir, the Statement we issued in December is correct. 295 Senator HATCH. When you made that statement that was reported in The New York Times, were you referring to all of the documents we've become aware of so far? Mr. GEARAN. Senator, I'm not sure of all the documents that you have become aware of, but based on my understanding in December-and there is no distinction today as I testify before you. My understanding is that that includes all of the documents. Senator HATCH. OK. I assume this group of documents included those that the Presidential campaign had collected and those transferred from the White House to Mr. Kendall's office. Do you know? Mr. GEARAN. Senator, what I know is that the documents were in Mr. Kendall's office. The chain of custody from the campaign, I am uncertain about. Senator HATCH. OK. Thanks. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Sarbanes. Senator SARBANES. I'm going to yield to Senator Simon, but I want to just be clear of one thing with Ms. Mathews because I'm a little concerned by some of the line of questioning that's been put to her and some of the reports that were in the press which seem to me to actually be very much at variance with what she did, and I want to be clear about this. At the time that they proceeded to process the burn bag in the normal course, I take it that it was your view there were no documents in the burn bag from Vince Foster's office; is that correct? Ms. MATHEWS. Yes, sir, I understood there to be no documents from Vincent Foster's office in that bag. Senator SARBANES. So you weren't proceeding to process the burn bag and the burning of those documents on the basis that there were documents in there from Foster's office? In fact, just to the contrary, you'd been told or led to understand that there were no documents in the burn bag from Foster's office; is that correct? MS. MATHEWS. That's correct.