[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 9, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          FOSTER FILE SHOCKER

                                 ______


                         HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 9, 1994

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, what in heaven's name is going on here? This 
is getting to smell worse by the day.
  The article follows:

                 [From the New York Post, Mar. 9, 1994]

                          Foster File Shocker

                         (By Christopher Rudd)

       White House officials frantically scrambled to get the 
     combination to Vincent Foster's office safe soon after his 
     death--and ultimately removed a second set of files, The Post 
     has learned.
       White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum's removal of one set 
     of Whitewater files from Foster's office has been widely 
     reported.
       But the disappearance of a second set of papers--including 
     some also related to Whitewater--wasn't previously known.
       Three separate White House sources told The Post that 
     Clinton aides were scrambling--like ``cats and dogs,'' as one 
     put it--as they tried to get into Foster's safe just hours 
     after his death.
       Foster's body was found in Fort Marcy Park in suburban 
     Arlington, Va., at about 6 p.m. on July 20.
       As previously reported, a few hours later, Nussbaum--
     accompanied by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief-of-
     staff, Margaret Williams, and longtime Clinton aide Patsy 
     Thomasson--entered Foster's office and removed Whitewater 
     files that were not in the safe.
       But The Post has learned that Nussbaum also asked a White 
     House security officer on night duty for the combination to 
     Foster's safe, a White House source said.
       Nussbaum was told that the security staff didn't have the 
     combination, the source added.
       Combinations are controlled through top-secret clearances 
     in the Office of Administration, which is run by Thomasson.
       The Office of Administration staffer in charge of 
     security--including the safeguarding of combinations--was out 
     of town that night, a law-enforcement source said.
       Later, during the wee hours of July 21, a senior White 
     House aide--not Nussbaum--succeeded in opening Foster's safe, 
     according to another law-enforcement official who is assigned 
     to the White House.
       It's not clear how the combination was obtained.
       The safe was opened before most White House personnel 
     reported to work on the morning of July 21, the source added.
       Several documents, including papers relating to Whitewater, 
     were removed from the safe and turned over to President and 
     Hillary Clinton's personal lawyer, David Kendall, the source 
     said. Then the safe was relocked.
       Foster, who was deputy White House counsel, also handled 
     the Clinton's private legal matters, including Whitewater.
       Word that the safe had been opened apparently did not reach 
     most White House officials, including senior members of the 
     White House counsel's office--and they continued to scramble 
     for the combination, a source said.
       They were so anxious to be the first to see the contents of 
     the safe that the counsel's office refused to let Park 
     Police--who were handling the investigation into Foster's 
     death--to search the office on the morning of July 21.
       The Park Police agreed to return the next day.
       On the afternoon of July 21, members of the counsel's 
     office were again asking White House personnel for the safe 
     combination, claiming that ``Bill Kennedy needed to get into 
     Mr. Foster's safe,'' another source said.
       William Kennedy is a former law partner of Mrs. Clinton and 
     Foster at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. He is associate 
     White House counsel--the No. 3 post in the counsel's office.
       But the combination could not be given out, a source said, 
     because Foster had taken the rare step of authorizing only 
     himself to have access to the number.
       Usually, White House staff members with safes share the 
     combination with their staff or secretary.
       The FBI's most highly decorated former agent told The Post 
     that the revelation about entry into Foster's safe after his 
     death underscores questions about a possible coverup.
       ``The safe is crucial--it's an A-1 priority,'' said William 
     Roemer, former head of the FBI's Organized Crime Strike 
     Force.
       He was sharply critical of the failure by Federal 
     authorities to secure Foster's office immediately after his 
     death.
       ``It raises the question [of] a coverup,'' Roemer said, 
     adding that the entry into the safe appeared to be ``self-
     serving, to protect documents which could have shed light on 
     either a suicide or homicide.''
       Repeated calls to the office of Patsy Thomasson and the 
     White House Press Office for comment went unreturned.
  

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