[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 71 (Thursday, June 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: June 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
WHITEWATER AND DRUG-RELATED ACTIVITIES
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kanjorski). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of February 11, 1994, and June 8, 1994, the Chair
recognizes the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] for 60 minutes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk tonight, along
with my colleagues Sam Johnson of Texas and Bob Dornan of California,
about some new revelations into Whitewater-related activities as
reported today in the Washington Times, and I would like to expand a
little bit on the story, and I hope everybody will bear with me a
little bit, because it is a very convoluted, involved story, that leads
everyone who knows something about it to believe that there needs to be
a complete congressional investigation involving Whitewater, as well as
possible drug-related transactions.
A fellow named Jerry Seper of the Washington Times wrote, and I am
going to quote the first paragraph:
Whitewater Madison investigators are looking at a Little
Rock investment firm owned by a convicted cocaine dealer to
find out if drug profits were laundered through banks and
other financial outlets, and later masked as campaign
contributions to arch Governor Bill Clinton.
Now, what he is talking about here, and I will jump through a lot of
this, is a fellow who is named Dan Lasater. Mr. Lasater is a
businessman who is very successful. He started a company called Lasater
& Co. And Mr. Lasater has been involved in business down in Arkansas
for a long time.
Now, Mr. Lasater was a major contributor, financial supporter of Bill
Clinton, as well as a personal friend, throughout much of Bill
Clinton's political career.
During the time that Bill Clinton was Governor and running for
reelection, as I said, Mr. Lasater gave him major contributions and
major financial support.
Mr. Lasater, in 1986, was indicted and convicted of dealing in drugs,
and he received a 30-month jail sentence. He was believed to have been
involved in not only drugs, but laundering drug money.
At the same time, Bill Clinton's brother was involved in this alleged
scheme, and he was convicted as well.
Mr. Lasater did not go to prison. He spent 4 months in a halfway
house, and then I think he had 2 months under house arrest, and then in
1990, Bill Clinton pardoned Mr. Lasater, and Mr. Lasater, after being
pardoned, became the chairman of the board of the Phoenix Mortgage Co.
At that time, a lady named Patsy Thomasson, who had been associated
with Mr. Lasater and Bill Clinton, she was also at that time in the
late eighties and early nineties head of the Democrat Party in
Arkansas, Miss Thomasson was the executive vice president of the
Lasater Co. and when Mr. Lasater was indicted and convicted, she took
over as the chief executive officer and ran the company in his absence.
When Mr. Lasater was pardoned by Bill Clinton, Miss Thomasson became
the president of the Phoenix Group. So she was an associate of Mr.
Lasater before, during, and after his conviction for drug crimes.
Now, Mr. Lasater, while he was being investigated by the state police
of Arkansas for being involved in cocaine trafficking, received a $664
million bond contract from the State of Arkansas signed by the
Governor, and he made $1.3 million off of this transaction. This was
during the time he was being investigated and later convicted for drug
trafficking.
Now, a fellow named Dennis Patrick, who was county court clerk in
Kentucky, and this is a convoluted story, so please bear with me, it is
hard to follow, was contacted by an old schoolmate named Steven Love,
and Mr. Love worked for Mr. Lasater in his brokerage house in Arkansas.
{time} 2020
Mr. Love had gone to school with Mr. Patrick, and they were close
friends. He called Mr. Patrick and said he wanted to take him on a
fishing and hunting trip, all expenses paid, on a private jet to an
exotic place. He was going to tell him how he could make a lot of
money.
Mr. Patrick went with him. During the trip Mr. Love told him that he
was going to try to help him, to set him up, and help him make at least
$20,000 a month from bond transactions. Mr. Patrick thought this was
very interesting, but he did not think anything would come of it.
A month later Mr. Love called him and told him he had made $20,000
and he ought to come down to Arkansas to visit him and the Lasater
firm, because he had been the beneficiary of this $20,000.
He had not invested anything, he had not signed anything, but he
thought ``If I made $20,000, I would even get on skates and go down
there.'' He went down to Arkansas. Mr. Love called over to the First
American Bank, to somebody he knew over there, and told them that he
was sending Mr. Patrick over there and they were opening up an account
for $20,000 for him. Mr. Patrick went over and signed some papers
opening up this account.
After that, subsequent to that, Mr. Lasater's firm started running
through Patrick & Associates, Dennis Patrick's company, bond
transactions. These bond transactions ultimately, over the next 2
years, 3 years, amounted to between $60 and $107 million. Mr. Patrick
did not know anything about them. He did not know anything about them
until later, when two of the principals in the agency, of the Lassister
Co., came to visit him and left him with some documents that he did not
understand. They were bond transactions.
These bonds were transferred without his approval, and nobody knows
where the money came from to buy the bonds, and the $107 million was
transferred to the Security Pacific Bank branch in New York and First
American Bank in Little Rock. Mr. Patrick did not know anything about
it. He did not know where the money came from. He did not know who
bought the bonds, but he did find out subsequently that these
transactions had taken place and the money went into Mr. Lasater's
account.
Mr. Lasater, as I said, went to jail. Patsy Thomasson was the chief
financial officer for that company, so that she had to know about these
financial transactions. Patsy Thomasson, for those who do not know, is
now the director of the President's administration at the White House.
She runs the White House today. She is the lady that was the executive
officer running this company, or in large part, during the time that
this $197 million in bond transactions took place.
It is very possible, Mr. Speaker, very possible that this money was
drug money that was being laundered through buying U.S. Treasury bonds
and then sold through these two banks, Security Pacific Bank and First
National, First American, and the money was then going into Mr.
Lassiter's account.
We believe, we think, that it is real possible, very possible, that
Patsy Thomasson knew about these transactions. She is one of the lead
principles in the White House, the Director of Administration, running
the Clinton White House. We think that this alone is reason enough to
have a congressional investigation.
There is so much involved in this, Mr. Speaker, that it almost
becomes hard to follow. My colleagues and I have been working on this
all day long, but I would like to show to my colleagues copies of the
transactions that took place, these bond transactions that took place
in 1985 and 1986. They just came to the attention of the media and the
Congress today. They are related to the entire Whitewater scandal. This
Congress needs to have hearings on this.
Mr. Speaker, we know there is an investigation going on with the
special counsel. Many are concerned that this is not going to get the
complete hearing that it should with the special counsel's
investigation. We are not trying to impugn the integrity of the special
counsel. We do believe he had close ties, Mr. Fiske had close ties, and
has had close ties with Mr. Nussbaum, who used to be at the White
House. We know that for a fact, because they had legal dealings
together on a number of cases. We know Mr. Fiske represented the
International Paper Co., and International Paper sold several hundred
acres to the Whitewater Development Corp. Mr. Fiske is investigating
all of this.
In order to make sure that Mr. Fiske does his job properly, as well
as the Congress does its job in conducting its oversight requirement
under the Constitution, we believe that congressional investigations
are absolutely necessary. Here is a man who was convicted of dealing in
drugs. Here is a man who was pardoned by the now-President of the
United States. Here is a man who, during the time he was under
investigation by the Arkansas State Police, got $664 million in State
bond contracts, from which he made $1.3 million. Here is a man who was
very close to the President of the United States, was a major, major
contributor, and went everyplace with the President. As I said before,
he was pardoned.
Patsy Thomasson, who is one of President Clinton's right-hand persons
at the White House, and has been for a long, long time, the head of the
Democrat Party in Arkansas during his administration, she was tied to
Lassiter before, during, and after the time he was convicted of drug
dealing. She was running his company when all of these bond
transactions, $107 million, took place, and nobody knows from when the
money came, but they know the money was transferred through Dennis
Patrick's account. He did not know anything about it, so it must have
been an illegal transaction. That should be investigated by the IRS and
the FBI. The money went to Mr. Lassiter and his account in these two
banks I alluded to earlier.
In order for us to vindicate the President, get all of this cleared
up, in order for us to vindicate and clear up Patsy Thomasson's
relations with Mr. Lasater, in order for us to protect Dennis Patrick,
and I might add that Dennis Patrick's life has been not only
threatened, they tried to kill him three times since all of this took
place. The man has been in hiding with his family because he is afraid
he is going to be killed. He was in to see us today.
In order to protect him, we need to have congressional hearings. It
is absolutely imperative. This goes beyond Whitewater. It goes into
drug trafficking, it goes into money laundering, it goes into all kinds
of things. In order for this President to be able to do his job
effectively, we think this all needs to be cleared up. The only way it
is going to be cleared up is through a congressional investigation.
Mr. Speaker, let me say one more thing, and then I will yield to my
colleague, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan]. That is this.
Some people will say this is political. I think it goes way beyond
politics, but we must look back to the Reagan and Bush administration,
when things that were of much less consequence than this, much less
consequence than this to the American people, were investigated by
congressional hearings.
Mr. Speaker, there were 23 congressional hearings during the Bush and
Reagan administrations, and every time we asked for anything, any
information relating to Whitewater or anything else, we were
stonewalled by the administration and the entire executive branch. It
was that way in the Ron Brown affair and it is that way in Whitewater,
and we believe it is going to be that way in this drug investigation we
are talking about right now, and the possible money laundering.
Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleagues and to anybody else who is paying
attention, this is a very serious matter. It deserves congressional
oversight. It deserves congressional investigation. It is our
responsibility as a Congress to look into this.
I would say to my colleagues, let us get on with it. If it was a
Republican administration we would have done this months ago. It is a
Democrat administration, and let us do the right thing and clear this
thing up.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague, the gentleman from
California [Mr. Dornan].
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman, we were in
this office this morning looking at documents detailing what appeared
to be massive movements of money, tens of millions of dollars. As I
said at the end of my 5-minute special order within the hour, if we
compare all of these latest revelations with substantial documentation
to back it up, some of the documents the gentleman and I have touched
are original source material from banks; that we are dealing, if
somebody will set up a simple fraction, with a factor of one-thousand
to one in financial impropriety over the tens of thousands, up to
several, $300,000 loans, that were involved with the current Governor,
allegations involving the current Governor of Arkansas and the
immediate prior Governor of Arkansas, Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that if the special investigator, not
independent investigator but the special investigator, working under
the aegis of Janet Reno, the Attorney General, if Robert Fiske fails to
include a thorough and extensive investigation of these latest
revelations concerning Lasater and his company, Lasater & Co., that the
investigation will be fraudulent, that it will be unsatisfactory.
{time} 2030
I think we not only must request, we must demand, it is compulsory
that Fiske expand his investigation to include what Mr. Dennis Patrick
told us.
Mr. Dennis Patrick, who appears to be a humble and average American
citizen from the State of Arkansas, if what he tells us is true, that
his life was in jeopardy at several points and may be again, if this is
true, then our use of his name in the Halls of this hallowed Chamber,
in the legislative Chamber of the House of Representatives is in a way
buying Mr. Dennis Patrick a measure of safety.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. We sure hope so anyhow.
Mr. DORNAN. Well I hope so too, because I feel like I want to say his
name over and over about 15 times. No one who is serious about the U.S.
Government and these multiple, overlaying scandals can begin to
comprehend the enormity of what is before us if they do not understand
who Mr. Dennis Patrick is and how his net worth, at a generous high
watermark was never more than $60,000, and yet how a friend, a little
more clever, who he owes his life to because his life was saved during
a rappelling accident with this man, Mr. Love, coming down the cliff
where he was completely unhooked and hanging by one line, and Mr. Love,
a lifelong friend came down, rappelled down to him and literally saved
his life, then when his friend said to him, ``Can we use your name and
start an account to run money through, and I think we can make you some
money,'' when he was asked by this lifelong friend, and was told to
come and pick up the first check for $20,000, and as this began to
escalate, once he got the paperwork in his hands it was way over $100
million through this simple man's account.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. And he did not know about the transactions.
Mr. DORNAN. None of them.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Which would lead one to believe that they had
to be illegal transactions. And if they are illegal transactions, the
IRS and the FBI have to be involved.
The gentleman from Texas [Mr. Sam Johnson] and I were talking a few
minutes ago, and we were talking about the requirement that any
transaction involving over $10,000 has to be reported on forms to the
IRS. We are talking about $100 million here. And Mr. Lasater was
running this money through Dennis Patrick's firm, and Dennis Patrick
did not even know about it. There have to be criminal violations there.
The thing that bothers me the most is that Patty Thomasson was the
chief financial officer of this firm when all of this was going on, and
if that is the case, she possibly is guilty of a felony, or maybe more
than one felony, and if she is, she ought to be hauled before this
Congress, and we ought to have complete hearings.
Mr. DORNAN. Let me set the background a little bit again on Lasater.
Months ago when the first material started to come out on Lasater, that
he met Mr. Clinton's mother at the racetrack, that they developed a
friendship, that they had adjoining boxes, and then he met Mr. Clinton
and he raised tens of thousands of dollars for Mr. Clinton, and finally
when he goes to jail as a convicted cocaine dealer for I think an 8- to
10-year sentence, all of that time, and then Governor Clinton pardoned
him at the 2-year, 4-month point, and his affairs then are run by Patty
Thomasson.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. That is right. She was the chief financial
officer of this firm.
Mr. DORNAN. In going over this material with my wife, Sally, I tend
to underline things in red that I think are important, and I had
underlined something in red and it had not even struck me what I had
underlined. My wife turned to me and said, ``Why did you mention to me
this when you underlined it?'' She said, ``What's that, that Dan
Lasater paid off Roger Clinton's narcotic debts, his cocaine debts?''
And she gets this smile on her face and she said, ``Would this mean
court costs, or FBI investigative costs, or does it mean to the mob?
Isn't this getting like a John Grisham novel,'' my wife said. She said,
``Isn't this like The Firm that we just saw with Tom Cruise and Gene
Hackman the other night?''
This is strange. What drug debts did Lasater pay off of Roger
Clinton's when Roger Clinton was a driver for him and was himself
indicted for and served prison time for cocaine abuse? This is stunning
material.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. If I might interrupt my colleague, that is of
concern and of import. But even more important is we may have in the
White House as the director of this administration, one of the highest
offices in the land, a person who may be guilty of a felony for not
reporting properly to the IRS these transactions. We do not know where
this money came from. We do know it went through Mr. Patrick's account
without his knowledge to the tune of up to $107 million. And if that is
the case, she had to know about that, as did Mr. Lassiter. And if that
is the case, why are we not allowed to have congressional hearings and
get to the bottom of it? If she is clean, if she is clear, then that is
fine, and we will all apologize and she can go back to work at the
White House. But if not, she should not be down there at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue helping to run this country.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Sam Johnson].
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I think
he has a number of documents of transactions both in and out of the
dollars of which there is no trail.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Yes. The problem is that we have the sell
orders, and we have the transfers from Security Pacific Bank and First
American Bank transfers, but we do not know where the money came from.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. That is right.
Let me make another point that I think is really important. As a
member of the Banking Committee I think it is incumbent upon this
Congress, all of us, to be sure that we do not waste taxpayer dollars,
and part of the taxpayer dollars that were lost in the savings and loan
debacle that we had across this country were directly attributable to
Mr. Lassiter and his company which was formed. He came to Little Rock
in the 1970's and formed his company in 1983. About that time the
Governor formed the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, which is
tantamount to a way to create money without control. The Governor
appoints the board. He has the right to approve or disapprove every
bond issue, no regulator, no legislative oversight. It is essentially
there to create money. The dollars were put in, they flowed through the
Lassiter company, as evidenced by the trade agreements that the
gentleman has there. They went to S&L's which are now defunct. The
taxpayers are picking up the bill.
In my view, the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs has a
responsibility of oversight on the RTC, which we have been denied
hearings on. And we have a right to find out what happened to our
taxpayer dollars. We have a right to protect the people's interest. I
think that that is the best argument for hearings that I know of.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, can the gentleman kind of open up the time
for a three-way colloquy?
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Yes, we will have a colloquy.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the gentleman from
Texas, as a member of the Banking Committee, what our distinguished
colleague, and really he is a good friend of mine, Henry Gonzalez, what
is he telling you as chairman of that key committee, because all of
these scandals over the last 4 or 5 years, watching a Speaker for the
first time in history resign, and 15 days before he resigned the
majority whip got out of town, it looked like it was one jump ahead of
the sheriff only to go out and make half a million dollars a year or so
up in Washington, what is the gentleman being told? I have memorized
the two dates of the votes in this Chamber and in the other
distinguished body, and it is pretty easy. St. Patrick's Day the Senate
voted unanimously, 98 to zero. Two Members were ill or absent, 98 to
zero was the vote. Five days later, on my daughter Kathleen's birthday,
March 22, 408 to 15 in this Chamber. The Ides of March, the 17th and
the 22d, and here we are into June. We are about 6 weeks away from our
next break. I wonder what they are telling you about hearings?
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. At the same time, and I am sure the
gentleman did hear the majority leader tell us that we would have
hearings. To date I know of none. I know that every committee hearing
in the Banking Committee has been postponed to date. We are not doing
any activity in the full committee because as I understand it, they are
afraid of what questions might be asked. I think that it is high time
that we had hearings, that the House lived up to the vote that the
gentleman spoke of, and we have a hearing in the Banking Committee, or
with a special committee, it does not matter to me. But the Banking
Committee does have purview over S&L's and these matters, and they are
directly responsible for protecting the people's interests.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Let me just say one thing. This is not going
to go away. Under the purview of the Banking Committee the gentleman
from Iowa [Mr. Leach] who is the ranking Republican, has been trying
for a couple of months now, 3 months, to have hearings on this.
{time} 2040
And every week or so we have new revelations about this thing. This
time it is the situation with the possible laundering of drug money,
the illegal transactions of bonds to Mr. Lasater's bank accounts in a
couple of different cities. This is not going to go away. The longer
this administration, in my opinion, continues to let this fester, the
worse it is going to be.
What they need to do, if they want to clean this up so the President
can be effective and get on with his job as chief executive officer of
this country, is to have these hearings, have the people come down and
testify who need to testify, and if everything is OK, it will be
cleared up. It will be over with. But if Mr. Lasater did launder $107
million in this particular case in drug money through these bond
schemes and if Patsy Thomasson, the chief financial officer for that
company, was involved in any way by not reporting to the IRS or not
reporting these transactions, and if the President, God forbid, if the
President is complicitous in some way because he had such close ties to
Mr. Lasater and he gave him $664 million in bonds for the State of
Arkansas when he was being investigated for drug trafficking.
Mr. DORNAN. Did he fly on Lasater's airplane?
Mr. BURTON. Yes. He was with Lasater on his plane, I think, and
everything else. At least, that is what I have been told. The point is
that this needs to be cleaned up, and I think the President, if he
really is concerned about his effectiveness as President, should say
OK, let us make a clean breast of this, get down there and have these
congressional hearings and get this behind us.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. I think he ripped off, if I may, if you
would yield, I think Lasater ripped off the people out at Angel Fire,
too. You keep hearing that mentioned. I happen to own some property out
there, and I know that, out in New Mexico. It is in default, and the
guy just sucked money out of it by a large stroke. I'm not sure it was
not part of this whole arrangement.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Let me ask you a question: Did not President
Clinton, when he was Governor of Arkansas, do advertisements as
Governor of Arkansas for that project? I think he did for one.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. He may have. I am not positive.
Mr. DORNAN. Wait a minute. I have never heard that before. First of
all, a Governor is entitled to do, not entitled to do, but I mean, it
is ethical for a Governor to increase his State's tourist dollars, for
example, to do, and now I thought it was a little silly dressing up as
a pirate, but Governor Kean in New Jersey would walk along the beaches
and do some very interesting ads to increase the tourism for New
Jersey. It seemed to work.
If President Clinton was saying why do you not come to beautiful
Arkansas, Governor Clinton says come to beautiful Arkansas and buy real
estate, buy a home here, we would love to have you, this is a very
healthy business climate, we are sucking jobs out of the North because
we are a--and I have got a mental block, what is the expression for a
nonunion State, you know, a right-to-work State--we are a right-to-work
State, but if he is talking about a project in New Mexico, a ski resort
project, that is something new to this Member of Congress. I had not
heard that.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Can I interrupt the gentleman? I would like
to also point out that Patsy Thomasson was one of the three people who
went into Foster's quarters or investigated that office right after
that death, and I noticed that there has still been no comment from
her, so she will not talk about Foster, she will not talk about
Lasater, even though she is the person who was directly associated with
him from the beginning to the end, and she apparently will not talk to
anybody about what is going on in the White House today.
Mr. DORNAN. She appears to be a very intelligent, well-coiffed
person. She is very attractive. I repeat, she is intelligent. When she
came over to the Senate hearing recently, I slipped into the back of
the room, and she was what the columnists would describe as a very
cool, competent witness in her own behalf, very tough-minded, without
being arrogant, very pleasant. I think they can only hold this off so
long.
Are my colleagues aware, and this is a current issue of Newsweek that
I have in front of me, not a very attractive picture of our pal, Bill
Bennett, on the cover, but it does talk about the politics of virtue
and the First Lady and Peggy Noonan are backing him up, all of them in
halos, a provocative cover to look for, Bill Bennett.
Listen to this, and this shows why all of this is not partisan, as
the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] said, but very relevant to the
prior special order on the dangers building in Korea where you, as call
sign Tiger, flew dozens of combat missions, way before your less
fortunate tour in Vietnam where you were a prisoner for over 7 years,
but listen to this book of Bob Woodward's called ``The Agenda,'' that
comes out this very week, it says, Simon & Schuster, and Evan Thomas, a
very provocative guy to watch on television. He does talking-head shows
in addition to being a senior political writer for Newsweek.
In Bob Woodward's new book, ``The Agenda,'' White House aide George
Stephanopoulos comes across more like a battered wife than a key
strategic adviser to the President. He has been subjected to so many
senseless tirades by Bill Clinton that he has grown numb.
Stephanopoulos, quoting from the book, ``sometimes thought his primary
function was to get yelled at first thing every morning, Woodward
writes. Stephanopoulos has stopped listening to Clinton during his
purple fits, because Clinton's words really do not matter. The
President is not only volatile but fickle. He constantly contradicts
himself, agreeing with whomever he spoke to last. The worst thing about
it is that he never makes a decision, Stephanopoulos tells Budget
Director Leon Panetta, our former colleague, my classmate from 1976. It
will not come as news that Bill Clinton has a temper and cannot decide
or that the White House is chaotic. What will get Washington talking
about Woodward's latest book, 336 pages of it, to be published this
week, is you-are-there immediacy.
Books and various publications, including Newsweek, routinely purport
to take readers inside powerful institutions. Bob Woodward delivers on
a promise, that promise, in a way journalists almost never do.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. The speaker has informed me that he has a
problem he has to deal with in just a little bit, so I would kind of
like to wrap this up in about 5 to 10 minutes; if we have some
summarizing comments, I'd like to do that.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Thank you. I wonder if we could just ask a
few questions and leave them in the public's mind.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Sure; sure.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. I would like to start with: What does Patsy
Thomasson know about the illegal bond trading that was going on at
Lasater when she was in control as an officer responsible for signing
off on the daily trades? I am sure she must have noticed any account
that traded $20 million in a single day. I wonder if we should not know
what role she played and if any of these were illegal transactions.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. It appears as though, according to the
gentleman whose account these went through, that they were illegal
transactions, because he did not know about them. If he did not know
about them, how can they be legal?
Second, if they were not reported to him, they may not have been
reported to the IRS. Anything over $10,000, I believe and you believe,
is a felony.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Yes, sir. And, secondly, Lasater was
convicted of drug possession and drug trafficking and sentenced to 2\1/
2\ years in prison in 1985. I wonder why then-Governor Clinton pardoned
Lasater after he only served 6 months of that sentence?
Mr. DORNAN. Wait a minute. I had that wrong. I said he pardoned him
after 2\1/2\ years. Let me stand corrected.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. No; no. He was only in jail, well, he was in a
halfway house 4 months. He never went behind bars. A halfway house for
4 months and 2 months under house arrest, so the man never really went
to jail. After that he was pardoned by the Governor, and during the
time of the investigation, and this is important, he got $664 million
in bonds from the State of Arkansas, and the Governor approved it.
Mr. DORNAN. Some of this money on this Dennis Patrick scandal was
laundered through Cayman Island banks? Correct?
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Well, that is another thing we are looking
into right now. There were supposedly $50 million that may have been
sent down there, but we have got to check into that.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Another question we ought to ask is I think
Patsy Thomasson was executive director of the Arkansas Democratic Party
from about 1992 to 1993, and during that time she also headed Lasater's
Phoenix Group. I wonder what financial contributions were made and how
those employees receive cash bonuses from Phoenix and where those
dollars came from. And I wonder if Patsy Thomasson would fully disclose
her income tax records and any continuing financial relationships she
might have with Laster.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. In other words, Laster's firm, when he came
out of jail and was pardoned by the Governor and started as chairman of
the Phoenix mortgage company, she became president under him in the
Phoenix Group, or with him in the Phoenix Group, that she may have
requested funds that did not come from Laster, at least on paper, that
came through possibly employees of the Phoenix Group to the Clinton
campaign.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Yes, it has to be added the Phoenix Group
is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission
for insider trading involving Don Tyson of Tyson Foods and Arctic
Alaska Fisheries, and I wonder what she knows about that.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Burton, I had to take a phone call when you began.
Did you mention in today's paper the article adjoining the other
problem about the check-kiting at Whitewater?
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I did not get into that. There is so much
going on you cannot cover it all.
Mr. DORNAN. Right next to that, and this is today's Thursday, June 9,
``Probe Reveals Check-Kiting At Whitewater.'' I heard you as I was
going out mentioning Jerry Sepruz doing absolutely phenomenal
investigative journalistic work here, and here is John Solomon of the
Associated Press.
{time} 2050
I guess this story will be appearing today nationwide, whichever of
our 1,700 national dailies subscribe to the AP Service. Listen to the
tiny opening paragraph: ``More than $100,000 in Whitewater development
money checks were written with the company's account overdrawn, then
were covered with deposits from firms controlled by President and Mrs.
Clinton's business partner, according to a review of the land ventures
finances.'' An Associated Press examination of Whitewater records found
that it sometimes took upwards of 2 weeks to correct Whitewater's
overdrafts. That is called check-kiting. And it gives a list of all the
checks. I do not not how they get hold of this at AP. Here are the
checks from 1984, 1985, 1986.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Let me interrupt. We had the House bank
scandal where a lot of Members were overdrawn. They called that check-
kiting. Many of them were defeated in the subsequent election. Many of
them were even possibly guilty of criminal offenses.
Here we have the allegations that the Whitewater Development
Corporation was doing the same thing, and this is another reason why we
ought to have a complete investigation of the whole matter.
Do my colleagues have anything else they would like to say? I would
like to wind up.
Mr. DORNAN. The main reason I read that article about Woodward's
book, ``Agenda,'' is I wanted to get the title of the article, ``A
Blistering Book Rivals a White House in Chaos.'' Then last week's Time
magazine, June 6, began with an article that I feel like I was part of,
``Looking for a Lift, Scandals and Rivals Have Stalled Him, but Clinton
Hopes to Regain Momentum by Getting out of Town.'' That ``getting out
of town'' means going to the 50th anniversary of D-day, about which he
appears to have known nothing because he reads mystery novels, not the
histories of his Nation, particularly not military history. He has to
call historians to the Oval Office to be educated. That is why, Dan, I
thought you were tremendous on the House floor and very polite to our
colleague, Steny Hoyer, demanding again more knowledge that we are
entitled to as Representatives. Everybody in this Chamber, including
the Speaker, represents the same number of American citizens. And we
have a right to know if in fact he did take 28, 29, 30, 33 airplanes
over to D-day with hundreds of friends because in this latest Newsweek
is a figure I found stunning. Forty-three percent of the American
people had military experience. 50 percent of the U.S. Senators do. And
exactly 50 percent of this House. The Clinton administration has only
13 percent, and the White House staff 8 percent association with the
military. Maybe that is why so many White House workers went off to
Italy, France, England.
Here is my final contribution today: White House staffers anonymously
advised Mr. Clinton 2 weeks ago, ``You cannot make an appearance at
Oxford.'' We know, we all found out he never even went to class the
second year and never got his degree. Only 4 in his class of 32 failed
to get their degree, as they, the Brits say, stand for their 4 days or
3 days of final exams. They said, ``Don't go near Oxford. It would be
unseemly.'' When we were at Cambridge, a U.S. Air Force cemetery, Sam,
with a B-17 flying over, a Mustang, Spitfire, ``Don't go to Oxford.''
He waited until all the D-day celebrations were over and popped up at
Oxford yesterday, and meanwhile on the Senate side Sam Brown's
appointment stalled. He had gone over to be part of the European
Security and Cooperation Commission, with no ambassadorial title. Thank
God the Senate stopped him. But just as they appointed Strobe Talbott,
with his checkered record as giving aid and comfort to the enemy during
the Vietnam war, they approved his brother-in-law, Talbott's brother-
in-law, to be Ambassador to Finland, which was the entrance point for
all of these collaborating hippies to go in and out of Moscow. This is
a tough period in our history and these scandals may yet tear down this
administration.
I will close with a remark that I have come to the conclusion this is
the most corrupt Administration in the 218-year history of our Nation.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Let me just add with that I think that adds
just more fuel to the fire; we need open hearings. It does not matter
whether it is Banking, Small Business, House Administration, Ethics, or
Judiciary, somewhere we need to put this out in the open and get to the
bottom of it.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I agree with both of the gentlemen. Let me
just close by saying that Patsy Thomasson tomorrow will go to the White
House to work, and she was the chief financial officer of Mr. Lasater's
firm during the time when he was involved in drug trafficking and was
convicted. She ran the firm when he was in jail. She was involved in
$107 million of bond transactions, we believe. We do not know the
origin of the funds, but we know they went to Mr. Lasater's account
through a phony set-up account that the man did not even know about.
Patsy Thomasson, Mr. Clinton's right-hand lady at the White House, is
going to go there tomorrow morning and work, was a major supporter and
friend of Mr. Lasater. She worked as the president of the Phoenix Group
after he came out of jail. These are things that need to be answered to
the satisfaction of the American people.
Bill Clinton, while he was Governor of Arkansas and while an
investigation was going on into Mr. Lasater's drug trafficking, for
which he was later convicted, gave him $664 million in State bonds, for
which he made $1.3 million in profits for his firm. He was a major
Clinton supporter. Bill Clinton fraternized with him. We need to know
how far this goes under his administration.
Mr. DORNAN. Does the gentleman believe he should be subpoenaed to
come before a House committee?
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Who, the President?
Mr. DORNAN. Lasater.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I believe Lasater should, Peggy Thomasson most
certainly should. I believe anybody else affiliated with the Lasater
firm should come and explain their involvement. Here are the receipts,
here are the transaction papers, $107 million--at least we have $60
million here, and we believe it is $107 million of these transactions
which we believe to be illegal. If they are illegal, then let the chips
fall where they may. We need to have congressional hearings. As the
gentleman said before, Mr. Fiske must be pushed as hard as we can
possibly push him to get to the bottom of all this.
Mr. DORNAN. If Mr. Lasater were sitting in a House committee hearing
room across Independence Avenue tomorrow and I had an opportunity to
say, as the guest of the Banking Committee, Henry Gonzalez gave me the
courtesy of just one question, I would say, ``Mr. Lasater, this whole
thing can be so complex, it can be daunting. I would just like to ask
you, out of respect for my wife, a simple question: To whom, Mr. Daniel
Lasater, did you give money paying off Roger Clinton's cocaine debts?
Who did you give that money to? Can you turn State's evidence and name
drug dealers in your State that may have received this money that he
had welched on?'' That is just for openers. This is going to be one
tough year. Remember, we are out the first week of October, and we are
gone most of August and the first week in September. Where are we going
to get the time in what is left of June, all of July, and the month of
September to get all of these issues done and come up with some sort of
intelligent approach to health care? It is a daunting job that we have
as Representatives.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. As we end this, might I say to my colleagues,
what we need to do as Republicans in the minority is to push our
leadership as hard as we can to push the Speaker of the House, the
Democrat majority in this House for hearings. There are things we can
do to make this happen. We need to get our leadership on the ball and
push for answers to these questions. The only way we are going to get
them is through congressional hearings.
Mr. DORNAN. I think on the 17th of this year we ought to create one
tough legislative day because that is the 3-month anniversary from that
St. Patrick's Day vote in the Senate. We ought to have a series of
protest speeches from the 17th to the 22nd, the anniversary of the 3
months since the vote in this Chamber, 408 to 15, we have got to have
these hearings. We cannot be pushed into the August break and then come
back in September and say, ``Well, the Senate is behind us on
appropriation bills. We are going to be here until midnight just trying
to get the appropriations work of the House done. We don't have the
time. We will have hearings after the election.'' That is not going to
work.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. It won't work. Mr. Speaker, I know you have an
emergency, so we are going to bid you adieu.
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