[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 86 (Thursday, June 30, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 30, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              CALLING FOR EXPANDED CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, there has been a tentative 
agreement forced upon the Republican Party in this Congress on the 
Whitewater investigations. What has happened is the Democrat majority 
has said the only way we are going to have hearings in either the House 
or the Senate is if it is very structured and very limited. They want 
to limit it to three things: The death of Vincent Foster; the removal 
by the White House personnel immediately after his death of files from 
his office; and White House attempts to influence the Resolution Trust 
Corporation investigation of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton's role in the 
Arkansas S&L.
  But the investigation by the House and the Senate should be much, 
much broader. I want to tell my colleagues why.
  First of all, there are questions about Mr. Fiske, the special 
prosecutor's objectivity. Mr. Fiske was a very close associate at 
various times when they were both in New York practicing law with 
Bernie Nussbaum, one of the chief advisers to President Clinton. As a 
matter of fact, Mr. Fiske, the special prosecutor, special investigator 
in this case, tried to get Mr. Nussbaum appointed assistant counsel 
during the Iran-Contra investigation. Mr. Fiske's law firm represented 
the International Paper Co., which got a $10 million loan from the 
Arkansas Development Finance Authority in Arkansas. His firm also 
represented the International Paper Co. during the time when they sold 
hundreds of acres to the Whitewater Development Corp.
  Mr. Fiske recommended Louis Freeh, now head of the FBI, to be the 
head of the FBI to Mr. Nussbaum at the White House. So there is some 
question about whether there will be complete thoroughness on the part 
of Mr. Fiske and his staff in investigating the White House 
allegations.
  But beyond that there is a lot of other things that need to be 
investigated because more and more is coming out daily.
  First of all, why did then-Governor Bill Clinton pardon a convicted 
cocaine dealer, Dan Lasater, in 1990? Dan Lasater pleaded guilty to 
Federal drug charges in December 1986. But he served only 6 months of a 
2\1/2\-year sentence. While he was reportedly under investigation by 
the Arkansas State Police for drug dealing, President Clinton and the 
Government of Arkansas gave him $664 million in bonds to sell for the 
State, which garnered him $1.6 million in commissions.
  Why did then-Governor Bill Clinton pardon convicted cocaine dealer 
Dan Lasater in 1990? After all this involvement with him and they gave 
big contributions to Clinton's campaign, he is then pardoned for 
cocaine trafficking. Was it because Dan Lasater was a large 
contributor, was it because Dan Lasater had flown the Governor around 
Arkansas and the country in his private jet? Was it because Dan Lasater 
gave Roger Clinton, President Clinton's brother, a job at his Florida 
horse stables and loaned him $8,000 to pay back a drug debt? Did Bill 
Clinton know about the Lasater investigation and Lasater's drug use at 
the time he gave him $664 million in State bonds to sell?
  According to published accounts and Mr. Dennis Patrick, between $60 
million and $107 million was traded in an account in his name at 
Lasater & Co. without his knowledge. That may have involved laundering 
of drug money. One day $23 million was traded in his account. Patsy 
Thomasson, the chief personnel officer at the White House, was running 
Lasater & Co. She was chief financial officer at the time. Now she is 
special assistant to the President of the United States. Where did this 
money come from? Where did it go? Did Ms. Thomasson know about these 
transactions? I do not know how she could not have.

  There are, of course, other things that need to be explained.
  In 1985 the Arkansas Development Finance Authority was created by 
Bill Clinton to provide economic development loans to small businesses 
in Arkansas. A number of serious questions have been raised about ADFA 
which need to be investigated.
  Listen to this: On December 29, 1988, ADFA deposited $50 million in a 
bank in the Cayman Islands. Why are you taking money out of the State 
of Arkansas and putting it in the Cayman Islands? This money was 
transferred through Simmons First National Bank of Pine Bluff, AR. Why 
did ADFA deposit $50 million in an offshore bank instead of a bank in 
some other part of the country or in Arkansas? The interest rates were 
approximately the same.
  The State Department's international narcotics control report 
described the Cayman Islands as a haven for the laundering of drug 
money. And here is the Arkansas Development Finance Authority sending 
$50 million down there. Was the $50 million plus interest repaid to 
ADFA? Right now we do not have any documentation as to whether it was 
ever repaid, we do not know what happened to it. Did the Arkansas 
Development Finance Authority make any other offshore deposits, and for 
what reasons?
  Public documents show that ADFA was steering millions of dollars in 
bond underwriting business to Lasater and his company, who I said 
before was convicted for drug dealing.
  Why would ADFA give all of this business to Lasater & Co. while Dan 
Lasater, the company's president, was under Federal investigation for 
narcotics trafficking?
  The American people need to know the answers to these questions, and 
we are very, very concerned that Mr. Fiske may limit the investigation 
so that we never get the answers.
  If somebody at the White House was involved in the laundering of drug 
money, then we should have a full accounting, it should be explained to 
this body and to the American people. And if there is no reason to 
believe that, then why does not the White House, Patsy Thomasson and 
everybody else come forward, Mr. Fiske, and give us the ability to 
investigate it so we can clear up this whole matter? If there is 
nothing to hide, they should not be concerned.

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