[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 13, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  2000
 
            UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ON VINCENT FOSTER'S SUICIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Holden). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I am very glad I was here to hear 
the remarks made by the majority whip because I want to go into what I 
said this morning in more detail. I believe there is a real possibility 
that Vince Foster committed suicide. I do not believe, after reading 
that report in some detail with about seven other people that he 
committed suicide at Fort Marcy Park. I believe his body was moved to 
that location, and I will tell this body why.
  I want to go into my remarks this morning because I do not want to 
hurt the Foster family, but at the same time I believe that if there 
was some misdeeds done out there, the American people have a right to 
know and this Congress has a right to know, and there should be a 
complete and full investigation if there are any irregularities.
  Let us go into this just a little bit. The man that found Vince 
Foster's body said his face was straight up, and yet if you read the 
report there was blood coagulated on the side of his face, and on the 
shirt. Forensics experts say his body was like this, and they say in 
the report that one of the people who worked on the investigation must 
have moved his head. The fact of the matter is before they even got out 
there the man that found him said his head was straight up. So the head 
had been moved before the experts went out there.
  Who moved the body? We need to find out who moved the body.
  There was blonde hair, not Mr. Foster's, on his T-shirt and other 
parts of his garments. Whose hair was it? It was not his.
  There were carpet and other wool fibers found on the body. Where did 
they come from?
  I do not like to talk about this, but there was semen found on his 
underwear, which would indicate there might have been a sexual 
experience that afternoon between 1 and 5. If that is the case, it is 
hard to understand the state of mind of somebody who is thinking about 
committing suicide and having a sexual encounter at the same time.
  Here is something very damaging. They dug 18 inches around the body, 
and they sifted all of the dirt, and they could find no skull fragments 
at the site, no skull fragments were found at the site, and there was a 
3-inch hole at the back of the man's head from the gun. If he was 
killed at Fort Marcy Park, they would have found skull fragments at 
that site. Why were they not found there? I believe because he 
committed suicide or was killed someplace else and moved to that spot.
  All of the bullets that were found at the site, using modern 
technology, show that there were a number of bullets found but not the 
one which killed Vince Foster, and they were out there with grids and 
everything else for several days with 16 people looking.
  And why was the gun in Mr. Foster's hand, in the wrong hand? Mr. 
Foster was left-handed. The gun was in his right hand. I want to tell 
you that if you are going to commit suicide, and you are in that state 
of mind, usually you grab with the hand you use all of the time. The 
gun was in the other hand.
  Why did the man who found Foster's body say there was no gun in 
either hand, not once, not twice, but three times when he talked to 
Gordon Liddy, and that is the man the FBI investigated.
  My concern is for the facts and the truth. When people say I am down 
here trying to bring this body to a low ebb, I resent it. I am 
concerned about the feelings of the family members, and I think it is 
tragic that they went through this. Mr. Foster had an awfully good 
record in life. But if his body was moved, we need to know from where 
it was moved. If he had this kind of experience during the day, we need 
to know about it. We need to know whose hair was on his body.
  These are questions that need to be answered. We need to know why 
there were no skull fragments at the site if he blew the back of his 
head out. It appears to me that he probably was moved from someplace 
else.
  While I have time left, let me go into what happened after Mr. Foster 
was killed.
  At 6 p.m. on July 20, deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster was 
found dead in the park.
  Shortly after 9 p.m., White House chief of staff Mack McLarty was 
informed of his death. McLarty ordered his office sealed However, the 
office remained unlocked overnight until 11 a.m. the next day, and 
despite this order, less than 3 hours after his body was found, White 
House officials removed records of business deals between Mr. Clinton 
and his wife and the Whitewater Development Corp. from Mr. Foster's 
office without telling Federal authorities who were investigating the 
death. In fact, they did not admit that they were in the office until 6 
months later, Why?
  The people who went in were White House counsel Bernie Nussbaum, the 
President's special assistant, Patsy Thomasson, and Mrs. Clinton's 
chief of staff, Maggie Williams.
  Bernie Nussbaum said they were there 10 minutes. The Park Police said 
they were there over 2 hours taking files out of that office.
  During his first search, Whitewater files and President Clinton's tax 
returns were removed and turned over to David Kendall, President 
Clinton's attorney. Were any of those destroyed? I do not know.
  White House officials did not confirm that the July 20 search took 
place, as I said, until late in December.
  There are a lot of questions to be answered. We want to take care of 
people's feelings, especially family members, but I something was done 
wrong, we need to get to the bottom of it.
  I include for the Record the chronology of the two searches as well 
as some unanswered questions concerning Mr. Foster's death, as follows:

                Two Searches of Vincent Foster's Office


                            the first search

       At 6:00 p.m. on July 20, 1993 deputy White House Counsel, 
     Vincent Foster was found dead in Fort Marcy Park in Virginia.
       Shortly after 9:00 p.m., White House Chief of Staff, Thomas 
     ``Mack'' McLarty, was informed of Foster's death.
       McLarty ordered the Vince Foster's office sealed. However, 
     the office remained unlocked overnight and was sealed at 
     11:00 a.m. the next morning when a guard was posted at the 
     door.
       Despite this order, less than three hours after his body 
     was found, White House officials removed records of business 
     deals between President Clinton, his wife, and the Whitewater 
     Development Corporation from Mr. Foster's office without 
     telling federal authorities who were investigating the death.
       They were White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, the 
     President's Special Assistant, Patsy Thomasson, and Mrs. 
     Clinton's chief of staff, Maggie Williams.
       Bernie Nussbaum said they were in the office ten minutes. 
     Park Police say the visit lasted two hours.
       During this first search, Whitewater files and President 
     Clinton's tax returns were removed and turned over to David 
     E. Kendall, President Clinton's attorney.
       During this first search, Whitewater files and President 
     Clinton's tax returns were removed and turned over to David 
     E. Kendall, President Clinton's attorney.
       White House officials did not confirm that there was a July 
     20th search of Foster's office or that files were removed 
     during this search until December, 1993.


                           the second search

       On July 22, 1993, Mr. Nussbaum and White House officials 
     searched Mr. Foster's office a second time. They collected 
     more documents. Some were sent to President Clinton's 
     attorney and others were sent to Vince Foster's attorney, 
     James Hamilton.
       During the second search, Mr. Nussbaum, citing executive 
     privilege, kept Park Police and FBI agents from entering the 
     office.
       Dee Dee Myers, the White House press secretary, said 
     ``Bernie went through and sort of described the contents of 
     each of his files and what was in his drawers while 
     representatives of the Justice Department, the Secret 
     Service, the FBI, and other members of the counsel's 
     office were present.''
       According to other sources, FBI agents and Park Police were 
     ordered to sit on chairs in the hallway while White House 
     Staff went through documents and that Mr. Nussbaum gave the 
     FBI agents and Park Police no indication of what he was 
     taking. One FBI agent was reprimanded when he stood up to 
     peer in the room.
       Park Police later discovered that Whitewater records had 
     been removed from Vincent Foster's office during the second 
     search after they visited James Hamilton, Foster's lawyer, a 
     week after the death to review a personal diary that was also 
     taken during one of the searches.
       Hamilton allowed Park Police to briefly inspect the diary 
     and other documents. However, he did not allow them to make 
     copies citing privacy concerns, and he refused a request for 
     access to the diary and documents by the Justice Department.
       On July 27, 1993, White House officials revealed that on 
     July 26, they found a note, supposedly written by Vince 
     Foster, in the bottom of his brief case which was in his 
     office.
       The said they missed the note in their first two searches. 
     the note was unsigned, undated, and torn into 27 pieces.


                               questions

       1.) When did White House Chief of Staff Thomas McLarty give 
     the order to seal Vince Foster's office? How was the White 
     House staff informed of McLarty's order?
       2.) Why was the office not sealed until 11:00 a.m. the next 
     morning?
       3.) Did Bernard Nussbaum, Patsy Thomasson, and Maggie 
     Williams know about Thomas McLarty's order? How did they 
     first learn about Vince Foster's death?
       4.) Did somebody order Nussbaum, Thomasson, and Williams to 
     search Vince Foster's office, or did one of them make the 
     decision to search the office?
       5.) If someone ordered them to search the office, what were 
     they told to look for? If it was Nussbaum, Thomasson, of 
     Williams' idea to search the office, what were they looking 
     for?
       6.) Why did they remove the Whitewater files?
       7.) Were other documents taken? Were documents destroyed?
       8.) Where were the documents when they entered the office? 
     Were they in locked files or a safe? If so, how were these 
     opened?
       9.) Shouldn't they have left everything there for the 
     police to examine?
       10.) Instead of keeping the FBI from doing its job, 
     shouldn't the White House staff have been giving law 
     enforcement their full cooperation after their friend and 
     colleague was found dead?
       11.) Did anyone else go into Vince Foster's office that 
     night?
       12.) Did White House officials purposely mislead the Park 
     Police about the existence of Whitewater documents in Vince 
     Foster's office?
       13.) How did the White House staff miss a note, torn into 
     27 pieces, in the bottom of Vince Foster's brief case during 
     their first two searches of his office?
       14.) What documents were given to Vince Foster's attorney 
     James Hamilton and what was given to the Clinton's attorney 
     David Kendall? Were any destroyed?
       15.) Who were all the White House officials involved in the 
     second search of Vincent Foster's office?
       16.) Did the White House staff have the legal right to 
     prohibit the FBI from searching Foster's office as part of an 
     investigation into Foster's death?

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