[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 112 (Friday, August 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              SPECIAL COUNSEL IN WHITEWATER INVESTIGATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] will be recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I rise to speak of a matter that is 
troubling me, and I think troubling other individuals. Some years ago, 
we created a special counsel, a special prosecutor, if you will. That 
position was created to assure objective, nonpartisan, nonpolitical 
review of possible wrongdoing within the executive department.
  The reason for doing that was so that the Attorney General, who is 
appointed by the President of the United States, and who is the office 
to whom the U.S. attorneys report, would not be in effect in the chain 
of command as it related to the investigation of alleged wrongdoing of, 
in this case, her boss, the President.
  I supported that legislation, and supported it when we reauthorized 
it recently. Because that legislation had not been reauthorized and 
signed into law when the question of Whitewater arose, and after the 
requests of the Members of the Republican party in particular, 
concurred in, ultimately by the administration, the Attorney General, 
because the legislation was not in effect, appointed a special 
prosecutor for the purpose of investigating Whitewater.

                              {time}  1510

  After she had done so, she carefully reviewed prospective nominees 
and she chose for that position a Republican, a Republican who was 
known for his integrity and his legal skill, a Republican who in fact 
had experience as a prosecutor and was known to be a thorough and fair 
investigator. That gentleman's name was Fiske.
  Subsequent to his appointment, he undertook the investigation and has 
made certain reports. The same people who had demanded the appointment 
of a special prosecutor, the same people who believed Mr. Fiske was a 
fair-minded, judicious prosecutor with personal and legal integrity 
have subsequently criticized him because they did not like his 
findings. His findings, of course, were that there was no transgression 
of law, no laws broken, no ethical violations in relationship to the 
communciations between the Treasury Department and the White House.
  These Republicans, frankly, were not satisfied. Ten Republicans have 
written to the Federal court. But I get ahead of my story.
  Subsequent to that appointment, we did in fact pass the 
reauthorization to the special prosecutor law. That law provides for a 
panel, appointed by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to 
have the authority to choose a special prosecutor. That panel is 
currently composed of Judge David Sentelle and two other judges. Judge 
Sentelle was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist. Chief Justice 
Rehnquist, of course, was in the Nixon Cabinet and appointed by Nixon 
to the Supreme Court. Judge Sentelle as I understand it, is the first 
nonretired judge to chair this special prosecutor selection panel of 
Federal judges. The other two judges who sit on that panel are retired 
judges as has historically been the case. One of the other judges was 
appointed by a Republican and one by a Democrat, President Johnson.
  I mentioned the 10 Members of this body who wrote to Judge Sentelle 
and the panel requesting that Mr. Fiske be removed as the special 
prosecutor. Mr. Fiske has been at this for months. Mr. Fiske and the 
staff that he has collected at a cost of over $2 million in effect were 
asked by these 10 to be replaced, to be set aside, not because there 
was a question frankly of the results, although I suggest that they 
were upset with the results, but because they alleged that there was a 
conflict of interest.

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