[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 21, 1994]



                              {time}  1750
                ACTIVITIES OF THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Stupak). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 30 
minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, over the past several months I 
have been talking about the activities of Bill Clinton and members of 
his administration regarding Whitewater, Monroe Savings and Loan, their 
relationships with other people who were involved in drug trafficking. 
I think some of this bears repeating before I go into my special order 
tonight.
  One of the very close friends of President Clinton was a gentleman 
named Dan Lasater. Mr. Lasater was an entrepreneur who started out in 
Indiana, my home State, started a company called Ponderosa Steak 
Houses. He went down and started an investment firm down in Little 
Rock, AR. Mr. Lasater was a very big supporter of President Clinton 
when he was running for Governor of Arkansas on several occasions. They 
partied together, they flew around in Mr. Lasater's plane, they dined 
together. They were very close friends.
  Mr. Lasater received millions and millions of dollars in bond 
contracts.
  Mr. HANCOCK. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HANCOCK. I wonder if they ever slept together on a hunting trip. 
Maybe we got something going here.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I do not have any idea. But anyhow, Mr. 
Lasater was a very close friend of the President's and was one of his 
big financial supporters. Mr. Lasater was known to use cocaine and 
distributed cocaine freely at many parties. And he was convicted, 
convicted by the Arkansas authorities of trafficking in cocaine. He 
received a prison sentence, and his prison sentence was partially 
reduced. After he got out of prison, he was in a halfway house for a 
few months, he was pardoned, exonerated by then-Governor Clinton, his 
friend. During the time that he was incarcerated in this halfway 
house--he really was not in a penitentiary, he was in a halfway house 
most of the time--during the time he was incarcerated, a lady named 
Patsy Thomasson, who is his chief financial officer, took over control 
of his businesses, and she ran his businesses as the chief financial 
officer while Mr. Lasater was away at prison. When he got out and was 
pardoned by President Clinton, Ms. Thomasson continued to be the chief 
financial officer of his companies, and she also became the chief 
officer of what was called the Phoenix--the Phoenix Group. A subsidiary 
of the Phoenix Group was the Phoenix Mortgage Co., and Mr. Lasater 
became the president of the Phoenix Mortgage Co. So the relationship 
between Patsy Thomasson, and Mr. Lasater, and Bill Clinton was of long 
duration and continued even after he went to jail and was out. As a 
matter of fact, Mr. Lasater paid an $8,000 drug debt, drug bill for 
cocaine use that Bill Clinton's brother had incurred. So he paid off a 
drug bill for Bill Clinton's brother. So there was a very close 
relationship between the Clintons and Mr. Lasater.
  Now, Patsy Thomasson, to give you some more background, my 
colleagues, now is one of the chief officers at the White House. She is 
the personnel director at the White House. She conducts, quote unquote, 
the drug testing of personnel at the White House.
  Now, yesterday the people of Albuquerque, NM, awoke to another tale 
of corruption that may involve the President, President Clinton. The 
front page of Tuesday's Albuquerque Journal reports that a joint 
Federal/State narcotics investigation of the President's friend, Mr. 
Dan Lasater, was called off before it was completed. A former Arkansas 
State police investigator, J.N. ``Doc'' DeLaughter, told two Journal 
investigative reporters that the investigation included Lasater, a 
close friend of the President and high-dollar contributor to Mr. 
Clinton's campaign, and the President's brother, Roger Clinton. 
DeLaughter said the investigation was cut off prematurely for political 
reasons.
  The State police investigators say he briefed the Clinton-appointed 
Arkansas State police director, Tommy Goodwin, twice by telephone about 
the Lasater/Clinton investigation. On both occasions Tommy Goodwin, the 
State police investigator, was using a phone in then Governor Clinton's 
personal office. Mr. DeLaughter, who was then on the force, was not 
sure whether or not Governor Clinton, now President Clinton, overheard 
the conversations. But it is very clear that Governor Clinton, now 
President Clinton, was very close to the Arkansas State Police 
director, who was getting the information about the investigation.

  DeLaughter said, and I quote, ``Moneys could have been seized and 
planes could have been seized because we had evidence that cocaine was 
being used on planes,'' used by Mr. Lasater. As I said before, Mr. 
Lasater quite frequently flew then Governor Bill Clinton around in 
these planes.
  DeLaughter told the newspaper that he and another investigator were 
barred from interviews with Lasater, Roger Clinton and another Lasater 
associate. In other words, his superiors on the State police said, 
``You can't go and investigate this.'' They stopped him cold in his 
tracks. Eventually Lasater was convicted of possession and distribution 
of cocaine, as I said before. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison 
but served only 10 months, most of which was in a halfway house, before 
being released on parole. Lasater was later paroled by his friend, 
then-Governor Bill Clinton.
  Now, right in the thick of all this is Patsy Thomasson, who is now 
the personnel director at the White House. She took over the day-to-day 
operations of the Lasater companies while Lasater was in prison. As I 
speak to you tonight, she is responsible for the daily administration 
of the Clinton White House.
  The newspaper is careful to point out that there is no evidence to 
support any indictment of Ms. Thomasson or establish a direct 
connection between the illegal activity that led to the conviction of 
Lasater and the President's brother.
  Now harkening back to an earlier Washington scandal, one has to 
wonder what did Ms. Thomasson know about the illegal activity which 
surrounded her, and when did she realize that her boss, Lasater, was a 
large-scale drug pusher?
  The Albuquerque Journal found no one in that firm, no one in that 
firm other than Ms. Thomasson, the chief financial officer, had any 
doubt about what was going on in the Lasater companies. I quote the 
newspaper's story:

       Former Lasater employees interviewed by the FBI said they 
     left or joined the firm between 1982 and 1985 because of its 
     reputation for cocaine use.

  As the chief financial officer for Lasater during that period, are we 
to believe that Ms. Thomasson, now the chief personnel director at the 
White House, had no clue about what was going on in the company? The 
Albuquerque Journal reported that the FBI received sworn statements 
from Lasater employees there--that were there at Christmas parties at 
which cocaine was available in ashtrays. Cocaine was freely available 
at Lasater Company outings in Lexington. KY, Hot Springs, AR and 
elsewhere, according to Lasater employees. Reporters Dick Lynch and 
Mike Gallagher quote Federal grand jury testimony which said that, 
``Cocaine was served like hors d'oeuvres.'' But we are asked to believe 
that the chief financial officer, even though everybody else in that 
firm knew about it, knew nothing of this. And we are talking about Ms. 
Thomasson. Ms. Thomasson, Patsy Thomasson, was a key player in the 
Lasater operations.
  The newspaper cites numerous public and court records which show her 
as president of the various Lasater enterprises, including New Mexico's 
Angel Fire Corp., which Lasater purchased in 1984 and sold in 1987. 
Articles of incorporation show that Thomasson as an incorporator of the 
Phoenix Group, which was the successor to Lasater & Co.
  Records of the sale of Angel Fire in 1987 to a Texas investment 
partnership bear Patsy Thomasson's signature. She was tied to Mr. 
Lasater all the way through all of his operations. At the time of this 
sale, the Customs Service and the FBI were busy investigating money 
laundering and drug trafficking.
  She signed the partnership agreement. The two agencies formed an 
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and named Lasater as the 
chief target of the probe. Pasty Thomasson was given power of attorney, 
power of attorney by Mr. Lasater in January 1987 while he was in prison 
and, surprisingly, appears to still be acting as a registered agent for 
Lasater's Phoenix Mortgage Co.
  Calls by the newspaper to Patsy Thomasson at the White House were not 
returned. I understand Ms. Thomasson has taken leave of absense from 
her position as the director of administration for the President. I 
continue to be concerned about the President's association with people 
like Mr. Lasater, pardoning him after he was convicted of dealing in 
drugs, giving him $65 million, I believe, in State bonds during the 
time he was being investigated and later indicted by the Arkansas State 
Police and the Federal authorities for drug trafficking. I continue to 
be concerned about his association, President Clinton's, with people 
like Mr. Lasater and Ms. Thomasson. In the very limited hearings that 
we had on Whitewater----

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend for just a 
moment.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. For what purpose, Mr. Speaker?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Will the gentleman suspend for a moment?
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Yes.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair must remind Members, all Members, 
that it is a breach of order in debate to level personal innuendo at 
the President of the United States.

                              {time}  1800

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Well, I do not believe I am saying anything 
that is innuendo, Mr. Speaker. I think I am talking about what has been 
reported in the media and is, in fact, publicized by the media all 
across this country, and I would take issue with the Speaker by saying 
that the President did pardon Mr. Lasater after he was convicted of 
cocaine use. That is as a matter of fact, it is not innuendo, and for 
the Speaker to interrupt my special order by saying I am inferring, 
this is a misuse of the Speaker's power.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Stupak). The Chair is merely reminding 
Members that it is improper during debate to level personal innuendo, 
at the President, and the fact that others have already done so in the 
media is not material to this rule of decorum.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I request that that be read back, Mr. Speaker, 
so I could check that out.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman may proceed in order. The 
purpose of the Chair's comment was to caution the gentleman against a 
breach of order.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I appreciate that, Mr. Speaker. I will proceed 
and say:

  If you find that I'm using innuendo instead of fact, I hope you will 
remind me, but I don't think I have.

  The fact of the matter is the President of the United States, Mr. 
Clinton; fact, not innuendo; pardoned Mr. Lasater after he was 
convicted of cocaine trafficking in Little Rock, AR, and during the 
time that he was under investigation by the Arkansas State Police, the 
Arkansas bonding agency down there gave Mr. Lasater, I think, I 
believe, $65 million in State government contracts, and I think that is 
something that is of great question by Members of this body and 
deserves a full hearing in congressional hearings.
  So, I do continue to be concerned about the President's association 
with people like Mr. Lasater and Miss Thomasson. In the very limited 
hearings on Whitewater which have been held so far, Mr. Speaker, 
witness after witness told us what they did not know. I believe someone 
at the White House does know the answer to many of these questions 
which have been left unanswered.
  I have taken the floor of this House many times over the past several 
months during this session to raise questions about a number of 
incidents connected to this White House. In every instance the Clinton 
White House has not responded, and we need full congressional hearings 
on many of these issues, not these limited parameters that are being 
set by the Democrat leadership and the Democrat chairmen of these 
committees which would limit us in our questioning of White House 
employees and people who have relevant information to these questions. 
When we had the Whitewater hearings, the members of the Committee on 
Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs had 5 minutes to question 10 members 
of the White House staff and get answers, not 5 minutes to question 
each one of them, 5 minutes to question all 10 of them and get a 
response. That in my opinion smacks of a whitewash and certainly was 
not full congressional hearings.
  The thing that bothers me is during the Reagan and Bush 
administrations there were 23 full-blown hearings on everything from 
Iran-Contra, to the October Surprise, to everything else, and something 
as important as the Whitewater investigation is being swept under the 
rug, and I believe for political purposes, and it is unfortunate.
  Now the smoke is starting to clear around the Clinton White House. I 
think the American people are not being fooled by a lot of this, and, 
as Clinton loyalists continue to resign, the pattern of distortion is 
continuing to change.
  We need a full investigation of the President's association with Mr. 
Lasater and Miss Thomasson. We need a full investigation of possible 
obstruction of justice in the investigations of drug use and drug 
trafficking by Mr. Lasater and the President's brother. And there are 
other questions that need to be answered, like Mr. Vince Foster. We 
still have not gotten all the answers concerning his mysterious death 
and finding him at Fort Marcy Park.
  So, Mr. Speaker, this is another in a series of special orders I will 
be taking over the next few weeks until we adjourn, and, when we come 
back in January, if we have not had an agreement by both the majority 
and minority to have full-blown hearings on many of these issues 
relating to Whitewater and other mysterious things that have been going 
on, like the special order I took last night regarding two savings and 
loan associations in the State of Illinois who had the Rose law firm 
and Hillary Rodham Clinton representing the government in going after 
Mr. Lasater himself at a time when they were friends, which smacks of a 
conflict of interest, I am hopeful that we will be able to get a 
bipartisan agreement so that we can actually have full-blown hearings 
and get to the bottom of it. The questions need to be answered. If the 
President and the White House has nothing to hide, then they should be 
very happy to answer the questions that the Congress will raise at 
these hearings.

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