[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RTC REPORT EXONERATES CLINTONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, we live, as we all know, in 
an era in which good news is no news. So the recent report issued by 
Jay Stevens on behalf of the Resolution Trust Corporation which 
exonerates President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton from any liability to the 
RTC involving Madison Guaranty has gone largely unnoticed in the press. 
People who have an interest in perpetuating inaccurate accusations 
against President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton have understandably ignored 
this.
  People will remember that Jay Stevens is the Republican who was a 
U.S. Attorney appointed by the previous Republican administrations who 
was considering running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. He is a 
deeply committed conservative partisan, but also an honest man, not 
that there is any inconsistency there. He was hired by the RTC to 
investigate President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton. Indeed, it was the fact 
that so committed a Republican partisan had been hired that caused the 
uproar in the White House, when people said to the Treasury Department, 
how could you let this happen?
  Well, Mr. Stevens has now given his final report.
  The RTC has asked that grand jury information not be released, and I 
have none here. They have asked that their future litigation strategy 
not be discussed, and I would not do that here. I will quote from Mr. 
Stevens' report.
  ``The foregoing list contains essentially all the documents regarding 
Whitewater that seem to have been addressed to or written by the 
Clintons.'' I skip a little bit. It says, ``Therefore, on this record, 
there is no basis to assert that the Clintons knew anything of 
substance about the McDougals's advances to Whitewater, the source of 
the funds used to make those advances, or the source of the funds used 
to make payments on bank debt. In particular, there is no evidence that 
the Clintons knew anything of substance about the transactions as to 
which the RTC might be able to establish liability as to people other 
than the Clintons.''
  Skipping again to the summation, ``On this record,'' this is Jay 
Stevens, the very committed Republican who was hired by the RTC over 
the objections of the Clinton administration to investigate the Clinton 
involvement with RTC, Madison Guaranty, Whitewater, here is his final 
recommendation based on his extensive survey of all of the evidence: 
``On this record, there is no basis to charge the Clintons with any 
kind of primary liability for fraud or intentional misconduct. This 
investigation has revealed no evidence to support any such claims, nor 
would the record support any claim of secondary or derivative liability 
for the possible misdeeds of others.''
  Skipping a little, ``There are legal theories by which one can become 
reliable for the conduct of others--e.g., conspiracy and aiding and 
abetting. On this evidentiary record, however, these theories have no 
application to the Clintons. To hold one liable for conspiracy or 
aiding or abetting, the RTC must plead and prove the elements of these 
theories. These elements include a general awareness of the wrongful 
acts being committed by others and an intention to assist in the 
commission of the primary offenses. There is no evidence here that the 
Clintons had any such knowledge or intent. Accordingly, there is no 
basis to use them.''
  Mr. Speaker, partisan Republicans, extreme right wingers, and others 
have been engaged in a desperate, unyielding, incessant search for 
evidence to tarnish the Clintons with regard to Whitewater. They have 
found none. There is no evidence, and here we have a comprehensive 
report by a Republican prosecutor, a would-be candidate for office, who 
thoroughly investigates this and, as conclusively as you can get an 
investigator to say, he says there is no basis for this.
  Pirandello wrote a play, ``Six Characters in Search of an Author.'' 
Our Republican colleagues have collaborated on a more fantastic 
creative work. It is hundreds of accusations against the Clintons in 
search of any evidence. And Mr. Stevens, a professional investigator 
and Republican charged with looking into not just criminal liability, 
but civil liability, has concluded that after all of the evidence is 
examined, there is no basis whatsoever to make an accusation against 
the Clintons.
  Will this stop our colleagues from their accusations? No. But it 
ought to mean that the public will receive those accusations with the 
total lack of respect to which Jay Stevens says they are entitled.

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