[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3194-S3195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               WHITEWATER

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, as we are working on many important matters, 
including wrapping up of the appropriations conference, on which we, 
unfortunately, are not able to close all sections today, we also are, I 
hope, going to resolve the issue of whether the Whitewater Committee is 
extended.
  There have been a lot of questions asked. What has Whitewater found? 
Why are we here?
  I have a very lengthy analysis which I will make available, because 
many people who have not had the pleasure and the privilege--as the 
occupant of the Chair and I have had--of sitting through the lengthy 
hearings may not appreciate what we have learned and how many more 
questions there are.
  Mr. President, the investigation of the matters involving financial 
land transactions of the President, the First Lady and top officials in 
Arkansas, and subsequent actions by these officials, or their 
subordinates to interfere with, obtain information about, or delay 
investigations into those matters has come to be known generally as 
Whitewater.
  From the beginning of this episode, we saw efforts to mislead 
Congress or to deny information. My first encounter with this matter 
came over 2 years ago when, before the Banking Committee, the Deputy 
Secretary of the Treasury misled us in answering my question as to when 
the White House was first advised of the significant nonpublic 
information that a criminal referral was pending in the investigation 
of the financial irregularities in Arkansas. He said they were not. 
They were.
  The most recent example was the unexplained, mysterious reappearance 
of the critically important billing records of Mrs. Clinton's law firm, 
which, although subpoenaed more than 2 years ago by the independent 
counsel and the Resolution Trust Corporation and this past fall by the 
Whitewater Committee, only found their way to all of us in January 
1996.
  Investigation of records further demonstrated that Mrs. Clinton--and 
other representatives of the White House--had not spoken truthfully 
about her involvement with the failed savings and loan in Arkansas and, 
in specific, her transactions involving one of the most egregious and 
costly land transactions utilized to loot the savings and loan known as 
Madison Guaranty in Little Rock, AR.
  Throughout this process, many of us have had questions about why the 
administration has been so deeply involved in what appears to be 
improper efforts to cover up and interfere with the Arkansas activities 
investigation. Had the role of the President and the First Lady been 
limited solely to an investment in a failed land development--as the 
White House initially contended, and was contended in the campaign of 
1992--it would not have made any sense for so many officials to risk 
charges of perjury or obstruction of justice. The cost to many of these 
individuals for activities involved in this coverup have been 
significant, as colleagues on the other side of the aisle have noted. 
The cost of legal counsel has been burdensome for many.

  More important, however, is the fact that the broad Washington 
misconduct has led to resignations of the White House counsel, a Deputy 
Secretary of the Treasury, a general counsel of the Treasury, as well 
as a rapid turnover in the post of White House counsel ever since.
  Indeed, the nature and extent of the activities directed by the White 
House toward the investigations in Arkansas made it incumbent upon us 
to determine what happened in Arkansas that was potentially so 
dangerous that they warranted these extensive coverups.
  Although the committee is still reviewing the delayed production 
documents and has not been able to interview central figures in 
Arkansas, it appears that the Whitewater matter involves substantial 
abuse and misuse of gubernatorial power in Arkansas, the use of 
official positions for private gain, possible violations of Federal tax 
laws in the reporting of deductions, and active legal representation by 
the First Lady of individuals and institutions involved in fraudulent 
activity resulting in the significant losses to the savings and loan 
insurance fund and the rest of the taxpayers.
  So far in Arkansas, there have been nine guilty pleas. These include 
guilty pleas by the real estate appraiser who appraised a fraudulent 
land value on land in one of the scam transactions; a judge who 
defrauded a Federal agency; two bankers who attempted to bribe a 
Federal loan agent; three Madison employees who made false statements 
to defraud a Federal agency; and a friend of the Clinton's who had 
concealed cash payments to the 1990 Clinton campaign.
  In addition, as most of us know, there is, right now, a criminal 
trial underway against the Clintons' major fundraiser, who was also a 
former business partner and the President's key political ally, who is 
now the Governor of Arkansas. Indictments are pending against the 
Clintons' friend and former business partner and criminal indictments 
against two Clinton supporters for concealing cash payments to his 1990 
campaigns.
  Mr. President, we have learned this. We have learned this in the 
course of hearings. I set this out today not because the investigation 
or the hearings have concluded. We have not answered all of the 
questions that need to be answered. But some of my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle in this body--and on the Whitewater Committee--
have said we have not learned anything, that there is not anything 
there.
  Well, Mr. President, there has been a tremendous amount of smoke with 
the recent revelations of the documents that just mysteriously have 
started appearing in the last several months. We have found out why 
they all hang together. The documents--the billing records of Mrs. 
Clinton at the Rose Law Firm--would have told us, would have enabled us 
to phrase our questions and come to an earlier resolution. These were 
taken out of the White House. Webster Hubbell had them and apparently 
gave them to Vince Foster, and then somehow, mysteriously, they just 
appeared in the book room, in the reading room of the White House in 
January. They were under subpoena. They were under subpoena. And, lo 
and behold, they just turned up.
  The assistant in the White House who picked them up initially 
realized in January that these were records that had been subpoenaed, 
and she brought them forward. Notes of a never disclosed, heretofore 
secret meeting in the White House between White House lawyers and 
Government officials and the defense attorneys representing the 
Clinton's personally--notes from this meeting which told about so many 
interesting activities--all of a sudden started appearing from 
everybody's files 2 weeks before the hearings were to conclude.
  Those memos, those notes, suggest possibly that the meeting engaged 
in efforts to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses. The billing 
records themselves show that Mrs. Clinton and others did not speak 
truthfully about her role in Madison Guaranty representation and in her 
work on Castle Grande. We have been unable in the Whitewater Committee 
to interview central witnesses to these transactions because they have 
been subpoenaed to testify in the trial being conducted by the special 
prosecutor in Little Rock. I hope that we are near to an agreement to 
extend the life of this committee so that we can complete the analysis 
of all the documents that have just turned up, so that we can determine 
whether the author, Mr. James Stewart, of ``Blood Sport,'' may have had 
access to relevant documents that we have been denied, so that we will 
be able to question people who may be able to give us direct testimony 
on many of the things that we have now seen by strong circumstantial 
evidence, though it is only circumstantial

[[Page S3195]]

evidence. I believe there is clear evidence of wrongdoing. There is 
clear evidence that we have not been told the truth in political 
campaigns, in press statements by the White House, and in sworn 
testimony to us, to the committee, and to others.

  Mr. President, I had a draft report prepared that represents my views 
of what we have learned as of the current time on the Whitewater 
Committee, and also listing the questions that must be answered by the 
committee before we can close this; questions like: Who placed Mrs. 
Clinton's subpoenaed records in the White House book room? Where were 
they for the years that they were under subpoena but not brought 
forward? Was there obstruction of justice by the White House officials 
who met and as a result of that meeting people visited a key witness in 
Arkansas? Did the White House improperly receive confidential 
information about the SBA investigation into certain wrongdoings in 
Little Rock? Was there witness tampering by the White House response 
team? Did some of the people who have in the past testified that they 
lied to their diary come up with other falsehoods that are totally 
inconsistent with written records?
  These are questions that must be answered.
  Mr. President, I send this report forward, and I ask if anyone would 
like to receive a copy of this report, please contact my office.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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