[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 65 (Friday, May 10, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           MRS. CLINTON'S FINGERPRINTS ON BILLING RECORDS II

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, last week I spoke about the new 
revelations that Mrs. Clinton's fingerprints were found on the billing 
records found in the White House. These records had been under subpoena 
by the special prosecutor for over 2 years, and they could not be 
found, and they turned up in the private living quarters of the First 
Lady and the President.
  Today I would like to expand on this topic and raise some of the 
many, many unanswered questions that remain to be resolved. According 
to the Washington Post, the documents that were found in the Clinton's 
personal residence were copies and not the originals. The originals 
disappeared during the campaign for President in 1992. This raises a 
very serious question: Where are the originals? Who has the originals? 
Why were they removed from the Rose law firm files and never replaced? 
They disappeared right after reporters started asking questions about 
the Whitewater Development Corp.
  It is widely believed that the billing records were removed from the 
law firm by Vincent Foster. The copies found in the White House 
residence had handwritten notes in the handwriting of both Mr. Foster 
and the First Lady. It is now well known that after Mr. Foster's death, 
a box full of documents were removed from his office and locked up in 
the Clinton's personal residence at the White House. This was done by 
Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, Maggie Williams. We are told that the 
records, the Clinton's personal records, were later turned over to 
their lawyer, David Kendall, but the question remains, did these also 
include these phone records, these billing records, that were later 
found, 2 years later, up at the White House residence?
  This also raises numerous other questions. Were the billing records 
in Vince Foster's office before he died? Were they originals or were 
they copies? Did Maggie Williams, the First Lady's personal secretary, 
remove these billing records from his office and take them to the 
Clinton's residence along with the other information? Were either the 
originals or copies of the billing records turned over to Mr. Kendall 
with the Clinton's other personal records? Who else's fingerprints were 
found on these records?
  It has been reported in Newsweek that Maggie Williams was recalled to 
testify before the grand jury after these records were turned over to 
the Independent Counsel. Here is a very interesting point: After the 
billing records were found in January, White House aides insisted to 
reporters that the records definitely did not come from Vince Foster's 
office. However, they also told reporters that they did not know how 
the records got into the personal residence of the First Lady and the 
President, and we are still trying to determine the chain of custody.
  Now, if these White House aides had no idea how the records got into 
the personal residence in the first place, how could they be so sure 
they did not come from Vince Foster's office? The important thing to 
remember is that whoever knew that these records were in the White 
House and did not turn them over to the independent counsel is guilty 
of obstruction of justice. Whoever knew these records were in the White 
House and did not turn them over to the congressional committees that 
had subpoenaed them is guilty of contempt of Congress.
  One more point: The Washington Post reported that David Kendall was 
called to the White House after the records were discovered. He and 
White House lawyer Jane Sherburne discussed the fact that the FBI would 
probably want to check the records for fingerprints. However, they went 
ahead after they may have had this discussion and photocopied every 
single page of the documents. Did these two lawyers intentionally make 
it more difficult for the FBI to obtain fingerprints from the pages of 
the documents by handling these documents and photocopying them?
  It is very important to remember that these records contain 
information that casts serious doubts about Mrs. Clinton's sworn 
statements about her legal work for Madison Guaranty. There are two 
central questions that must be resolved: First, is it plausible that 
these records were found in Mrs. Clinton's personal residence, had her 
fingerprints on them, and her handwriting on them, and she had not seen 
them since 1992? Second, who has the originals of these billing 
records? These questions must be answered and answered very quickly.

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