[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6543-S6544]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    FINAL REPORT BY THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE WHITEWATER

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, yesterday, after 13 months, 51 
hearings, 159 witnesses, thousands of pages of documents, and nearly 2 
million taxpayer dollars, the Special Committee To Investigate 
Whitewater concluded its work.
  Our committee found no instance in which the President or the First 
Lady have acted unethically, illegally or abused their power.
  Mr. President, the special committee released two varying reports 
yesterday: A Republican majority report and a Democratic minority 
report. Our committee started its work in true bipartisan fashion. 
Unfortunately, as the investigation repeatedly failed to produce any 
substantive or legitimate wrongdoing by the President, the majority 
veered the committee down a path of partisan politics and speculation. 
As a result, our bipartisan teamwork broke down. It disintegrated to a 
point that two separate reports are needed in order to report our 
findings as clearly as possible.
  The biggest failing of this committee, however, was our failure to 
keep faith with the American people. For months, I reminded our 
committee of the importance of being credible and of the need to 
maintain the confidence of the American people. Constituents in my home 
State often expressed their displeasure with our committee's partisan 
politics. And they told me they no longer trusted our committee to find 
the truth in a fair and impartial manner.
  Mr. President, we were charged with the mission of finding all of the 
facts relating to the President's relationship with Whitewater and 
related matters. That's what the American people wanted us to do. That 
is what they expected us to do. Unfortunately, the majority decided to 
make allegations first, and find the facts second. If the facts failed 
to support the allegations, the majority simply discarded the facts.
  I believe, and most of my colleagues will agree, that there were few 
instances where the White House could have produced documents faster or 
answered questions more quickly. In its attempt to be careful and 
cautious, the White House ultimately ran into perception problems. The 
White House looked as if it was covering up the truth. Once all the 
information was gathered, we learned the White House had not acted 
improperly--rather in many cases it was as open and forthcoming as 
possible. In no way did the White House act to obstruct justice or 
attempt to impede this committee's investigation.
  The majority granted the special committee $400,000 to extend our 
hearings well beyond our original February deadline. Nearly 4 months 
later, our committee conducted only 10 more hearings. This track record 
makes it very clear to me that we could have concluded our work by the 
original deadline, and that the majority simply intended to continue 
these hearings further into the Presidential election season.
  Now, after finding no wrongdoing by the President in relation to the 
subject at hand--Whitewater and Madison Guaranty--the Majority has 
leaked reports that it intends to pursue perjury charges on three of 
the President's aides and advisers. This is a clear attempt to move 
attention away from the fruitless investigation by creating a new 
allegation. Like many of the smoking guns that amounted to no more than 
squirt guns, it again appears to be another effort to make news where 
there is no news, and to make political noise in an election year.
  Our committee spent nearly $2 million to examine the facts. The 
Resolution Trust Corporation [RTC] spent nearly $4 million conducting 
an independent investigation clearing the Clintons of any wrongdoing. 
And the independent counsel has spent more than $26 million on its 
ongoing investigation. Including the House committee hearings, nearly 
$40 million of public money has been spent to bring all relevant 
information into the open.

[[Page S6544]]

 The final reports put to rest the suicide of Vince Foster, concluded 
the Clinton White House did not interfere with RTC and Department of 
Justice investigations, and discovered then-Governor Clinton did not 
misuse his power to influence State regulators.
  It is time for us to move beyond this political issue. It is time for 
Congress to address the issues that really concern the American people. 
When I go home people ask me what Congress has done to preserve their 
quality of life, what Congress has done to improve our education 
system, and what Congress has done to improve our health care delivery 
system. I can count on one hand the number of times somebody asked me 
about Whitewater over the past 2 years.
  As a member of the Special Whitewater Committee, I took my job 
seriously. I understood the importance of our committee, and I stand by 
the minority report. Our report studies the facts very carefully, and 
after compiling all of the facts we made our conclusions accordingly. I 
urge all interested parties to read this report, and I am hopeful it 
completes the mission we were instructed to pursue.

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