July 29, 1994 - Part 1
July 29, 1994 - Part 1
(10:27:39) This was not -merely discussing legal procedure, as Mr. Cutler -would have you believe. Make no mistake about it: It was revealing the bottom line on the investigation. As Mr. Ickes testified, Altman's assessment of the RTC case was not public information. It was not given to Congress. Roger Altman told the White House the single most important fact about the investigation. He told Ickes and others that the investigation probably would not be concluded "until after the statute of limitations bad expired." By then, the opportunity to file suit against the Clintons would be lost. This was the equivalent of giving an opponent a peek at your bole card. Before February 2, as Altman and the White House knew, the Clintons faced the likelihood of being asked to sign an agreement tolling the statute of limitations. But then on February 2, the White House was given Altman's inside information. Armed with that inside information the Clintons could safely reject any RTC request for a tolling agreement, Mr. Chairman, to underscore that point, when Altman later asked the RTC to brief Mr. Kendall, the Clintons' private lawyer, the RTC General Counsel refused. But the Clintons no longer needed a briefing for their lawyer because the White House already had the vital inside information. So the classic question emerges: What did the President know and when did he know it? Mr. Ickes again supplies the answer. Ile testifies that lie informed both the President and the First Lady of the "gist" of the February 2 meeting, the meeting at which Mr. Altman tipped the RTC's ha nds and then bowed to White House pressure to stay on the Whitewater case, Mr. Chairman, this evidence makes it clear why on February 24 Roger Altman deliberately failed to tell this Committee the full details of his February 2 White House meeting. Altman did not dare to open this Pandora's box. He persisted in concealing these facts in each of the four letters he wrote this Committee in a vain effort to supplement the record. And this deception was tolerated by others in the Treasury and in the White House. The White House was shocked by Congress's last minute extension of the statute of limitations. The White House realized that they had lost the chance to strangle the case before February 28. Now, it became critical for the White House to control who would actually handle the case against Madison. And that explains why in the words of Chief of Staff Josh Steiner, George Stephanopoulos "suggested to me we needed to find a way to get rid of Jay Stephens." The American people are entitled to the truth about the actions and intentions of the President, Mrs. Clinton, and other Government officials. The Senate has charged this Committee with conducting a fair and thorough investigation. Mr. Chairman, the American people are about to witness a story that has become too familiar. It will be told in the words of the witnesses under oath. Even more important, we will have the uncensored, candid admissions of the diaries and documents written at a time, when there was no reason to lie. We will see if witnesses, 9 under public scrutiny, seek to distance themselves from the words they wrote while their deeds were still undetected. This is a story of Government officials holding positions of enormous power and solemn public trust, falling short of minimum standards of ethical behavior and avoiding public accountability, it's about a ring of close and overzealous political associates of President Clinton ignoring lessons of history-recent 'history-by attempting to control and influence the actions of agencies intended by Congress to be beyond White House control and influence. It's a out officials who place the personal interest of the President above the people's interest, and about lying to Congress and to the American people in order to conceal this misconduct. The CHAIRMAN, Essentially, all Members were here as we gaveled the hearing to order this morning, SO I'M going to go in order of seniority down both sides in alternating fashion. Senator Sarbanes, let me recognize you at this point.