July 29, 1994 - Part 2
July 29, 1994 - Part 2
(12:00:50) As early as September, the information that Roger Altman and Jean Hanson provided the President's closest advisors was highly confidential and involved criminal referrals that had not yet reached the Department of Justice, a rather incredible set of facts. But the White House later received, through improper channels, even more valuable information. In January 1994, the RTC was facing three choices, as you've already indicated, Senator D'Amato. One, the RTC could file a case by the February 28 deadline, or it was all over. Now, the meetings occurring in February, the second day of February. The second thing they could do was to seek a tolling agreement under which the people involved, including the President and the 34 First Lady, might be asked to cooperate and to voluntarily agree to extend the deadline for further investigation and possible prosecution. And let me remind the Senators, this occurred frequently in RTC investigations and many Americans signed those kind of agreements under the threat of a suit being filed. Three, it could let the deadline pass without filing anything, Now, frankly, by February 1, 1994, the White House knew that the investigation of Madison Savings & Loan was occurring. The deadline for filing the suit was only 28 days away, on February 28. If that arrived, and no criminal referrals were made, no lawsuit could be filed. They would be saved by the bell, so to speak. During that February meeting with Altman, the President's closest advisors reportedly pressed Altman to remain the decisionmaker until the deadline expired, and the case was closed. But Congress unexpectedly intervened and extended that deadline. That was noted by one of the witnesses from the White I-louse ' Ellen Kulka, as the earthquake event. In other words, all was going well until that event occurred, and it was an earthquake. But that's not all that was said at that meeting. It's simply not true that Mr. Altman merely provided public information about the legal process when he went to that meeting. Sworn testimony by the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Harold Ickes, establishes that at that meeting Altman told the President's closest advisors about the progress of the investigation. He told them that "the investigation was going to take a longer period of time to conclude, 79 and that's in quotes, and be also said-and these are in quotes----"that it was unlikely that the investigation could be completed and a recommendation. made by the General Counsel prior to the expiration of that statute." Now, Mr. Chairman and fellow Senators, if that occurred in any other case regarding witnesses or targets, we would have called those people before us and said, "you are guilty of giving favored information and treating people with favor that other Americans don't get." That was a big blow to this investigation because now, the White House staff knows that the case isn't ready yet. Without this knowledge about the status of this investigation, everyone involved would have been well-counseled to cooperate. and yes, even to sign whatever the RTC asked for in terms of tolling the statute. But when Roger Altman gave the White House this vital information about the progress of this investigation and he called it a heads up, he gave them heads up, all right -not to agree to anything because the RTC was not ready to file a lawsuit. Now, armed with this kind of information, the RTC's chance of obtaining an agreement for more time is eliminated. If he didn't know that, he should have known that. Altman destroyed an option when he gave this progress report at that February 2 meeting.