July 29, 1994 - Part 3
July 29, 1994 - Part 3
(13:30:40) Senator MACK. I'm not trying to be critical about whether you had it or didn't have it. We have been told that the two of you, first of all, let me say I share Senator Gramm's-- Mr. COLOMBELL. If we had it, it could have been helpful to the investigation, yes. Senator MACK. What would you have done with it if you had it? Mr. COLOMBELL. I would have attempted to determine if there was an any other information contained in the pager that might have assisted us, in particular, in trying to determine Mr. Foster s activities from 1 until 5,30 p.m. on that Tuesday afternoon. Senator MACK. Is that because some pagers, in fact, do have a memory? You would have been able to tell who paged and who called him? Mr. COLOMBELL. I'm not qualified to answer that question. I would have to consult with folks in our FBI lab. Senator MACK. Why do you say it would have been helpful if you 'had the pager? Mr. COLOMBELL. I think I said it would have been helpful if we had the pager. Senator MACK. Why would it have been helpful if you had bad the pager? Mr. COLOMBELL. We could have retrieved the information. Senator MACK. I'm gathering that there are some pagers that would have information that would indicate there had been a call made and the number the call came from. I Mr. COLOMBELL. I think all pagers would have that information, Senator. Senator Mack A moment ago you were all asked the question about whether there were irregularities in the investigation and maybe we have different definitions as to what the term "irregularities" means, so let me pose a couple of thoughts to you all and get tour reaction to them. If this bad been an investigation that the Bureau bad jurisdiction over, would you have released the pager? Mr. MONROE. Let me answer the first question, Senator. The first question is whether or not, in our perspective, the U.S. Park 60 Police engaged in any significant irregularities and our response was not to our knowledge. That was the first thing, was it a signifi. cant irregularity? I'm not aware of, personally aware of, what the Park Police position was in regards to releasing the pager. If we had jurisdiction over this case es we would have taken that pager and reviewed it, sir, but whether or not that's a significant irregularity, it could be a semantic one, and I'd rather not say that, sir. Senator MACK. I apologize for my tone. I don't mean to be aggressively coming at you. I'm really just looking for information, and I did state that I thought it's possible we will have differing definitions of "irregularities.' So the thrust of what I'm trying to et at here is, under normal procedures, would most investigating bodies have kept control of that pager ? Mr. MONROE. I would think so, Senator MACK. Let me ask you this: If the Federal Bureau of Investigation bad jurisdiction, how would you have gone about securing Vincent Foster's office? Would you have merely placed a call to the White House and asked that it be done, or would it have been Mr. MONROE. Senator, that's rather hypothetical, and number two, it's starting to get into an area which is still under investigation by Mr. Fiske and his staff, and that is follow up into the White House and I would respectfully ask that you consider that. The CHAiRmAN. We don't want to go into that area and I think your concern is appropriately stated and heard, and we need to respect that. Senator MACK. Do you think that the premature turnover of Vincent Foster's personal effects was unusual? Would have maintained control of his personal effects until they had been completely physically catalogued? Mr, MONROE. Not knowing all of the personal effects, we probably would have, from an FBI perspective. But I don't want to imply any irregularity on the part of the Park Police because the personal effects that we did obtain during this investig ation were of significant value to us in determining the nature of his death, so I would say that the clothing we bad was of measurable value in determining his cause of death, sir.