Whitewater Hearings August 1, 1994 - Part 1
Whitewater Hearings August 1, 1994 - Part 1
(11:45:50) Senator MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. Chairman? Senator MACK. Mr. Chairman, I would like to make one last comment. The CHAIRMAN. Please. Go ahead. Senator MACK. Ms. Hanson had some very confidential information regarding the criminal referrals after she spoke to you, information which people involved in the case should not have access to. Mr. ROELLE. Again, Senator, without trying to be an expert on the law or ethics regarding this matter, I believe that it would have been better had no one known about these criminal referrals. Senator MACK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. What I want to try to do here is to in the order of the Members. Then, if others want to get in, I'd ask you to ask Members to Yield and they may or may not wish to do so. But I want to try to go back and forth to the Members. I know you're seeking recognition right now. If there's a parliamentary issue, I'll recognize it. But I'd like to go ahead to Senator Shelby. Senator MosELEY-BRAuN. If Senator Shelby would yield for a moment. I just wanted to clear up-Mr. Roelle said something that, without clarification, I think can be misleading. If the Senator would just yield for a single question of Mr. Roelle. Senator SHELBY. Wit out losing any time. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR CAROL MOSELEY-BRAUN Senator MOSELEY-BRAuN. Certainly. Mr. Roelle, when you said, when you discussed the referrals, you referred to the President and First Lady. You did not clarify whether you meant as witnesses in the referral or as targets of the referral. I think it's important for the record that you make clear in which regard your reference was made. Mr. ROELLE. I would prefer-I don't want to cross this line, Senator. I mentioned-I am willing to completely be forthcoming that the Clintons' names were mentioned. I think how they're mentioned would be getting into the details of the referrals. I will seek your guidance. I will be totally forthcoming, if somebody will just tell me where they want me to be on this issue. The CHAIRMAN. I'm not sure it's your job to answer that question. I think it's generally understood, from a host of information that's out in the public arena, that they were mentioned as witnesses, 23 which is not the other inference. So, I'm going to just leave that there for now. Senator MOSELEY-BRAUN. I have no further questions. The CHAIRMAN. I don't think Mr. Roelle ought to be the one asked to step across that line. I think your question was an appropriate one. Senator Shelby. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHEL13Y Senator SHELBY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Ryan, I believe you testified in your opening statement, basically saying that Mr. Altman wanted Madison treated the same as any other case. If that was true, was there a committee set up to deal with Madison/Whitewater? Mr. RYAN. There was, yes, sir. Senator SHELBY. Is this ordinarily done in the RTC? Mr. RYAN. No, sir, it wasn't ordinarily done. It was set up because we were getting-the RTC was receiving a large number of informational requests from the Congress and from the press. Senator SHELBY. From everybody? Mr. RYAN. From everybody. We felt that we had to be consistent in the way we responded to those inquiries. Senator SHELBY. In other words, basically, you thought this was an extraordinary case. Mr. RYAN. It was an extraordinary case. Senator SHELBY. Possibly involving some people at the White House. Mr. RYAN, That's correct. Senator SHELBY. OK. How did this committee come to be formed? Did you put it together? Mr. RYAN. I put it together, yes, sir. Senator SHELBY. And who was on the committee? Mr. RYAN. Three members were on the committee. Mr. Collishaw from our legal division, Peter Knight, and Jim Dudine from our investigations unit. The reason I'm hesitating in trying to recall the answers to those questions is that this committee remained in use for a very short period of time. Senator SHELBY. How long did the committee last? A week? Ten days? Mr. RYAN. Probably 2 or 3 weeks. When our General Counsel, Ellen Kulka, arrived on January 17, 1994, she formed a working group that assumed much of what this committee Senator SHELBY, Superseded the committee all together or assumed some of the responsibility? Mr. RYAN. Assumed some of the responsibility and the rest was dealt with in our regular fashion. Senator SHELBY, And what was that, regular fashion? It's a very good question.