August 1, 1994 - Part 3
August 1, 1994 - Part 3
(13:35:43) The CHAiRMAN, Did you communicate it to Mr. Altman? Mr. RYAN. I think it was communicated to Mr. Altman. I'm not that I ever specifically said I think you ought to recuse Yourself, but I can recall that in the meetings where we were going 58 over questions and answers for the Committee bearing on oversight it was clear Mr. Altman was aware of our views. Ms. KULKA. Mr. Riegle, may I expand on my answer as I sit here thinking about it? The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Ms. KuLKA. I think I made those remarks and held those feelings in the context of Mr. Altman repeatedly saying to Mr.- Ryan and myself, I expect to follow your recommendation, whatever it is in this case. I cannot conceive of not following your recommendation, except if you don't make a recommendation, and I can't imagine that you won't make a recommendation, and in that context, I think, were my thoughts and questions. The CHAiRmAN. The other side of this, as we've gathered these facts, is there's information-some you may have gathered and some to be presented-that there was some pressure on Mr. Altman to not recuse himself coming from people in the White I-louse who expressed a view upon it. It seemed to me-in fact, in your deposition, you were asked the question did Ms. Hanson, who we're going to hear from later today, ever indicate to you or give you the impression by anything she said that there was any pressure being put on Mr. Altman by the White House not to recuse himself.? Why don't you tell us what your view was on that. Ms. KuLKA, I don't think I responded that I thought there was pressure, but at one point in one of our conversations, I walked down the ball with her, and I said, "I just can't believe that he's willing to put himself in this position to take all this political heat when it's clear be's not going to make the actual decision. Why would he ever do it?" And she said to me, Think about it." I a have said to her-I don't know if I said it back to her or I internal ized the thought, that it may have been because the White House did not want him to, but that was it. I don't recall if she responded to me at all. I never had a direct confirmation that there was any White House involvement. The CHAIRMAN. Did you ever understand that there was a point at which Mr. Altman bad reached the point of deciding that he would, in fact, recuse himself? Ms. KULKA. No. The CHAIRMAN. Were you in the Committee room the day-on February 27, 1994-on February 24, 1994, when we had the hearing? You were there, were you not? Ms. KULKA. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN, As you know, there was a series of questions put to Mr. Altman, to which he responded. It's a matter of concern to many people, whether the answers were as clear and complete as they should have been. Were you listening to that exchange at the time? Ms. KuLKA. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN, Did you have any information, based on your experience and your involvements, that would have caused you to feel that the answer was less than complete at the time? Ms. KULKA. No, sir. The CHAiRmAN. Did you think about it that way at the time? Ms. KuLKA. I was listening to all of these answers. There were a number of Q's and A's that were prepared and Mr. Altman said 59 when we were preparing them, "I can't read from things. I'll have to be familiar enough on a huge variety of subjects that might have dealt with the operation of the RTC as well as this. I'll just have to be able to remember enough of that or enough of any one that's appropriate to respond." In that context, there were many things in which we had prepared longer Q's and As where be did not cover the whole ground, I had no more feeling about this, that the answer he had prepared to the question, if it were to come, about White House meetings did go beyond this, specifically to refer to the fact that he had mentioned considering his recusal to the White House, didn't trigger anything in my mind at the time. The CHAIRMAN, How long did you spend ahead of time in the preparation for those answers, those Q's and A's, those prep sessions before the testimony of Mr. Altman? Ms. KULKA. We spent the 6 or 7 days before, on and off, working on it and we had at least two long sessions with Mr. Altman. The CHAIRMAN. How long would those sessions have lasted with Mr. Altman? Ms. KULKA. I would say 2 or 3 hours at a time. The CHAIRMAN. You probably spent 5 or 6 hours with him alone in addition to the other time the staff bad spent working everything up on this. Is that correct?