August 1, 1994 - Part 3
August 1, 1994 - Part 3
(14:05:36) Senator BOND. Could you give us, for the record, the names of the individuals involved in the meetings? Mr. ROELLE. It was in one of our normal meetings. Senator BOND. Which would include Mr. ROELLE. Let's see. Whoever-probably Rick Aboussie, who was our Acting General Counsel at the time, Lainar Kelly, who was the Senior Vice President, myself, who is a Senior Vice President, and maybe two or three other staff people from the RTC. I just don't recall who it may have been. Senator BOND aNY HIGHER LEVEL? 68 Mr. ROELLE. Ms. Johnnie Booker, who was our EEO and Minor-ity Officer. It would have included some Treasury people. I don't know-I can only tell you who attended those meetings. I just don't recall who was there at the meetings, but it could have been Mr. Newman, Mr. Steiner, Ms. Hanson, or Mr. Altman. Some Treasury staffers usually accompanied these people. At any one of our meetings it would not be unusual to have anywhere from five to seven , eight Treasury people and maybe five to seven or eight RTC peo ple. You could have 16 people at a meeting. Senator BOND. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see my time is UP. The CHAiRmAN. Thank you, Senator Bond. Let me indicate that roll call is now taking place on the Senate floor Senator MACK. Mr. Chairman, I only have one question. We should be able to get it finished. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Mack, let me just take a minute. We've got about 6 minutes to get to the floor from right now. Senator MACK. This is directed to Mr. Katsanos. I understand you had a number of conversations with Jack DeVore, former Spokesman for Secretary Bentsen, about the Madison referrals in the fall of 1993. Drawing your attention to the second and third conversations you had with him, I understand that you knew of the October 14, 1993, meeting with Ms. Hanson and several White House officials. What was your, understanding of why this meeting, was taking place? Mr. KATSANOS. My knowledge of the meeting is really not very extensive. Jack DeVore had called me tip, He was preparing to exit the Treasury Department. I had spoken with him earlier in the month to alert him to the fact that some reporters were calling us concerning Madison Guaranty, the Rose Law Firm, and a number of issues relating to them, I bad told him the staff was having some disagreements on potential criminal referrals, and I thought this story could appear. He called me and told me he was getting ready to go over to the White House for a meeting and all he wanted to know was whether the referrals bad been sent and I acknowledged they bad been. Senator MACK, Did you get any sense about whether this was a press meeting or Mr. KATSANOS. It was my impression that he was going to meet with Mr. Gearan at the White House. I believe be's the Communications Director, and that was the only person he had mentioned would be at the meeting. Senator MACK. Didn't you think you should have been at that meeting? Mr. KATSANos. The White House is not my territory, sir. The CHAIRMAN, Thank you, Senator Mack, We're going to take a brief recess. I want to finish this panel so you can be done for the day. We can take a break after that, and bring Ms. Hanson on. I'm going to recess us now and we'll reconvene no later than 2:30 p.m. to try to finish up. So, if you can be ready to go at 2:30 p.m., we'll resume at that time. The Committee stands in recess. (14:09:27) [Recess.] (14:09:30) Commentary of NINA TOTENBERG and DON BODE from tv studio, they also interview former Inspector General SHARMON FUNK (?) and Senator RICHARD SHELBY