August 1, 1994 - Part 7
August 1, 1994 - Part 7
(20:10:55) Senator DoMENici. Do you have any information as to why, on March 1, 1994, at the White House, there was a meeting of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven people, about correcting this record, and you were not there? Ms. HANSON. I haven't any idea. Senator DomENici. I have an understanding that on March 1, 1994, Messrs. Podesta, Lindsey, Nussbaum, lGein, Sloan, Eggleston, and Meyers had a 2-1/2hour meeting. There had been negative press about Mr. Altman's staying at the RTC, and there was concern about Mr. Altman's inaccurate testimony. It goes on to say that, Mr. Podesta was to call Mr. Altman and tell him of the three errors and to correct them, but when Mr. Podesta called Mr. Altman, Mr. Altman did not want Mr. Podesta to give him facts that he didn't already have about the criminal referral. Do you have any information about that? Ms. HANSON. I have no information about that. I understand I have understood, now, in the course of this process, that the White House did have a copy of the transcript, but, as I say, I didn't have a copy. Senator DOMENICI. When you went to the meeting at the White' House on February 2, 1994, the big meeting, did it bother you at all that nobody was there representing the RTC, other than Mr. Altman wearing his two hats; that there was no counsel from the RTC, nobody other than you, as Treasury's Legal Counsel, and together you at all that the meeting was taking place at him? Did it the White House, with about seven personnel of the White House, and the RTC wasn't present? Ms. HANSON. No, sir. In fact, I thought it was appropriate that the RTC General Counsel was not in attendance at that meeting because she was supervising the ongoing civil investigation an had substantive knowledge in terms of what was being done in the investigation. The only purpose of the discussion in the White House was statute of Citations, procedural issues, and Mr. Altman's recusal. I bad counseled him on the recusal and on the statute of limitations discussions. It was a briefing on the law as applied to the Madison matter, a pure application of law to facts, and I was fully able to do that. Senator DOMENICI. Was there not a discussion, at that meeting, about whether or not the RTC bad sufficient facts, and had inves- 147 tigated the case thoroughly enough, to file by the statute of limitations date of February 28, 1994? Ms. HANSON. No, I previously testified that one of the talking points said that it was not clear when the investigation would be completed, but it would be completed by February 28, 1994, which was information that had been given to Congress the prior day. Senator DOMENICI. So, if Mr. Ickes recalls that, at that meeting, it was discussed in a contrary manner-that, in fact, Mr. Altman gave him information, in his opinion, that says the case won't be ready-then, Mr. Ickes is wrong? Ms. HANSON. Mr. Ickes is mistaken. It didn't happen-that discussion didn't happen in my presence. Senator DOMENICI. All right. Did you have any conversations regarding the entire issue of Mr. Altman's recusal, and the related matters that were discussed on February 2, 1994, with any other members of the White House staff who were not in attendance at that meeting? Ms. HANSON. Not to my recollection, no. Senator DOMENICI. Did you get any calls from any other White House people, who were not present at that meeting, about that? Ms. HANSON. Not about the-the subject of the meeting? Senator DOMENICI. Yes. Ms. HANSON. No. Senator DOMENICI. The people there were Mr. Nussbaum, Mr. McLarty, Mr. Ickes, Maggie Williams, and Neal Eggleston. Did you receive any calls from any other White House personnel?