August 2, 1994 - Part 3
August 2, 1994 - Part 3
(12:55:36) Senator DOMENICI. Frankly, I hope I'm making my point that, thus far, if all of those things that I've just alleged occurred, I wouldn't think there would be anything wrong. He ought to be interested in this whole situation. Again, I repeat, if I were there, I'd be interested. Mr. STEINER. I just can't testify one way or another, Senator. I just know that in the context I had, I received very clear guidance 366 about people's opinion, and it wall; to the effect that it was Mr. Altman's decision to make. Senator DOMENICI. Now, I'm going to go to a diary entry of yours and ask you about your frame of mind when you wrote this-I'm talking about diary II, that is January 24 through February 12--- here's the entry that I want to read to you. In DC he spent long hours with Roger Altman going over how he should handle the RTCs investigation of Whitewater. The statute of limitations on Madison Guaranty was supposed to expired on 2/28. Should Roger Altman recuse himself or should he stay involved? The hurdle was so high [fraud] that it seemed unlikely the RTC would bring suit or seek a tolling agreement from Bill Clinton or Hillary Clin. ton but the chance existed. Roger Altman originally decided to recuse himself but under intense pressure from the White House, he said he would make the final de. termination based upon recommendation from Ellen Kulka and GC. General Counsel? That's what Ellen Kulka is, I 'm trying to figure out what you had in mind when you were saying this. Let me tell you how I read it based upon what you've been telling everyone else. You were trying to figure out why the White House doesn't want Roger Altman to recuse himself and one of your musings is the statute of limitations expires on 2/28 and you're writing this with that in mind. And I think you're saying here that if anybody is worried about keeping him on until after the statute of limitations, it's kind of ridiculous because the hurdle was so high, it seemed unlikely that the RTC would bring a suit or seek a tolling agreement. Am I close to right? Mr. STEINER, Senator, this passage compresses a number of issues into a short space, and I'm not sure I fully understand your question. Senator DOMENICI. Let me ask you again. Why don't you directly tell us what were you alluding to when you made that statement about the RTC tolling the statute of limitations and the hurdle being so high. What's that about? Mr. STEINER. As I understood it, in cases such as this one, there was no discussion of the specific case, the standard used as to whether the RTC should file suit was very high, which is to say that, as I understand it, I believe it was intentional fraud. It seemed implausible to me, knowing nothing about the case at band but knowing the Clintons by reputation, that they would be in any way involved in any kind of intentional fraud or any other kind of inappropriate behavior. Senator DOMENICI. So you're suggesting you can't quite understand what the problem is with reference to recusal? Is that what YOU I re saying? Mr. STEINER. No. As I've said before, I understood Mr. Nussbaum's arguments. I may not have agreed with them, but I understood them. The issue of recusal, the issues of the statute of limitations deadline, and the issue of filing suit were separate issues, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. We'll have to come back to that because the time has expired and I did allow that question to be completed. Senator Murray. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR PATTY MURRAY Senator MURRAY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 367 Mr. Devore, when did you first learn about the criminal referrals relating to Madison? Mr. DEVORE. On October 11, a reporter called me and told me that the investigation-the RTC investigation was under way. The reporter said there were a couple of unusual things about the investigation. One, it was- instead of being sent directly from the Kansas City office of RTC to the prosecutor's office in Little Rock, it bad been sent to Washington for review. The second thing he said was unusual was that the referral had not yet been made.