August 2, 1994 - Part 4
August 2, 1994 - Part 4
(10:49:19) PBS funding credits (10:49:28) Whitewater Coverage title screen (10:49:39) In tv studio hearing hosts DON BODE and NINA TOTENBERG introduce afternoon's testimony, they also speak to STEVE ROBERTS of U.S. News and World Report (10:56:40) Hearing resumes: The CHAIRMAN. .any other and Roger Altman would have no involvement. Now I must tell you that what I've just read to you, which is verbatim from your diary, cross-connects and validates the same' information that we have from other sources. So I find this to be quite accurate. My first question to you would be, nearly as you know, sitting here today, and testifying under oath as you are, as you did when you provided this to the deposition attorneys, is this an accurate account? Was this your best sense at the time of what constituted an accurate account of what was taking place? Mr. STEINER. Senator, I believe if you would have asked me at the time to describe to you as precisely as I could the events that took place, I would not describe them exactly as I have here because, as I said before, my purpose in writing this was not to provide the most precise narrative I could, My purpose was to reflect back on events that had occurred. The CHAIRMAN. But you see, in some sense, that makes this an even more valuable account, I realize we're caught up in all of these infinitesimal shadings and nuances of words and phrases and suppositions, but I think when you were writing this, you're the Chief of Staff at the Treasury Department. You re not some lowlevel functionary. You're one of the top people over there because you had the confidence, background, and so forth that have entitled the judgment that you've received to have that job. You're a key person. The fact that you're 28 years old might cause someone to think that maybe you were a lower level person. You're one of the highest ranking people in one of the major Cabinet agencies in Government. You're a key player. As a result, you carry a lot of responsibility. So when you gave this account to yourself, you had no reason to shade the truth. You had no reason to exaggerate. You bad no reason to go into this endless sort of shaving and parsing. I assume when you were talking to yourself, that you were being straightforward, honest, and candid. Moreover, and I'm going to say it to you again, everything else I've been able to gather from other witnesses supports the accuracy of this account. So you don't need to back away from it for any reasons of accuracy unless you want to tell us today there's something in here that's inaccurate and I'm not talking about fly specking. I'm 379 talking, as Senator Sarbanes was earlier, the general accuracy and thrust of what you've said. Now, you've said a lot of important things here, and you've said there was a major struggle over this recusal decision. Clearly, there was. There's abosolutely no question that Roger Altman made a decision to recuse himself, went to the White House, indicated that's what he was going to do and he got a lot of negative feedback, very negative feedback and he then decided that he better not do that, at least not right then. Isn't that the truth? Mr. STEINER. To the best of my recollection, Senator, Mr. Altman was planning to recuse himself or leaning toward recusing himself. When he went to the White House, as be's related to me because I was not at that meeting, Mr. Nussbaum, as I've said, made some powerful arguments about why that was not the wise course of action. That is the events as I