August 2, 1994 - Part 9
August 2, 1994 - Part 9
(21:50:46) Mr. ALTMAN. No, ma'am the did not. Senator MURRAY. Is the Madison investigation, in fact, still moving forward? Mr. ALTMAN. When I left the RTC on March 30 and I haven't had any contact whatsoever of any kind with it since then so I don't know where it stands today. Senator MURRAY. Did you at any time use your position as head of RTC to improperly notify the White House regarding Madison? Mr. ALTMAN. I don't believe so, Senator MURRAY. And again, I'm curious about this one issue. Did the RTC or Treasury , to your knowledge, provide the same information to Members of Congress or their staff that you discussed at the February 2 meeting. Mr. ALTMAN. In terms of these procedural alternatives that the RTC faced on Madison and any other statute of limitation situation, I believe the answer to that is yes. Senator MURRAY. And to whom was that given? Mr. ALTMAN. Well, I wrote myself-I wrote a letter to Senator D'Amato. I wrote a response to 41 Republican Senators. There were at least 7 contacts between congressional staff and RTC staff, which I'm told involved the same procedural matters. Senator MURRAY. Did it include information on the statute of limitations? Mr. ALTMAN. I'm told that they did. Senator MURRAY. I think one of the other questions we're facing here is whether there was information given at the meeting with the White House that was nonpublic. It seems to me if Congress had it, 1 member or 40 members, it was no longer nonpublic. 495 Mr. ALTMAN. Again, the Office of Government Ethics reached that conclusion. Senator MURRAY. The other controversial issue here seems to be this issue of recusal, specifically whether you were to recuse yourself on February 2 or 24. We have this 3-week period. Did anything horrible occur duirng these 3 weeks that made a difference whether or not you recused yourself on the 2nd or on the 24th? Mr. ALTMAN. It had nothing to do with the investigation of Madison whatsoever. When I testified at the very beginning today, I said I thought recusal was a false issue because it bad nothing to do with the investigation and because, whichever way I decided, yes, to formally recuse or to remain de facto recused, the impact was the same, absolutely the same. Senator MURRAY. No action nothing occurred between February 2 and February 24 that made a difference whether or not you recused yourself at the beginning of the month or the end of the month? Mr. ALTMAN. No, Senator. Senator MURRAY. Thank you, Mr, Chairman. That concludes my questions. The CHAIRMAN. Let me suggest, we've gone now through and everybody has had one opportunity . You've been at the table a Ion time. Would you like to take a break? What would be your wish? Mr. ALTMAN. I'd appreciate a few minutes. The CHAIRMAN. Why don't we do this: It's now 5 minutes to 10 p.m. Why don't we take a 10-minute break and come back and I'd like to try to finish tonight. I know that if we don't stay with it, we're likely to go on over into tomorrow. So that's something everybody has to weigh. We've got other witnesses coming tomorrow. I know you've been here a long time. I think it's probably better if we can finish tonight. So let's have the Committee stand in recess for 10 minutes, and you have a chance to refresh yourself, and then well resume. (21:53:53) [Recess.) (21:53:55) Commentary of hearing hosts DON BODE and NINA TOTENBEG from tv studio, they also talk to Senator PHIL GRAMM