August 3, 1994 - Part 1
August 3, 1994 - Part 1
(09:55:34) We went through hundreds of thousands of documents with investigators to find the ones they needed. We used extra warehouse space to hold back our trash. I brought in professional investigators from the IRS to go through the top offices of the Treasury, mine included. We removed computers from the offices of those involved, including those used by the support staff, had experts go through them to find anything that would be useful. They worked around the clock quite literally. We searched offices nationwide to see what could be found, and my staff was always promptly available to Mr. Fiske, the IG and the Congressional investigators to answer questions. Now when Mr. Fiske completed his report on this phase of the examination, and concluded that no criminal laws were broken, I asked the Office of Government Ethics to complete its examination of the contacts and report back to me. Over the past weekend, I received the Office of Government Ethics' report. I released it to the public. And then I sent it to the President's Counsel. I also sent it to every Member of this Committee and the House Banking Committee, The Office of Government Ethics, after a careful analysis of the independently gathered facts, says I can conclude that those working at the Treasury did not, repeat, did not violate any of the standards of ethical conduct for employees of the Executive Branch of Government. I heard a Senator say something the other day that stuck with me. He said that, in this town, an allegation is synonymous with conviction without benefit of a trial or a hearing. Clearly, in retrospect, it might have been better if some of these meetings or contacts had not taken place, or had occurred in a dif- 8 ferent context. But when you boil it down, no criminal law was broken, and the people who work at Treasury did not violate the ethical standards. And no one at Treasury intervened in any way or interfered in any RTC action. The Office of Government Ethics report did say it was troubled by some of the contacts. And it raised important issues that I believe should be addressed. The Office of Government Ethics said it appeared that there were misconceptions by Treasury officials that may have contributed to the contacts. Those include a possible lack of appreciation of the difference between a Treasury function and one belonging to the Resolution Trust Corporation and what rules apply. They also include a misconception about the standard on the use of nonpublic information, and a misconception about the function of a recusal. Those are very good points. I would point out the unique situation in which these contacts occurred no longer exists. Mr. Altman is no longer Acting CEO of the RTC. And there no longer are lines of responsibility here that could give rise to misconceptions about job functions and the rules that apply. So the possibility for the jumbling of roles and a confusion about the rules has been greatly lessened. I have only had this report for -a few days. I am not going to make any knee- jerk reaction to what clearly are complex issues involving management of Treasury functions. I want to reserve judgment on that. I am not going to make my decisions in the heat of debate. I will study this information, and any thoughts the Committee might have, and take whatever steps I consider appropriate. Now before I conclude my testimony, I want to remind the Committee of one important point. The Treasury Department has a law enforcement role, as do a number of other Government agencies. It is critical that the Department be able to communicate with other agencies and the White House when necessary, Let me give you some examples.