August 3, 1994 - Part 4
August 3, 1994 - Part 4
(14:35:55) These three occasions-the faxes, some brief discussions at RenaissaDee Weekend, and a short phone call to Margaret Williamsare the sum andsubstance of my contacts with the Treasury Department and the White House relating to Whitewater and Madison Guaranty. I have done my best to recall them as accurately and completely as I can. I hope my recollections are useful to you. I will be pleased to answer any questions you might have. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you Mr. Ludwig. I want to take up the first item in your statement, these FOIA items that somebody sent you unsolicited. When would that have happened? I don't see a date as to when you got that. You sent them over to the White House Mr. LUDWIG. Late in November---early December, I think it was early December. 65 The CHAIRMAN. And so you got them and then you-you do know you sent them over on December 2nd so Mr. LUDWIG. They would have been received then the same day it was December 2nd, December 1st or December 2nd. The CHAIRMAN. Now, what were these FOIA items? Mr. LUDWIG. These were two press inquiries, Freedom of Infor mation Act requests, sent to the FDIC. As I said in my statement they were public documents. I even checked with our Chief Coun sel, as best I remember, to make certain they were, in fact, public documents. The CHAIRMAN. OK. Now I've got them in front of me and you provided them to the Committee. Actually, the White House provided these to us for our work here. One is a letter from Susan Bear of The Baltimore Sun going to a Doyle Robinson at the FDIC, and the other is a letter on the letterhead of The Washington Post by Susan Schmidt to a Mr. Jack Smith, Deputy Counsel, General Counsel of the FDIC. Now, how often would it have been your practice to get FOIA items and send them on to the White House? Mr. LUDWIG. This was unusual, The CHAIRMAN. Is it the only time it ever happened? Mr. LUDWIG. This is the only time it ever happened. The CHAIRMAN. So this was a unique event? Mr. LUDWIG. This was a unique event. The CHAIRMAN. Why did you feel compelled to do this? Mr. LUDWIG, Well, as I said, Senator, I determined these were public documents. I had nothing to do with Whitewater or Madison. It had never come up The CHAIRMAN. Right.Mr. LUDWIG [continuing], At the board, it had never come up at had nothing to do with them, but they were public documents, it seemed to me that it was appropriate to send them along to people who might have something to do with them. I certainly didn't. So I sent them on. The CHAIRMAN. I guess I'm still curious as to why, in the normal course of events, if there is some reason for these people to have these documents, and I guess we ought to talk about-just describe briefly what these documents cover. Don't read them verbatim, but what are the thrust of these two items? Do you remember? Mr. LUDWIG. I don't have them in front of me, but they're inquiries relating to Madison and Whitewater. The CHAIRMAN. Well, they cover a lot of things, do they not, related to Madison Guaranty, the Rose Law Firm, the FDIC's lawsuit, various other things that's in The Baltimore Sun letter. I guess when I look at this in the context of this general inquiry that we've been assigned to do here, I'm wondering why, when this is not your normal practice, you would take these two documents and send them out to four different individuals. You send one to the Treasury Undersecretary, you send one to the Chief of Staff, so Mr. Newman, Josh Steiner, then Bruce Lindsey and David Dryer in the White House press office. You fanned this out in four directions and I'm just wondering what-you say this was not a common practice. What was your purpose in doing that?