August 3, 1994 - Part 4
August 3, 1994 - Part 4
(14:40:53) 66 Mr. LUDWIG. Well, these were public documents. The CHAIRMAN. I understand that, but what was your purpose? Mr. LUDWIG. And as I said, this was a single event in -a very busy day, I didn't have anything to do with Madison or Whitewater, so I wanted to send them off. As best I can recollect, I wanted to make people aware that there was press interest in this matter. That's the best I can recollect, as I said in my statement. The CHAIRMAN. But that was not your common practice? I guess you thought this was a sensitive enough item that once you knew about it you wanted to pass it along. Is that essentially it? Mr. LUDWIG. Well, as I said, it was something that arrived on my desk unsolicited. They were public documents. I certainly had no reason to handle or deal with them, and I wanted to send them along to people who might deal with them or handle them, but it was not something that was a matter that I'd ever come in contact with. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Steiner's diary entries which were given to us which fall within this time period do not mention, they have no reference-not that they necessarily would--of this item, but I had asked whether they did and apparently they do not. I assume if Mr. Steiner had a reference in his diary to this, he would send it to us. It sounds to me from your chronology as if there was a very quick turnaround when you had this 30-second conversation with the President when he asked if you could properly provide any advice on this matter and you checked around in a hurry and concluded that you could not and should not and then you informed the President of that the next day. Is that the correct summary? Mr. LUDWIG. That's correct, sir. The CHAIRMAN. That's all for me at this point. Senator D'Amato. Senator D'AMATO. Chairman, Mr. Lindsey The CHAIRMAN. Ludwig. Senator D'AMATO. Mr. Ludwig, I'm just looking at this. Excuse me, but why did you send this to Mr. Lindsey at the White House? Mr. LUDWIG. Well, I knew Mr. Lindsey was a Senior Aide at the White I- louse, and so that's why I selected him. I mean, this was a very quick turnaround, and I just sent it to people that I thought might have something to do with it or know who did. Senator D'AMATO. Well, did you know that he was in charge of the-watching the Whitewater situation in particular? Mr. LUDWIG. No, sir, Senator D'AMATO. Why did you think the White House would have an interest in responding to a request, a FOIA request to the FDIC? Mr. LUDWIG. Well, as I said, I knew these were public documents. I knew they had nothing to do with me. I knew from reading the newspaper that Madison and Whitewater were issues of current discussion, and they involved the White House, so I sent them to the White House. Senator D'AMATO. Well, in one of the requests it says-it makes reference to the FDIC's 1989 lawsuit against and subsequent set 67 tlement with Madison accounts, so to that extent, did you ever send them those documents? Mr. LUDWIG. No, absolutely not. The only Senator DAMATO. Would anybody be entitled to that kind of information? I don't know. I mean, the lawsuit documents of 1989, do you know or is that still Mr. LUDWIG. I don't know. I've never seen them. The only documents I've ever seen in relation to this are these two press FOIA inquiries, and that's the only thing I ever passed along. senator D'AMATO. Let me just ask you this. Would I be unfair in characterizing your sending these documents or the request, the request for the documents, your dispersal of them to the White House as saying or characterizing it as a "heads-up'"?