August 3, 1994 - Part 5
August 3, 1994 - Part 5
(16:15:48) The CHAIRMAN. Senator DAmato. Senator D'AMATO. Senator, I'm going to yield to Senator Bond because lie's going to want to return after a vigorous debate on the Floor in which he's going to participate in; is that right? Senator BOND. That is correct. I thank the Ranking Member and I thank the Chair, Mr. Chairman, this argument over the scope of the hearings and seeing all these attorneys before me makes me understand now why I left the practice of law, staying up late at night, spending Sundays reading depositions rather than other things. I spent this Sunday trying to go over the depositions, and I gather that you all were, too. Mr. Eggleston, when I signed in at Dirksen, I noticed that you. and Mr. Podesta had signed in to go to room 542, 1 was just curious what were you up to over here? Mr. EGGLESTON. Sir, I was here to read my deposition on Sunday. I had been invited to come down and read it, and that's what I did. Senator BOND. They made your deposition available to you? 95 Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes, only my deposition by the Senate was made available to me, and that's the only one I've read. Senator BOND. Mr. Podesta, I guess, read his? Mr. EGGLESTON. Yes. Senator BOND, Mr. Klein, we've heard witness after witness over the last several days talking about legitimate Government interest in the White House as having the heads-up on the details of confidential criminal referrals. There isn't a hotline for the average citizen to call the RTC to say, am I part of your investigation, but apparently the White House does get that kind of heads-up, and I think that's something that people may be a little bit concerned about, as to why the White House gets special treatment. Now, I would agree that Secretary Bentsen today made a good point, and I think others have inferred that there are some situations when you want to protect the President from an embarrassing or compromising encounter. It was very regrettable a few years ago that then Vice President Bush wound up having his picture taken with Manuel Noriega just before he was indicted. I think that there are probably legitimate interests in keeping the President from associating with people who are going to have major criminal actions brought against them. Is that one of the legitimate reasons for giving the White House a heads-up? Mr, KLEIN. I believe so, Sir. Senator BOND. Would you explain how that would work and what would happen if the President were greeting a foreign visitor, for example? If he were going to greet a foreign visitor and you found he was going to be Noriega-ized, what would be your responsibility? Mr. KLEIN. I had one experience with this, sir, and I could tell you how we did it in this instance. We did get a so-called headsup from the office of the Deputy Attorney General. I then notified the Chief of Staff that the President was going to be in a room with certain people and that the President should not be taken aside and be put in a position talking alone with this person. That's the way it was handled. Senator BOND. Since we understand that Governor Jim Guy Tucker was referred to as a target in the RTC criminal referrals and the President was to meet with him within about a week after the heads-up from the RTC from Mrs. Hanson, was a similar kind of warning given to the President? T