August 3, 1994 - Part 8
August 3, 1994 - Part 8
(19:25:38) Mr. KLEIN. I can tell you the White House Counsel's Office worked on a wide range of matters, and this is a very small part,: of the business we dealt with. We interface with all the Government agencies on legal issues on a daily basis. I would say, as MS. Nolan herself has said, she had no involvement in these matters. Mr. Sloan had no involvement in the spring and so forth, and that's true of all the other people who aren't here. So in a funny way you're looking through a very small end of the telescope here. Senator MURRAY. So the White House wasn't sitting around for days discussing recusals? Mr. KLEIN. Not at all. Senator MURRAY. It's a very small part of what you talked about-it's a very big part of our week here but it's a very small part of what you talked about, Is that fair to say? Mr. KLEIN. I think that's correct, ma'am. Senator MURRAY. And finally, I've heard a lot of theories, conspiracy or otherwise, about why the White House had an interest in Altman's recusal. I'm not an attorney here-I'm beginning to think I'm not the only one that's not an attorney in this room-so maybe this is a simple question, but why such a big deal about recusal? Mr. KLEIN. It depends when you say "why such a big deal?" I think you have to look at the context, and I think I tried to express some of this before. At the time, there was a public hearing going on with respect to Ricki Tigert. It was my view, and I think the view of most of my colleagues, that the Minority was trying to extract a blanket recusal for political purposes. In other words, somehow we were going to tag a nominee of this Administration and in. that way infer some negative thing about the President, I think that is a concern and, frankly, I think it's a misuse of the whole way to approach recusals, That same concern then got transferred with respect to Mr. Altman, I think those were very real concerns. I don't want to overstate them. I don't think this took a great deal of our time. It is the subject matter of the hearing, so it seems that way, but those were the concerns. And as Neil saidNeil Eggleston said before, we were about to nominate a Deputy Attorney General, Ms. Jamie Gorelick. We anticipated that the Mi-, nority would then say, Ms. Gorelick, you're a Presidential ap- 147 pointee, you should recuse yourself. We're going to replace an appointment at the RTC. The same issue would come up, and I think people were using the issue of recusal for political gain and I think that was our response. Senator MURRAY. And is it fair to say if everybody recuses themselves, nobody can do this issue? Mr. KLEIN. I agree with that and I think those matters should be decided carefully, thoughtfully by decisionmakers and should not become a political football. Senator MURRAY. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Let me just for the moment, if I may, give everybody an indication of what my intention is for the remainder here this evening, and that is we've got some individuals who want to pose some additional questions on this side. Senator Sarbanes has not had a round and wants to do so. Senator Shelby does. senator SHELBY. Mr. Chairman, I've just got two short questions when it comes to my time. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Roth does. Then let me tell you what my intention is here, partly because we've been at it late into the evening now 2 days running, and I think everyone is tired, including the stenographers and ourselves obviously. What I'm intending to do is finish with this panel as promptly as we can, and then I want to call the next panel. I want to swear them, take their opening statements, and start in with them. I don't think we're going to be able to finish that tonight and so then we'll carry them over until tomorrow morning I think under the circumstances, that is weighing everything-as I've been discussing with a lot of different people, I think that's our best course of action here. In any event, I just want to announce that intention so that everybody can plan accordingly. It would be very helpful to us, consistent with everybody having the chance, to cover what they need to with this panel, so that we can go ahead and get this done so we can get to our next panel as quickly as possible. Senator MURRAY. Mr. Chairman, I have a question. If you carry these people over to tomorrow, what does that do to tomorrow's schedule?