August 4, 1994 - Part 5
August 4, 1994 - Part 5
(13:02:11)(tape # 10089 ends) On the 24th, that's the third consecutive day, headline: "Clinton Releases Files on Land Deal," and they were all given over to the Justice Department by the White House. On January 3rd, "Independent Counsel Urged an Arkansas Probe, GOP Leaders' Call Rebuffed." And the next day, "GOP Leaders Seek Counsel to Probe Clinton Investment." On the 4th of January, "Clintons Continue to Gather Land Deal Files." A painstaking disclosure process is described. So the White House is in the midst of gathering all the documents, pulling it together. On January 6th, "White House Hopes to Avoid Leaks of Clinton File." It's very important to understand that this entire thing came about through leaks. The law was broken. Someone in the RTC 333 broke the law 'and released confidentiality and there was a clear concern about the politics of this and what might happen. On January 6th, "A Subpoena Issued of the Clinton Files," and "The White House to Comply in the Savings and Loan Probe." On the 7th of January, "Attorney General Reno to Ask for Special Counsel in the Clinton Land Deal." I might add Attorney General Reno was obviously appointed by President Clinton. On January 8, "President's Lawyer Tried to Limit the Use of the Whitewater Files to Only the Justice Department." In the public domain, you have a reporting of the very item which was discussed in the conversations that were referred to earlier. So this was not secret. This was a public discussion at that point of the fact that the White House was justifiably concerned about leaks and politics with respect to this. On the 12th, nine Democrats joined in the call for a Special Counsel. And on the 13th, "President Clinton Sought a Special Counsel" and asked Janet Reno to name the Counsel on the land deals. Now this particular call by the Democrats occurred one day after the notice was made in the diary of Roger Altman. So all of this is the context within which Ms. Williams has testified that Hillary Clinton was totally consumed, pulling together all of these documents. So I'd simply want to make that context available because it's very easy to sit here antiseptically talking about these items that appear, but when you realize this incredible pressure and the consumption of making sure you're complying with the law, pulling together the documents, it seems to me that a characterization about "paralyzed," we don't know if that's exactly what was said or not said, but I assume from your earlier testimony, Ms. Williams, you said something to the effect that she was spending an inordinate amount of time with Counsel. Is that fair or not?