August 4, 1994 - Part 2
August 4, 1994 - Part 2
(10:35:42) Senator FAIRCLOTH. I do not, Mr. Chairman, plan to go outside the scope of these hearings, so I will not ask why Paula Casey failed to act on the criminal referrals that the Special Counsel now has. I do want to ask some other questions. Did anyone in the White House have any communication of any kind with Paula Casey or any of her staff? Senator DODD. Mr. Chairman, that is out of order. 297 This is far beyond the scope. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Faircloth, we discussed that the other day and the problem with that area, it does cross the line into the areas that we have been asked not to go into by the Senate an the Special Prosecutor himself. I know you have strong feelings about the Special Prosecutor and I understand that, but that would take us into a zone that is going to have to be dealt with at a later time and cannot properly be dealt with by us here now under the instructions that we have been given. Senator DAMATO. Let me, if I might, Mr. Chairman, say to my colleague, Senator Faircloth, that there are a lot of disturbing as ects. The question of documents in Vincent Foster's office that we have now learned of. We were supposed to be able to go into the document area of the Whitewater papers that were initially found in Mr. Foster's office that were held at the White House apparently for 5 days. That is a subject we are going to have to wait on, that issue and others, that are beyond the scope of this hearing at this time. so I would ask my friend and my colleague to pursue it through an other line. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Well, are you saying that Paula Casey is out of the realm? Senator D'AMATO. Yes. As it relates to the criminal referrals at this time, yes. As it relates to any meetings that she may have had with the White House, I would have to say at this time, we should not. It's permissible to press inquiries, etcetera, but as it relates to the meeting specifically in September, etcetera, I think we have to be very careful. Senator KERRY. Mr. Chairman, I do not think it bears-I do not want to take from my colleagues time but senator D'AMATO. I hope we would restore his time. Senator KERRY. Absolutely, I think so. But every time these questions are dropped, and then there is a sort of statement about well, we cannot go into these things or something, then the listening public says, we will, what is going on, what is going on. And I think it bears repeating, in fairness, that this Committee is not trying to not go into something. We are not preventing the Senator from pursuing these at some point. We are simply adhering to the standards established by the Committee and the Senate to protect the investigation of the Special Prosecutor. There is going to be a second go around and we will all have an opportunity to do this. I do not want to leave an impression that somehow the White House, the Administration, this Committee are involved in not pursuing something, and so we are not just leaving questions hanging. There will be a time. The CHAIRMAN. Well, it should further be said, every White House person is appearing here voluntarily. All the documents have been turned over voluntarily. We have not subpoenaed anybody, and have not had to. So everything that we can properly look at at this time that we have asked for, we have been given. But the things that are outside 298 of what we can do now we will just have to it until another time. Senator KERRY, But most importantly, the reason we are not pursuing them now is to protect the integrity of the process and not for any other reason, The CHAIRMAN. That is correct, and in fact, we have been requested in writing by the Prosecutor to do that? Senator D'AMATO. Mr. Chairman, can I The CHAIRMAN. I want to restore-yes? OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR DOMENICI Senator DOMENICI. Mr. Chairman, might I just-without charging this to anybody-make a comment? If you want to, take it off of me, if I have some questions, that is fine. I just want to make a comment regarding Senator Kerry's observation. I think the flip side of what he says is true also. I think it is important for the public to know that there is a lot more to this than we are able to ask about. Some of these answers lead to some very logical follow ups but we are not able to ask them. Senator KERRY. Mr. Chairman, that is not true with respect to the portion that we are now looking-that is just not-that leaves an impression there is a lot more to this. Senator DOMENICI. Well, we are only looking into the Washington component: anything that has to do with the President and with contacts between Treasury and the RTC investigation.