August 4, 1994 - Part 8
August 4, 1994 - Part 8
(17:05:22) At that time, when I raised it with him, he said to me that-and I don't know whether I read from the transcript or I paraphrased it, but it was pretty specific with regard to your questions, When he answered that he had no knowledge, he said to me that's correct, I have no knowledge. And I said you may have a duty as an agency witness to supplement the record. He agreed to sit with Ms. Hanson, look at the record and to take appropriate action. Senator BOND. Did you at that time know of the September and October meetings? Mr. PODESTA. I had learned about them earlier that afternoon in the March 1st meeting. Senator BOND. Did you have any responsibility, or did you exercise any responsibility to pursue that point, which you raised, the review of the testimony and the correcting of the record, if necessary? Mr. PODESTA. I did take some further action. I said I never talked to anyone further in my opening statement at Treasury. The next day, on March 2, 1 did call to find out whether he had followed up on this point, and I was informed, although I think this was a series of back and forth phone calls, I don't think I ever spoke to anyone at Treasury, but I was informed that evening that Mr. Altman had talked to the Chairman and that a letter had been sent on the point of the fall meetings. I don't believe I knew he talked to you until the course of these hearings. Senator BOND. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Bond. Senator Bryan. Senator BRYAN. Mr. Chairman, I'm always happy to defer to the-to the heir apparent to the Chair, The CHAIRMAN. He's prepared to have you go next if you're ready. Senator BRYAN. Thank you. Mr. Stephanopoulos, I can understand your reaction to the selection of Mr. Stephens. I think that's understandable. I mean, he was an adversary, a critic, and a partisan who actually contemplated a candidacy for the United States Senate from Virginia on the Republican ticket, so I can understand why you would be concerned. And I think any citizen would be concerned to have his or her conduct judged by an individual who had that kind of bias going into the process. So I can understand that. Whether or not you should have made the phone call or not, I think in retrospect, you would agree that probably that wasn't the prudent course of action. But certainly the emotion that was involved, I believe, was entirely understandable and anybody would have reacted in a similar fashion to you. The thrust of my question goes to the line of questioning between Senator Bond. I am deeply disturbed about Mr. Altman's testimony before this Committee on the 24th and the series of letters that follow. My understanding of the facts are that Mr. Eggleston, prior to the hearing, made a call to Treasury, spoke with Ms. Hanson about this issue and specifically discussed the recusal. Ms. Hanson's briefing notes that Mr. Altman had, preparatory to his testi- 380 mony before this Committee on the 24th, included, among other things, recusal; that immediately after the hearing, I believe the Chair has indicated that he gave Mr. Altman the opportunity not just to supplement the record, but you had called the Committee back into session to give him an opportunity to supplement the record; that during the course of that hearing, I think the instincts by the White House staff were excellent. Mr. Eggleston leaves the hearing, makes the phone call on the cellular, which we've heard testimony on, that you thought that there was a problem, and then you yourself on the 1st of March indicate in a conversation to Mr. Altman that you think that there may be a problem with his testimony. Short of hitting somebody between the eyes with a 2-by-4, I don't know how much more clearly it could be imparted to an individual that there's a problem with the testimony and something ought to be done. I think the followup letters of the 2nd of March and the 3rd of March do not in any way address what I consider forthright and complete testimony of the Committee. Let me ask you again more specifically, you had a meeting on the 1st with, as I understand it, Mr. Nussbaum, Mr. Klein, Mr. Lindsey, Mr. Eggleston and Mr. Sloan where this was the subject of discussion. Am I correct, Mr. Podesta? Mr. PODESTA. That's correct. Senator BRYAN. Again, without going through the entire thing, give me the essence of it and what the consensus was in terms of what should be done. Mr. PODESTA. It was different with regard to the issue of the fall meetings and the issue of recusal. Let me be clear. With regard to recusal, I think we tried to decide whether there was a duty to the Committee and a duty to the public to supplement the record.