Sun Feb 11 1996 10:37:49 am talk to her? Who is her friend? They were desperate to try to find a way, getting questions about all this, to deal with it. Describing the contacts. Schaffer said: In December 1993, at a University of Arkansas basketball game. White House aide Bruce Lindsey talked to her husband. Archie, about whether she was willing to speak out publicly. Some time later her husband was called by Skip Rutherford, an Arkansas public relations executive and friend of the Clintons. Rutherford asked Archie Schaffer what he thought of his wife having a news conference on Whitewater. She was approached by a lawyer at her firm. John Tisdale, who suggested that he put together a factual list of documents on Whitewater. Tisdale did so. and I imagine he gave them to Bruce (Lindsey), who worked at the firm before going to the White House. The Gearan memo mentions Tisdale and Rutherford as people who might talk to Schaffer to make sure her story is OK." Gearan's notes prompted Sen. Orrin Hatch. R-Utah. to question whether the Clinton White House had been trying to influence the statements of a Whitewater witness. But White House spokesman Mark Fabiani said presidential aides were simply seeking to have Schaffer repeat comments she made that were supportive of Mrs. Clinton's Whitewater role. The January meeting apparently stemmed from Clinton's request to aides 2&1/2 weeks earlier asking whether Schaffer would reiterate her comments. Separately, the Clintons private Whitewater lawyer. David Kendall, and Sherburne testified Thursday about the mysterious appearance in the White House residence of the billing records outlining Mrs. Clinton's work for Madison Savings and Loan. Madison was owned by the partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater land venture, and failed at a huge cost to taxpayers. Sherburne said that when the records surfaced, she raised the possibility of having them checked for fingerprints before they were copied. She said the idea was rejected because the Clintons, the Senate committee and others needed the material immediately. A Clinton aide, Carolyn Huber, has said she discovered the records during the first two weeks in August. laying on a table in plain view. Not knowing what they were, she packed them away and rediscovered them Jan. 1. White House logs show Mrs. Clinton was visited Aug. 10 by an attorney whose clients include Seth Ward, an Arkansas businessman whom bank regulators say was a straw purchaser Sun Feb 11 1996 10:37:49 am in a "sham" real estate deal that cost Madison millions of dollars, The Washington Post reported in today's editions. The attorney, Alston Jennings, told the Post he was asked to meet with Mrs. Clinton by Kendall, but that the two didn't discuss Ward or the real estate deal. Kendall refused to comment. The Honorable Lloyd Bentsen The standards set forth a code of conduct to which employees of the executive branch must, at a minimum, adhere. Every violation of a statute, regulation or policy does not amount to a violation of the standards of conduct; most such actions are simply violations of the applicable statute, regulation or policy. Moreover, the standards of conduct do not hold individual employees accountable for Governmental systems that fail or for errors of judgment. That is not to say that individual employees are not otherwise accountable for Governmental systems for which they are responsible or for the judgment they exercise. There may be substantial management and program reasons for reviewing an employee's performance in a particular role. That management responsibility is separate and apart from the responsibility that an agency also has to measure the employee's conduct against the standards of conduct. ANALYSIS This Office has reviewed the report of the Inspectors General dated July 29, 1994, including the transcripts of the interviews conducted and the documents provided as exhibits. We received copies of the transcripts as they were produced but we relied upon review by the Inspectors General of documentation other than that provided as exhibits. On the basis of our review, we believe that you might reasonably conclude that the conduct detailed in the report of officials presently employed by the Department of the Treasury did not violate the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. However, many of the contacts detailed in the report are troubling. In the course of our review, it appeared that there were some misconceptions on the part of Treasury employees that may have contributed to the fact that those contacts occurred. Treasury employees who performed both Treasury and RTC functions seem to have failed to appreciate which roles they were performing and, thus, which agency's policies and regulations applied. In addition, based on our reading of the testimony, there appears also to have been a misperception that the standard at 5 C.F.R. § 2635.703 regarding the use of nonpublic information was the only provision that need be taken into account in deciding whether information should be conveyed. And, finally, there appears to have been a misunderstanding of the function of recusal. PERTINENT PROVISIONS OF THE STANDARDS OF ETHICAL CONDUCT During the period when Independent Counsel Robert Fiske was conducting his investigation and the Inspectors General were waiting to begin their administrative investigation, this Office reviewed the standards of conduct to determine which standards, if any, might apply to the conduct of Treasury officials. with press PRIVILEGED Big discussion dont providing, capres & statements. (OH interviewees can frare these can't get foramcripts from us They have reasonable argument want to get impo Treasing or interview. If they interview RTC people if they it will be de pressuring them. On the other hand, if investigation: PAGE Federal News Service, JUNE 30, 1994 MR. CUTLER: Well, he had -- as usual, he's busy being president, and he had a very busy morning, and he was informed by one of his aides of the -- of the very quick summary of the results, and I did not speak to him personally myself. Q But will you sit down and review the details? MR. CUTLER: Oh, absolutely. Q What was his reaction on the initial word of this? MR. CUTLER: I was not in the room when that happened, and he when I saw him, he was in a big meeting. But I have no doubt he's very pleased by these results. Q Mr. Cutler, to you have any idea how long this internal review will take that you are talking about? MR. CUTLER: We face hearings in the two committees beginning in the last week of July, and it certainly will be done by then. Q Mr. Cutler, now are you coordinating this review with the treasury department, and how -- could you describe all that coordination and - MR. CUTLER: Well, I -- as you I don't want to speak for Secretary Bentsen, but as I think has been reported, he originally said he was going to ask the Office of Government Ethics to conduct a review. The Office of Government Ethics issues opinions on statements of facts, but has no investigating capability of its own. As a result, Secretary Bentsen asked the Office of Inspector General of the Treasury Department to conduct a review of facts. That is now in process, and I assume at some point the Office of Government Ethics will rule on the set of facts found by the inspector general. And we will be doing something similar and we will be coordinating with the Q Will you be talking to people not now in the White House, such as Bernie MR. CUTLER: Oh, no doubt, yes. Q Mr. Cutler, what is the feeling about the upcoming hearings, and what do you think will be the outcome, what -- do you think that the White House will have to go underground for awhile or MR. CUTLER: Helen, we have said we will cooperate in any hearings that Congress decides to hold. Congress, as you know, both houses have passed resolutions calling for hearings in their oversight capacity, hearings that as to subject matter would be coordinated so as not to interfere with Mr. Fiske's investigation. We certainly don't expect to go underground as a result of those hearings. We will prepare for those hearings, we expect them to turn out, we hope, in a very satisfactory manner. And meanwhile, the president and everyone in this White House except me, I guess, will be concentrating on the duties of being president. Q Do you think the president and Mrs. Clinton may have to testify, or would they testify? MR. CUTLER: I don't know. There are no precedents, as you know, for direct testimony in a congressional fact-finding hearing, but there certainly are accepted precedents as to how questions can be asked and answers can be furnished and we will cooperate in that within the precedents. Q Sir, as you pursue your own interviews on the Foster case - Q Wait! Wait! Just to follow up on that, does that mean that you don't think that they will? Can I infer from that - Q As you pursue your own interviews on that will you be asking - MR. CUTLER: Can you decide among yourselves which of you is going to speak? |