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January 17, 1996
Web posted at: 1 a.m. EST
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The author of a cryptic reference saying "vacuum. Rose law files" denied Tuesday that it referred to an intention to comb through or destroy files from the Rose Law firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Hillary Rodham Clinton was formerly a partner.
Former White House associate counsel William Kennedy told the Senate Whitewater committee the entry referred to a "vacuum of information" because files relating to the Clinton's investment in a real estate venture called Whitewater "were in shambles."
The note was taken during a crucial 1993 meeting between the Clintons and their counsels on Whitewater. Kennedy, two former White House associate counsels, and a current deputy White House counsel were interrogated about the meeting Tuesday.
Both Kennedy and former White House associate counsel Neil Eggleston testified before the committee that there was no discussion at the meeting of destroying any files.
Later in his six-hour appearance before the committee, Kennedy said he last saw the files at the law firm early in 1992, shortly before they were turned over to the Clinton campaign, apparently at Mrs. Clinton's request.
Committee chairman Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-New York, told reporters afterward that Kennedy's explanation of the "vacuum" note "strains credibility."
The White House had until recently fought requests to turn over the notes, insisting that the meeting was protected by attorney-client privilege. The Clintons finally gave in, without forfeiting future claims of attorney-client confidentiality.
Meanwhile, in Little Rock, a federal judge Tuesday ordered prosecutors to provide three Whitewater defendants, including Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, with documents the defendants say could help their case. All three have been charged with fraud through their connection with the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, in which the Clintons were partners as well.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- As Hillary Rodham Clinton embarked on a national book tour Tuesday, she said she was prepared to testify before Congress on her role in Whitewater and the White House travel office firings, although she expected the experience to be "like having your teeth drilled." She said she had not discussed such testimony with the president.
The book tour started in New York and took Mrs. Clinton to Arkansas. In Washington, the White House aide who discovered missing records linked to the Whitewater investigation was to testify before a federal grand jury in Little Rock.
"I will do whatever it takes to cooperate, (but giving testimony) would be like having your teeth drilled."
-- Hillary Rodham Clinton
Carolyn Huber was to answer questions on how she discovered billing records from the Rose Law Firm, where Mrs. Clinton was once a partner. The records, missing for two years since they were subpoenaed, turned up at the White House earlier this month. They outline how much work Mrs. Clinton did as a private lawyer in the 1980s for the failed Arkansas savings and loan owned by James McDougal. McDougal was a business partner with the Clintons in their Whitewater real estate investment.
The White House says it could not find the records until Huber accidentally discovered a copy of them in her White House office earlier this month. They were in a box presidential aides acknowledged was stored for some time inside the first family's White House residence. Prosecutors are trying to determine why it took two years to find the copies, and why the original records are still missing from Mrs. Clinton's law firm, where they should have been kept.
Huber was to give sworn statements before the Senate Whitewater Committee on Wednesday, and testify publicly Thursday. On Tuesday, the panel was scheduled to hear from former associate White House counsel William Kennedy III and a former associate counsel to the president, Neil Eggleston.
"I will do whatever it takes to cooperate," Mrs. Clinton said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. But she compared giving testimony before the Senate Whitewater Committee to having her teeth drilled. "I can't imagine anything worse ... especially since you have no idea what the questions are. ... These people think they can come out of left field, or more likely right field, and ask me anything," she said.
In several pre-tour interviews, the first lady has been quizzed about her role in twin controversies: the emergence of the missing legal records and a memo asserting she was the power behind the 1993 travel office firings. Acknowledging she has made mistakes, the first lady said she has no reason to apologize. "I don't have anything to be disappointed in," she said, and added that she expects the American people will believe her after hearing all the evidence.
Mrs. Clinton has described her work for Madison Guaranty Saving and Loan as minimal. But Republicans have suggested that she misled investigators, pointing to the 68 conversations she had over 15 months with executives of Madison and other lawyers about the thrift's activities.
The Senate Whitewater Committee is investigating the possibility that funds from Madison may have been diverted improperly into Bill Clinton's 1984 gubernatorial campaign and to the Whitewater Development Corp., an Arkansas real estate venture. Committee chairman Alfonse D'Amato, R-New York, said Monday that White House delays in producing documents requested by prosecutors mean the panel's yearlong investigation probably will continue two or three months past its present February 29 deadline.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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