February 14, 1996
Web posted at: 5:30 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the Senate Whitewater Committee heard testimony from Chelsea Clinton's former nanny on Wednesday, Sen. Paul Simon suggested the committee "close up shop."
"I don't mean to pick on you Ms. Dickey," the Illinois Democrat said to Helen Dickey. "We're bringing in secretaries. We're frightening people. We're piling up big legal bills, and I have to ask myself, 'What is the purpose of it all?'"
"If there is no real national purpose to be served, then it seems to me we ought to close up shop and issue our report to the senate," Simon said.
The committee asked Dickey if she had ever seen Hillary Clinton's legal billing records, which, after being under subpoena for more than two years, inexplicably appeared in August on a table in a book room in the family quarters.
When they asked Dickey if she had seen the documents in the book room or anywhere else in the White House, she replied, "Not that I remember."
The former nanny has been questioned by Whitewater committee investigators before, about the suicide of former White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster.
A White House spokesman has said that Republicans' statements about Dickey -- that she learned of Foster's death hours before White House officials were notified -- is one of the "wild conspiracy theories" surrounding Foster's suicide.
On Wednesday, the committee also heard testimony from Alston Jennings, a lawyer who met with Hillary Clinton at the White House in August, around the time the billing records reappeared. Jennings is an Arkansas lawyer representing a central figure in the Whitewater controversy, Arkansas businessman Seth Ward.
Jennings testified that he and Mrs. Clinton discussed legal work they had done as adversaries in the past, to help prepare the first lady for an anticipated attack "concerning her ability as a lawyer."
He said the Clintons' private attorney told him an article was about to be published that disparaged Mrs. Clinton's professional abilities.
"They anticipated some attack on the first lady concerning her ability as a lawyer," Jennings said. He said that during his meeting with Mrs. Clinton, "We did not talk in any way about Whitewater" or related matters.
It was around the time of Jennings' visit that White House aide Carolyn Huber found the first lady's billing records.
Richard Ben-Veniste of the committee pressed Jennings on the matter, hinting that because Jennings appeared at the White House around the time of the billing records' discovery, he was associated with the finding. (153K AIFF sound or 153K WAV sound)
A noticeably perturbed Jennings scowled as Ben-Viste spoke and said, "That is absolutely absurd" as he threw papers down. (SOT) (77K AIFF sound or 77K WAV sound)
The White House and Mrs. Clinton's private lawyer have declined to discuss her meeting with Jennings, disclosed by The Washington Post last week. The White House told the committee late Tuesday the meeting occurred on Aug. 9, not Aug. 10 as previously reported.
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