Clinton Tax Files Removed After Aide’s Suicide

The White House said Monday that tax returns and records of business deals involving President Clinton and his wife were intentionally removed from the office of deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. after his suicide and that investigators were not given an opportunity to review them.

Mark D. Gearan, the President’s communications director, said the files--including records of the Clintons’ dealings with an Arkansas partnership known as Whitewater Development Corp.--were sent to the President’s personal attorney in Washington, David Kendall.

Gearan said law enforcement officials who were present when Foster’s office was searched July 22--two days after he killed himself--were not given an opportunity to review Clinton’s papers. Instead, the documents were inspected and categorized by White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum, Gearan said.

“All the files were handled appropriately. They (the Clintons) are not the subject of any investigation,” Gearan said.

He issued a statement on the papers in Foster’s office after a story in the Washington Times quoted two unidentified U.S. Park Police investigators as saying Foster’s office was searched by Nussbaum and two Clinton political operatives less than three hours after Foster’s body was found in a Virginia park.

The story said the documents taken from Foster’s office included files he maintained on Whitewater and on James B. McDougal, a Whitewater partner and owner of a failed Arkansas savings and loan.

Questions about the Whitewater real estate venture emerged when the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation of the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan owned by McDougal. The probe is focusing on whether McDougal drained funds from the S&L; to back real estate projects, including Whitewater, or to benefit politicians, including Clinton.

Clinton’s papers from Foster’s office were sent to his attorney, and files pertaining to Foster’s White House duties were kept in the counsel’s offices and files personal to Foster and his family were sent to his family’s personal attorney, Gearan said.

He said the Clinton’s personal papers included their personal tax returns, the filing of Whitewater Development Corp. tax returns and the disposition of their interest in Whitewater.