Clinton Records Removed After Suicide : White House: Papers on business deals, taxes were deliberately taken out of Foster’s office, aide says.

Records of business deals involving President Clinton and his wife were intentionally removed from the office of deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. following his suicide, the White House said Monday.

Mark D. Gearan, the President’s communications director, said the files--including documents relating to the Clintons’ tax returns and their partnership in Whitewater Development Corp., an Arkansas real estate firm--were sent to the President’s personal attorney in Washington, David Kendall.

Questions about the Whitewater real estate venture emerged in the last two months when the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation of the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan owned by Clinton friend James McDougal, also a Whitewater partner. The probe focuses on whether McDougal drained funds from the S&L; to back real estate projects--including Whitewater--or to benefit politicians, including Clinton.

Gearan said that 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 on Whitewater. Instead, the documents were inspected and categorized by White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum, Gearan said.

“It was just the process,” Gearan added. “Bernie categorized them.”

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

Gearan issued a statement on the papers in Foster’s office after the Washington Times published a front-page story on the incident. Quoting two unidentified U.S. Park Police investigators, the newspaper said 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 McDougal.

Gearan said files found in Foster’s office were examined by Nussbaum on July 22 “in the presence of representatives of various law enforcement agencies.”

Afterward, Clinton’s papers were sent to his attorney, while 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.