Clinton Sends Records to Former Whitewater Partner
President Clinton has sent copies of Whitewater Development Corp. records to his former business partner, James B. McDougal, who had complained publicly earlier this year that he was unable to prepare his tax returns without the documents.
David E. Kendall, Clinton’s lawyer, said in a letter to McDougal’s attorney that he had sent the records--about 2,000 pages of land sale contracts, escrow receipts and Whitewater bank account statements--to McDougal on Monday. Kendall’s letter was released by the White House on Wednesday.
McDougal’s attorney, Sam Heuer of Little Rock, Ark., said Wednesday that he had received the records but that they remained sealed in his office.
“Jim (McDougal) hasn’t been through them yet,” Heuer said. “When he can come in, we’ll catalogue them and see what they consist of.”
Heuer said that although he is not required to keep the records secret, he will not allow anyone besides McDougal to look at them until he knows precisely what the files contain.
The records, which the White House has declined to release to the public, include the collection of Whitewater-related papers that were in the office of Vincent Foster, the White House deputy counsel who apparently committed suicide last summer.
The material also includes documents that Kendall has collected from other sources in recent months, the letter stated.
According to McDougal, whose account is not disputed by the White House, Foster obtained the Whitewater-related papers from McDougal before Clinton took office. At the Clintons’ behest, Foster had offered to prepare several years of corporate tax returns for the Whitewater firm, which was formed by the Clintons and McDougal and his wife to build a resort community in the Ozarks.
McDougal apparently neglected to prepare and file the returns.
Foster had completed his tax work and sent the necessary information to accountants before he died but had not returned the documents to McDougal.
The revelation that the papers were in Foster’s office at the time of his death was key in thrusting the Whitewater controversy back into the nation’s headlines and triggering the appointment of special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. to investigate the matter.
“As you are aware, all documents relating to Whitewater from Mr. McDougal and other sources which I have collected have been turned over to the special counsel without any claim of privilege of any kind,” Kendall noted in his letter.
Kendall went on to note that neither he nor the Clintons “have been able to locate anything approaching a complete set of records for Whitewater. For example, I have been unable to find stock books, corporate minute books and several other kinds of typical corporate records.”
Fiske is looking into allegations that President Clinton may have benefited improperly from his association with McDougal, owner of the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan as well as a partner in the Whitewater development. Although the special counsel’s inquiry centers on Whitewater, Fiske is also investigating Foster’s death last July. His inquiry also encompasses the role played by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Little Rock law firm in representing Whitewater and Madison Guaranty.
