Odd Couple, D’Amato and Hubbell, Debate Ethics at Whitewater Hearings

It was a bizarre moment, even in the nation’s capital. A senator once cited for improper conduct was questioning a former top Administration official who is preparing to spend most of the next two years in jail for tax fraud. The subject of their discussion: ethics.

The scene unfolded Wednesday as Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) questioned former Associate Atty. Gen. Webster L. Hubbell during a second day of renewed Whitewater hearings.

Privately, Republican strategists acknowledged that Hubbell had been called to testify at the Senate hearings primarily because his appearance was likely to embarrass President Clinton.

Hubbell, the former No. 3 official at the Justice Department and a close Clinton friend, was sentenced recently to 22 months in prison for filing false expense account reports totaling nearly $500,000 while working for his former Arkansas law firm. His crime did not involve the President or Clinton’s controversial Whitewater real estate investment.

Democrats, on the other hand, accused D’Amato of hypocrisy for focusing on the ethics of the White House. They recalled that a 1991 investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee found that D’Amato had “conducted the business of his office in an improper and inappropriate manner.”

It was against this background that the exchanges between D’Amato and Hubbell seemed so striking. They were discussing the ethical question of whether White House officials acted properly in dealing with a police investigation of the 1993 suicide of then-Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster.

At one point, for example, D’Amato asked Hubbell whether a person without a top security clearance should have been permitted to enter Foster’s office after the death. Hubbell replied that he thought White House officials erred by allowing such access. D’Amato added that he was troubled by it. Neither man acknowledged that his own ethical judgment had ever come under public scrutiny.

D’Amato and other Republicans on the special Senate Whitewater panel have accused White House officials of improperly interfering with an investigation conducted by the Park Police, the FBI and the Justice Department into Foster’s suicide.

Specifically, they are questioning whether White House officials were trying to hide something by refusing to allow investigators to search Foster’s office.

At the Democratic National Committee, Co-Chairman Don Fowler issued a statement saying that D’Amato “is the last person in the Senate who ought to be conducting hearings on ethics.” He added: “D’Amato is an ethical black hole.”

Perhaps Wednesday’s episode helps explain why, according to a new poll, a majority of Americans now see the Whitewater investigation being conducted by congressional committees as something of a political charade. According to the ABC/Washington Post survey, 67% of those questioned said that they believe the hearings were being staged primarily to embarrass the President.

According to the Post, the poll shows that the hearings could backfire on the Republicans if their inquiry appears to be politically motivated. Democrats claim the hearings are intended simply to throw mud at Clinton.

Hubbell, who will begin his prison term early next month, was questioned for 3 1/2 hours Wednesday. A close friend of Foster, he testified primarily about his role in helping the family on the night of July 20, 1993, after his friend’s body was found in a park in suburban Washington.

Although Hubbell was not at the White House that night, Republicans asked him repeatedly for his opinion, as a lawyer, about the decision of White House officials to inspect Foster’s office that night. He said that he had no knowledge of the events.

Republicans also asked Hubbell many times whether he agreed with the opinion of then-White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, who said that he had an obligation under the principles of executive privilege and attorney-client privilege to shield internal White House documents from law enforcement officials investigating Foster’s suicide.

To their obvious disappointment, Hubbell tended to side with Nussbaum and noted that Foster’s files contained highly confidential documents, including a list of possible Supreme Court nominees. Yet Hubbell quickly added that his knowledge of attorney-client privilege was limited to his former practice under Arkansas state law.

Hubbell recalled that he had advised Nussbaum--Foster’s boss and a pallbearer at the funeral--to reconsider his decision to act as an intermediary between the White House staff and the police who were investigating the suicide. He said that he feared Nussbaum was too emotionally involved but doubted whether anyone but the President’s lawyer could negotiate with law enforcement officials over their access to confidential White House documents.

On a subject with which he was more familiar, Hubbell disclosed for the first time that he and then-White House Chief of Staff Thomas (Mack) McLarty had met to discuss Foster’s state of mind shortly before the suicide. His testimony seemed to contradict the findings of former Whitewater special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr., who indicated that Foster’s friends were largely unaware of the seriousness of his depression.

“He [Foster] was overly suspicious about things,” Hubbell recalled. “He was afraid to use the telephone when he talked to me. . . . We were all concerned that Vince had lost weight.”

Ironically, Hubbell said, Foster told him during their last conversation that he was beginning to feel better. Hubbell said he reported that to McLarty and they felt relieved.

As a result, Hubbell and Foster’s other friends felt guilty after the suicide because they realized that they should have done more to help their friend. Choking back tears, Hubbell said that he has been haunted by his failure to visit with Foster when he went to the White House on the morning of the suicide.