Interference on Foster Suicide Note Told : Senate: Park Police detectives say actions of Clinton counsel prevented prompt discovery. Nussbaum rummaged through aide’s papers.

U.S. Park Police detectives testified Thursday that interference by Bernard Nussbaum, then President Clinton’s chief counsel, prevented prompt discovery of a torn-up suicide note that White House aide Vincent Foster left behind at the bottom of his briefcase.

Appearing before a special Senate investigating committee on the second anniversary of Foster’s death, the police officers who found the body in a nearby suburban Virginia park said that there is no doubt the note would have been discovered sooner if Nussbaum had permitted them to examine Foster’s office when they went to the White House two days after the suicide.

“I believe we should have found the note in the briefcase,” said Maj. Robert H. Hines. In fact, he noted, one officer was quoted as saying that even “our oldest, blindest detective would have found the note” if Park Police had conducted a routine search.

Instead, Nussbaum rummaged through Foster’s papers while police watched him on July 22, 1993. He separated out all materials he deemed confidential without letting the police look at anything. While he took some documents from the briefcase, he overlooked the note, which was not found until six days after the suicide.

The note, which suggests that Foster was highly agitated at the time of his death, was seen as final confirmation that his death was self-inflicted--and not murder.

Nussbaum’s failure to find the note earlier is at the heart of Republican suspicions that the White House sought to cover up many facts surrounding the suicide. Some GOP senators have even suggested that Nussbaum intentionally overlooked the note because he viewed its contents as embarrassing to the White House and the Foster family. The special Senate hearings are looking into unproven allegations that Foster’s death resulted from his knowledge of the Clintons’ investment in the controversial Ozark real estate development known as Whitewater.

Even after the note was found on July 26, Chairman Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) has noted, the White House waited another 24 hours before notifying law enforcement officials. D’Amato indicated that he will demand an explanation for the delay when Nussbaum testifies in the next two weeks.

In Nussbaum’s defense, however, Democrats have insisted that police were prevented from searching Foster’s office for legitimate reasons. Nussbaum is expected to tell the committee that he was concerned about protecting the confidentiality of presidential documents in Foster’s office as well as the personal privacy of the suicide victim.

Under questioning, Park Police said that they were upset at the way Nussbaum treated them when they arrived at the White House on July 22 to inspect Foster’s office. They emphasized that they were only looking for a few specific items--a suicide note, a diary filled with anguished writings, insurance papers or anything else that would shed light on his state of mind.

“We’re not looking for national secrets . . . or anything like that,” noted Detective John Rolla. “We’re looking, basically, for something that says, ‘goodby cruel world. . . . ‘ Mr. Foster being who he was . . . we knew we weren’t going to be able to read all the documents.”

After being rebuffed at the White House, Park Police officials registered their complaints with their superiors at the Interior Department.

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At the same time, Rolla and Sgt. Cheryl Braun, who together conducted the initial investigation on the night of Foster’s death on July 20, acknowledged that searching Foster’s office was not imperative because they had little doubt of their initial determination that he had killed himself and there was no evidence of foul play.

Braun said she asked top White House officials to close Foster’s office on the night of July 20 to preserve possible evidence. But she acknowledged that the Park Police had no legal right to demand that the office be sealed. Nor did they have any reason to seek a search warrant, which would have entitled them to search the office, she said.

Even before 11:10 p.m. that night, when Braun asked then-presidential assistant David Watkins to close Foster’s office, testimony shows that Nussbaum and two other White House employees had already searched it. Records show that the office was finally locked at 11:41 p.m.--or about a half hour after Watkins agreed to Braun’s request.

But to the disappointment of her Republican questioners, who have questioned the propriety of Nussbaum’s initial search, Braun said that she was not especially upset that it did not happen.

“I wanted to preserve the office in the state it was, but it didn’t happen,” she said. “This isn’t a perfect world.”

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Meanwhile, D’Amato disclosed that Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has rejected the committee’s request for the results of a polygraph test that Starr administered to Margaret Williams, chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. According to White House officials, the polygraph supports Williams’ contention that she did not take any documents from Foster’s office on the night of July 20.

A Secret Service agent will testify that he saw Williams remove a box of files from Foster’s office that night.

Republicans have advanced the theory that the box contained documents related to the Clintons’ investment in the Whitewater land development in Arkansas.

Democrats such as Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that they were angered by what they described as the “selective” nature of Starr’s response to the committee’s request. They noted that Starr, a Republican, did provide the committee with the briefcase, which Republicans used as a prop on the opening day of the hearings on Tuesday.