Republicans Allege Stalling on Whitewater Documents

Two days after a White House aide turned over more long-sought Whitewater files, Republicans on the Senate investigating committee accused the White House of deliberately slowing the release of important documents and declared that the tardiness would force the committee to extend its work beyond next Thursday’s expiration date.

In his strongest condemnation of the White House so far, Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), the committee chairman, charged that officials had engaged in “a continuing pattern, an unacceptable pattern that borders on the deliberate withholding of information.”

D’Amato said that the administration had demonstrated “an attitude of disdain” by holding back records the panel needs to complete its $900,000, nine-month inquiry by the end of next week. Added Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah): “We cannot expect to wrap up this investigation when we’re still receiving documents.”

On Tuesday White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold M. Ickes turned over 100 pages of notes from early 1994 meetings of a Whitewater damage control group he headed. The documents had been among records subpoenaed two years ago by the Resolution Trust Corp. and then-Whitewater independent counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. and by the committee last October.

Ickes, who testified before the committee Thursday, said that the documents were “inadvertently” discovered in his office earlier Tuesday and immediately delivered to investigators. “This White House has made an attempt to cooperate exceeded by no White House in the history of this republic,” he said.

The discovery of the Ickes documents marks the fourth time in recent weeks that the White House has surrendered batches of documents that it said had been lost or overlooked. They included law firm billing records of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and two batches of files belonging to former White House aide Mark D. Gearan.

In defense of the administration, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) noted that the White House has furnished 14,000 documents since last October and that none of the files discovered belatedly contains “a smoking gun.” This suggests that “there was no reason” for White House aides to have tried to hide them deliberately, Dodd said.

Dodd, a panel member who also is chairman of the Democratic National Committee, contrasted the Clinton administration’s furnishing of records with the shredding of Iran-Contra documents in the Reagan administration by White House aide Oliver L. North and the discovery of an 18 1/2-minute gap on a subpoenaed Watergate tape in the Nixon White House.

Confronted Thursday with the handwritten notes from the Whitewater damage control meetings, Ickes insisted that nothing illegal or improper had been discussed.

The notes from early January 1994 reflected discussions about the statute of limitations on potential civil claims by the government against the Rose Law Firm of Little Rock, Ark., which performed legal work for Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, the corrupt thrift at the center of the Whitewater investigation.

Hillary Clinton had been the law firm’s principal billing partner for Madison, which was owned by the Clintons’ investment partner in their Whitewater real estate deal.

Ickes said he had “discussions with the president in which he asked questions” about the power of the Resolution Trust Corp. to impose civil damages on lawyers associated with the failed savings and loan. That statute of limitations has been extended several times. Ickes also was questioned about notes made by Gearan, which were provided two weeks ago. Those notes indicated that a 1994 meeting chaired by Ickes had concluded that any independent counsel appointed to investigate Whitewater would be “subject to no control” by the White House.