Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
WASHINGTON, May 3 � Responding to charges he
doctored tapes of a Clinton ally�s jailhouse
conversations, Republican Congressman Dan
Burton said all the tapes would be released
starting Monday. The controversy exploded
Sunday over the disclosure that Republicans
edited out material from the Webster Hubbell
tapes which appear to exonerate the first lady of
wrongdoing at an Arkansas law firm.
BECAUSE OF �BASELESS claims made by White
House operatives,� the House Government Reform
and
Oversight Committee will make public the
entirety of 54
conversations made by the former associate
attorney
general during his imprisonment for the
commission of
federal crimes, said Burton, the committee
chair. �I believe
this will once and for all put the lie to any
accusations of
�editing,� �doctoring,� or �out of context�
quotation, he
said.
Appearing on NBC�s �Meet the Press� on
Sunday,
Burton said his staff edited the tapes to
preserve the privacy
of the Hubbells and denied the committee edited
the tapes
to keep anything from the American public. He
said his staff
wanted the American public to know that the
former justice
department official was under pressure not to
say certain
things because he feared his wife would lose
her job.
�The reason we released these tapes is
that they
showed very clearly that there is intimidation
by this White
House with certain people,� Burton said.
Burton said Hubbell�s comment to his
wife that he has
to �rollover one more time� shows that he was
worried
about his wife losing her job.
NBC�s �Meet the Press� host Tim Russert
played
sections of the tapes Sunday, showing that key
passages,
including some in mid-conversation, had been
omitted that
were favorable to Hubbell and the Clintons.
In one conversation, Hubbell is heard
telling his wife,
Suzanna, that Hillary Clinton didn�t know about
overbilling
at the Rose Law Firm or much about what
happened at the
firm.
Former White House Counsel Jack Quinn
told
�Meet the Press� that by deleting key passages
of the tape
that are favorable to the White House, Burton
has blown
any perception that he can conduct fair and
impartial
hearings on the president.
NBC�s Lisa Myers on
the Hubbell tapes
The House Government Reform and
Oversight
Committee chaired released the tapes and
transcripts
Thursday and Friday after Hubbell, his wife and
their
attorney and accountant were charged with tax
evasion. It is
the second time independent counsel Kenneth
Starr has
targeted Hubbell in his Whitewater
investigation into land
deals in Arkansas when President Bill Clinton
was governor
of the state.
Burton said the committee went through
150 hours of
tape and released about an hour accompanied
with a
27-page transcript. The committee subpoenaed
the tapes
from prison officials and transcribed them as
part of its
broad investigation into campaign fund-raising
irregularities.
While the Justice Department had made it
clear that it
wanted to keep the tapes private, Burton said
�the
American people have a right to know what the
(Clinton)
administration is doing to cover up this
investigation and Mr.
Hubbell is a part of it.�
Webster Hubbell�s attorney John Nields
said on
ABC�s �This Week� that it was wrong to release
the tapes
of the former associate attorney general and
said he would
not agree to any more releases.
Meanwhile, Burton, who called the
president a
�scumbag� in an April 10 interview with the
Indianapolis
Star, said he was just repeating the word used
by a reporter
and said he thought the comments were off the
record.
He said if he could do it over, he would
describe the
president as a �man without honor, a man
without integrity.�
HEART OF THE TAPE
Taken together, tapes show that Hubbell,
even in his
darkest days of incarceration, maintained
unswerving loyalty
to the first family. At one point, he asked his
wife to make
that clear to White House friends, even giving
her the words
to say.
NBC�s Russert described the tapes as
�very, very
damaging� to the Hubbells.
But Russert also noted the indictments
could be
a good sign for Clinton since they suggest that
Starr wasn�t
able to get Hubbell to agree to testify against
the Clintons on
the Whitewater land deals.
And even if Hubbell is convicted,
Russert ventured he
would become a �prime candidate� for a
presidential
pardon.
Starr is expected to confront Hubbell
with the tapes,
recorded by prison officials while Hubbell was
serving time
for fraudulent billing at the Rose Law Firm,
where he had
been a partner along with Hillary Clinton.
Prisons often tape
the phone conversations of inmates unless they
are with a
lawyer, in which case the inmate may request a
private line.
TALK OF OVERBILLING
In a conversation with his accountant
and friend,
Michael C. Schaufele, in August 1996, Hubbell
apparently
recounts a session with prosecutors and talks
about their
interest in a real estate deal involving his
father-in-law, Seth
Ward, under investigation by prosecutors.
Hillary Clinton�s
law firm records indicate she also may have
worked on the
deal.
A look at Webster Hubbell�s
connections to the Clinton administration
Hubbell suggests prosecutors believe he
did the legal
work but that both he and Hillary Clinton
billed the client for
it.
�Well, it�s pretty clear, at least they
are speculating that
someone � I was doing the work because I was
advising
Seth,� Hubbell tells Schaufele, who also was
charged with
tax evasion.
�Everybody knows Seth, and knows I
couldn�t have
not advised him,� Hubbell said on tape. �So I
was billing it
but for ... some reason I haven�t figured out
why � Hillary
billed it, my time as hers. That�s kinda the
theory.�
David Kendall, Hillary Clinton�s private
lawyer, said
Friday the first lady never double-billed.
�Mrs. Clinton
billed her time for work she, and she alone,
did.�
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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