Monday, September 21, 1998
THE WITNESS: Well, I'd like to --
MR. KENDALL: You've got thirty more seconds.
THE WITNESS: -- finish answering the question, please, because this is a legitimate question, I think.
There is somebody in the White House, Mr. Bennett, who can answer your question, and you could call them up and they could answer it, under oath, for you. There is some way of desegregating what papers are personal to the President and what papers are part of the White House official archives papers. And I don't know how the distinction is made. I just don't know.
BY MR. BENNETT:
QUESTION: Did you direct personnel, Nancy Hernreich or anyone else, to make a search for correspondence from Kathleen Willey and Monica Lewinsky when those documents were called for in the Jones litigation, sir? Did you direct that somebody on the White House staff look for those documents?
CLINTON: I don't believe that I was in charge of doing that, the document search, sir. So, the strict answer to that question is that I didn't.
QUESTION: So, you sat back and relied on this legalistic distinction between your personal, which you are in control of, and the White House which, by the way, you are also in control of; is that not correct?
MR. KENDALL: I won't object to the argumentative form of the question. We'll allow the witness to answer it. We're now over time, even the 30 seconds. So, this will be it.
THE WITNESS: Mr. Bennett, I haven't said this all day long, but I would like to say it now.
Most of my time and energy in the last five and a half years have been devoted to my job. Now, during that five and a half years, I have also had to content with things no previous President has ever had to contend with: a lawsuit that was dismissed for lack of legal merit, but that cost me a fortune and was designed to embarrass me; this independent counsel inquiry, which has gone on a very long time and cost a great deal of money, and about which serious questions have been raised; and a number of other things.
And, during this whole time, I have tried as best I could to keep my mind on the job the American people gave me. I did not make the legal judgment about how the documents were decided upon that should be given to the Jones lawyers, and ones that shouldn't.
And, I might add that Ms. Willey would have been very happy that these papers were not turned over, because they damaged her credibility so much, had they not ultimately been turned over after she made, I think, the grievous error of going on "60 Minutes" and saying all those things that were not true.
But I did not make the decision. It was not my job. This thing is being managed by other people. I was trying to do my job.
BY MR. BENNETT:
QUESTION: Mr. President, the grand jury, I am notified, still has unanswered questions of you, and we appeal to you again to make yourself available to answer those questions.
MR. KENDALL: Mr. Bennett, our agreement was for four hours and we have no counted the break time against that, and I think that will be --
THE WITNESS: You know, Mr. Bennett, I wish I could do it. I wish the grand jurors had been allowed to come here today as we invited them to do. I wanted them down here. I wanted them to be able to see me directly. I wanted them to be able to ask these questions directly. But, we made an agreement that was different, and I think I will go ahead and stick with the terms of it.
BY MR. BENNETT:
QUESTION: The invitation was made after there was political fallout over the deposition circumstances with the satellite transmission and the taping. Isn't that so?
CLINTON: I don't know about the taping, Mr. Bennett. I understood that the prospect of the grand jurors coming down here was raised fairly early. I don't know.
QUESTION: Just for the record --
CLINTON: But, anyway, I wish they could have. I respect the grand jury. I respect the --
MR. WISENBERG: Just for the record, the invitation to the grand jury was contingent upon us not videotaping, and we had to videotape because we have an absent grand juror.
MR. KENDALL: Is that the only reason, Mr. Wisenberg, you have to videotape?
THE WITNESS: Well, yes. Do you want to answer that?
MR. BITTMAN: Thank you, Mr. President.
END
