INVESTIGATING THE WHITEWATER SCANDAL

No matter what you think about Tonya Harding, we believe everyone would agree that her connection to the clubbing of rival skater Nancy Kerrigan deserves investigation and that investigation should be handled by someone other than one of her friends. Ms. Hardings friends, after all, are a large reason shes in a mess in the first place. Curiously, this same rule does not seem to apply to the president of the United States. And so, week by week, as Bill Clintons friends, trapped by their own disingenuousness, come forth about Whitewater and the White Houses stonewalling of the affair, Americans become more and more distrusting of the man who holds the highest office in the land.

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Among the media, Whitewater has become the general term for referring to the numerous improprieties committed by Bill and Hillary Clinton not just with the original land-investment company bearing that name, but also with an Arkansas Savings and Loan Madison Guaranty which went defunct at a cost of $60 million to taxpayers. It now appears that before Madison Guaranty went bankrupt, it funneled tens of thousands of dollars (and maybe hundreds of thousands) to the Clintons in the form of personal loans, campaign contributions and lawyer retainer fees. In addition, the suspicious suicide of White House counsel and Clinton personal attorney Vincent Foster, who appears to have been working on the Whitewater files as late as the morning of his death, is now also included under this general heading.

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It would be impossible in this space for us to outline all of the discrepancies in the White Houses explanations surrounding these matters, but there are a few recent revelations that deserve special note.

The first is the nature of Vincent Fosters death and the confusion surrounding it. In the past few weeks we have learned that contrary to White House claims six months ago, little investigation was done at the time to determine the nature of Fosters death, outside of a coroner saying it was caused by a gun shot wound to the head. In an interview with the New York Post, U.S. Park Service Police officials admitted no ballistics tests were conducted to see if the gun found in Mr. Fosters hand was actually the gun that killed him. Homicide detectives more familiar with suicide than the Park Police, are now asking questions about the immediate decision to classify the death a suicide. Especially troubling to them is the position Mr. Foster was found in with gun still clasped in his hand, his arms peacefully resting by his side and the highly unusual lack of blood for such an injury.

The White House response to the Park Police officials who spoke with the New York Post was immediate. They were told not to talk with the news media anymore, all questions from then on out would be handled through the Justice Department.

The problem with this is that again in conflict with what was said six months ago the Justice Department is still not releasing the Park Polices report on Fosters death. Several news organizations are now suing for the report, saying the failure of disclosure defies the Freedom of Information Act.

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Just as disturbing is the recent acknowledgement that contrary to original claims, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum did enter into Vincent Fosters office to remove Whitewater files on the evening Fosters body was found. At the same time, the Park Police were kept out of the office until the next day, and even at that time were not allowed to search the full contents of the room. One thing they did not search, because Nussbaum had it, was Fosters briefcase. Thirty-six hours later, the White House turned over an unsigned suicide note allegedly written by Foster and contained in the briefcase. The note, torn into several pieces, did not have any fingerprints on it. And although the text of the note has been released, copies of the note itself have not. No independent handwriting analysis has been conducted.

In addition, two weeks ago it was learned that Nussbaum had directed his staff attorneys to monitor police interviews of White House employees, who were being questioned about Fosters death. This became known when part of a Park Police report of their investigation was leaked publicly. Nussbaum denies that the presence of a White House lawyer might have constrained witnesses. When a colleague just died, I think having somebody sit with you has a comforting effect, Nussbaum told the Washington Post. I didnt think in any way it impeded the investigation. Not one whit.

In fact, a Park Police spokesman, Robert Hines, told the Washington Post that the Park Police were unhappy with the lawyers being present. And Philipp Heymann, deputy attorney general, who resigned last week citing poor chemistry in the Justice Department, said that he, too, had been uncomfortable with Nussbaums instructions for lawyers to be present at the interviews and had protested at the time.

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Of course, nothing of what we have mentioned here gets to the original matter of the Clintons involvement in Whitewater development and the peculiar practices of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan. For months and years, it now appears stonewalling has kept the American public from knowing just what Whitewater and Madison Guaranty are about. But a pattern is emerging. The first time Whitewater thrust upon the national scene was in the spring of 1992, in the middle of the Democratic presidential primaries. At that time the New York Times reported questions about the Clintons dealings in Whitewater. To silence these questions, the Clinton campaign hired James Lyons, a Clinton friend and lawyer, to do a third-party report. The result was the Lyons Report, which claimed that the Clintons had lost $68,900 on the deal. In fact, news organizations now investigating the matter are having difficulty matching this figure up. The common conclusion seems to be that the Lyons Report was a smokescreen to get Bill Clinton through the elections. In addition, Bill and Hillary Clinton have claimed off and on that they did not have the Whitewater files, then that they did, then that they had only a portion of them. Their partner in the Whitewater land development, Madison Guaranty head James McDougal, however, claims that theyve had them in entirety for some time, and theyve refused to give them back. McDougal imagines theyre all now with the Clintons lawyers. But last week, the Washington Times quoted employees at the Clinton lawyers law firm, where Mrs. Clinton was once a partner, as saying many of the Whitewater files had been recently shredded.

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Little less than a month ago, Janet Reno appointed a special counsel to investigate possible impropriety by the president. So far, his office has yet to open. A news release announcing its opening is expected sometime this week. Were it not for the action of Congress on Thursday, much of the matter that Robert Fiske, the special counsel, is instructed to investigate would have become moot: the statute of limitations would have run out on Madison Guaranty in two weeks. After a bitter floor debate, however, a two-year extension for the government to pursue civil charges was passed. With the stonewalling and possible destruction of documents, we suggest Mr. Fiske get to work quickly.