ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 8, 1996 TAG: 9601100117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The possibility that Hillary Rodham Clinton will eventually have to appear before Congress in the Whitewater and travel office affairs seemed to rise Sunday, with Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and Rep. William Clinger saying newly produced documents raise a broad spectrum of new questions about her role in both matters.
D'Amato said that billing documents the White House turned over to the Senate late Friday afternoon show that Clinton has not told the truth about Whitewater, particularly her activities relating to a fraudulent Arkansas land deal known as Castle Grande.
D'Amato, R-N.Y., stopped short of flatly accusing Clinton of lying, and he was careful in hewing to his long-held position that he doesn't currently plan to summon her before the Senate Whitewater committee.
But in an appearance on ABC's ``This Week With David Brinkley,'' he said the committee is growing increasingly frustrated with delays in turning over Whitewater information and doubtful of getting truthful answers from White House aides on Whitewater.
Appearing in defense of Clinton were Ann Lewis, President Clinton's deputy campaign manager, and prominent Washington attorney Robert Bennett.
Clinton's billing records of her work for her Whitewater partner's failed savings and loan show 68 meetings and telephone calls on Madison business, including 14 conversations with Seth Ward, the Arkansas businessman who co-owned Castle Grande with the Clintons' Whitewater partner, James McDougal. Federal regulators have characterized Castle Grande as a ``sham'' transaction designed to circumvent Arkansas law restricting the amount of funds an S&L may invest in real estate.
Lewis said Hillary Clinton's early responses to her doing a ``minimal'' amount of work for Madison Guaranty dealt with the S&L's effort to get state regulatory approval for a plan to issue stock in the institution. At the time, it was not publicly known that she also had done work in connection with Castle Grande.
Bennett said Clinton's work on Castle Grande was limited to preparation of a land option that was never exercised to transfer 22.5 acres from Ward to a McDougal-controlled subsidiary of the S&L.
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