More Hubbell Tapes Due For Release
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Hubbell and his wife, Suzanna
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Clinton Confidant 'Outraged'
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 4, 1998) -- Indiana Republican
Congressman Dan Burton may release on Monday more taped
jailhouse conversations involving ex-Clinton confidant
Webster Hubbell.
Accused of selectively editing out portions of the
conversations for political gain, Burton said Sunday on CNN's
"Late Edition" he would turn over all the conversations on
Monday if Hubbell's attorney, John Nields, agreed.
The move comes after newly disclosed excerpts showed
Republicans had edited out from the tapes material that
appeared to exonerate first lady Hillary Clinton of
wrongdoing at an Arkansas law firm where she and Hubbell once
worked.
The planned release of still more tapes is "outrageous,"
Hubbell told CNN on Sunday.
The private conversations with his wife, children and lawyer
-- made while Hubbell served time for defrauding the law firm
and his clients -- "were never, ever supposed to see the
light of day" unless a crime had been committed, Hubbell said
in a telephone conversation.
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Burton
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Nields told CNN late Sunday he was not contacted about the
disclosure of more tapes but had said earlier in the day that
none of the material should have been made public.
Earlier on Sunday, Nields and Clinton supporters took the
offensive on television interview programs, criticizing
Burton for deleting Hubbell's assertions Mrs. Clinton did
nothing wrong and that Hubbell wasn't being paid hush money
relating to the failed Whitewater land deal.
Nields insisted that his client's taped prison phone
conversations, some of which were released by the House
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight that Burton
chairs, were "edited" and should never have been released at
all.
"These tapes have all been edited so as to change their
meaning," Nields told ABC's "This Week."
On "Late Edition," however, Burton said that only portions of
the tapes had been released "to protect the privacy" of
Hubbell and his wife, Suzanna.
Nields said the tapes "have confidential conversations between husband and wife, between client and lawyer. They are covered by the Privacy Act. They are not supposed to be in the public domain," he said.
Nields rejected a challenge by Burton that Hubbell approve the public release all 150 hours of tapes of Hubbell's conversations from prison with his wife, an attorney and a friend.
New Excerpts Show Committee Tapes Were Edited
The tapes released by the House committee, which included Hubbell saying "I will not raise those allegations that might open it up to Hillary," seemed to suggest possible wrongdoing by Mrs. Clinton.
But in previously unreleased excerpts played on NBC's "Meet the Press," Hubbell in effect clears Mrs. Clinton of any wrongdoing in the fraudulent billing case that sent him to prison for 18 months.
Discounting any vulnerability that Mrs. Clinton might have had in a counter-suit against his old firm that he had been considering filing, Hubbell told his wife Mrs. Clinton had been out of the loop.
"The only thing is people say, why didn't she know what was going on? And I wish she'd never paid any attention to what was going on in the firm. That's the gospel truth. She just had no idea what was going on. She didn't participate in any of this," he said.
"They wouldn't have let her if she'd tried," Mrs. Hubbell replied in the March 15, 1996, conversation.
"Of course not," said Hubbell.
Another of the excerpts released by Burton's committee contains a conversation between Hubbell and Nields in
which the two appeared to discuss a possible presidential pardon for Hubbell.
Nields said Sunday the discussion wasn't about a pardon, but immunity granted by independent counsel Ken Starr, which Nields says occurred right after the presidential election.
Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition," Burton also rejected allegations that he had acted "unilaterally" in editing and releasing the Hubbell tapes.
"We released those tapes in accordance with the law," Burton said.
"Secondly, we didn't release a lot of tapes. We released one hour out of 150 hours and the reason we did that was because we wanted to protect as much as possible the privacy of Mr. Hubbell and his wife. The only things that we released were things that were relevant to the investigation and that the
American people had a right to know," he said.
"The reason they (tapes) were released is because this White House has blocked us for almost two and a half years from getting at the truth," Burton said, referring to the Whitewater investigation.
The White House had no formal response, but Rahm Emanuel, a
senior Clinton political advisor, said in a CNN interview Sunday: "We respect people's private conversations between a
husband and wife."
But Emanuel accused Burton of "altering and doctoring" the material his committee released, and "the leadership of the Congress is now going to have to figure out what to do with
the chairman and this committee."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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