ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180097
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press WASHINGTON
Confronted with his memos linking Hillary Rodham Clinton to the White House travel office firings, a former presidential aide testified Wednesday that he was pressured to take the action but not directly by the first lady.
``She did not order me to fire them,'' David Watkins told a House investigative committee looking into the May 1993 dismissals.
But he added: ``Did I feel pressure? Yes, I did.''
He said others in the White House - including the late deputy counsel Vincent Foster and Hollywood producer Harry Thomason, who at the time was working as a private, unpaid adviser to President Clinton - invoked Hillary Clinton's name in pressing for the firings.
``The pressure that I felt was coming from the first lady was conveyed primarily through Harry Thomason and Vince Foster,'' Watkins testified.
The committee's chairman, William Clinger, R-Pa., said he would ask the first lady to answer questions in writing to clear up exactly what role she played.
Clinton has said aides may have misinterpreted her expressions of concern about possible financial problems in the travel office to mean she wanted the workers fired, but she never ordered such an action.
``I did not have a hand in making the decision,'' she said Wednesday.
Before testifying, Watkins invoked a House rule that allows witnesses to bar radio, television or photographic coverage of their testimony. That abruptly ended live national coverage of the hearing, which both CNN and C-Span were providing.
Congressional investigators released three notes Watkins had written around the time of the firings linking Hillary Clinton to the action - including one that said the first lady was ``ready to fire them all'' a week before it happened.
But Watkins, the former White House chief of administration, said he actually had only one conversation with her five days before the firings and it ``was very much a review'' of where the travel office matter stood.
``I did not feel any pressure from the first lady during my conversation,'' he said.
Congressional investigators confronted Watkins with his notes from the conversation in which he quoted Clinton as saying, ``We need those people out. We need our people in.''
``I can't say those were the precise words,'' Watkins answered. ``These were my thoughts and recollections of the conversation.''
Republicans suggested Watkins was covering up for Hillary Clinton.
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