Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 21, 1994 TAG: 9401210133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Fiske, a 63-year-old Wall Street lawyer and former Republican federal prosecutor, went to work immediately after his appointment was announced Thursday. He said Fiske "there are no limits on what I can do. . . . I think I have free rein to do what I think I have to do."
His self-drafted "charter" for the probe is so wide-ranging that it raises significant potential for conflict with White House aides and the president's political advisers, if not with the Clintons themselves.
The Clintons have insisted repeatedly that they did nothing wrong and broke no laws in their dealings with what has come to be known as "the Whitewater matter."
"Whatever he wants to do . . . I didn't do anything wrong," Clinton said of Fiske's plans during an appearance by the president on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Attorney General Janet Reno told reporters at a news conference after introducing the prosecutor that she was "very comfortable" with the scope of the investigation Fiske is planning.
Fiske, promising to "hit the ground running as fast as we can," took over from Justice Department prosecutors the entire investigation they have been conducting into possible criminal acts of Arkansas companies.
The president asked the attorney general Jan. 12 to name an independent prosecutor but only to handle Whitewater - the land development deal that first became an issue during the 1992 presidential campaign. Fiske, however, decided - with the full approval of Reno - not to limit himself to Whitewater but instead to make a "complete, thorough and impartial" probe of the Clintons' relationship with these three companies:
Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, an Arkansas thrift headed by Clinton friend and associate James B. McDougal. It failed in 1989 after years of high-risk and questionable investments, costing the taxpayers as much as $60 million.
At issue is whether Clinton, as governor of Arkansas, allowed Madison to duck state banking regulations and continue operating in a shaky condition in exchange for personal financial gain and hefty campaign contributions. As a lawyer with the Rose law firm, Hillary Clinton represented the thrift before state regulators at times.
Whitewater Development Corp., the land deal in the Ozarks in which McDougal, his former wife, Susan, and the Clintons became partners in 1978.
Capital Management Services, an investment fund headed by a former Little Rock municipal judge, David Hale, that made loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration to disadvantaged businesses.
Hale, indicted last year on a charge of making improper loans, said he was pressured by then-Gov. Clinton and McDougal to make a $300,000 loan in 1986 to a marketing company owned by Susan McDougal. More than $100,000 of that money ended up in Whitewater's accounts.
by CNB