
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994                   TAG: 9408050098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALTMAN URGED TO STEP DOWN

Members of both major parties called Thursday for Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman to resign as evidence mounted that he did not tell the full truth in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee Feb.24 about Whitewater contacts between Treasury and White House officials.

In two days of congressional hearings this week, Altman admitted making some omissions and errors in judgment, but he steadfastly denied lying under oath.

All this week, a slew of other administration officials joined Altman in repeatedly stating that neither President Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton nor any other administration official took steps to squelch the Resolution Trust Corp.'s investigation into Whitewater.

But in her testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Margaret Williams, added to the contradictions and unanswered questions swirling around the case.

Like other administration officials, Williams repeatedly said she had dim or no recollection of key events detailed in prior sworn testimony and diaries offered by Altman and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen's chief of staff, Joshua Steiner.

Williams said she could not recall saying that Hillary Clinton was ``paralyzed'' by the Whitewater controversy or that the first lady was concerned with the scope of the independent counsel's investigation into the Clintons' business dealings.

Moreover, Williams said she could not recall receiving a memo in October 1993 from senior presidential adviser Bruce Lindsey concerning RTC criminal referrals that named the Clintons as potential witnesses.

And Williams denied that White House officials put pressure on Altman - then acting head of the RTC - to step down or ``recuse'' himself from the Whitewater investigation.

In House and Senate Banking Committee proceedings Thursday, some Democrats attacked the Republicans for indicting the Clintons by innuendo. Nonetheless, Democrats on Capitol Hill are showing signs of dissatisfaction with Altman and the administration.

Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama joined some Republicans in calling for Altman's resignation. And Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said, ``I think some people have screwed up here and made some bad judgments.''

The 40 contacts between administration officials and regulators from agencies probing Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan are at the heart of this phase of the hearings. The Arkansas thrift, which failed in March 1989 at a cost to taxpayers of at least $47 million, is suspected of diverting funds to Clinton's gubernatorial campaign and to the Whitewater real estate investment.

by CNB