ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and Newsday NOTE: Lede
The FBI found the fingerprints of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vincent Foster and four law firm aides on billing records of the president's wife that were missing for two years, a Senate committee said Tuesday.
The analysis, ordered by Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, is aimed at determining who handled the records before they showed up in White House living quarters two years after they had been subpoenaed.
Republicans on the Senate Whitewater Committee declared that the fingerprints raised ``important questions'' that would be examined in the next few days.
The White House responded that the analysis should put to rest some of the wilder theories about the documents, including that they were secretly removed from Foster's office the night of his July 1993 death and then hidden from prosecutors.
Whitewater Counsel Michael Chertoff said the investigation of how the fingerprints wound up on the documents will be a ``very high priority matter'' for the committee, which is to expire June 17. ``The conclusions are we have more questions to ask,'' he said.
The billing records outline Clinton's work for the savings and loan at the center of the Whitewater investigation. Of the six people identified as having fingerprints on the documents, four had access to the White House.
Whitewater prosecutors have not yet told committee staffers whether there are fingerprints on the documents that they could not identify. Also, the staffers noted that somebody could have handled the documents and not left fingerprints behind.
Chertoff said the committee will question the four people other than Clinton and Foster, leaving it up to Whitewater Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., whether to question Clinton about the matter.
The presence of Clinton's and Foster's fingerprints is not surprising. The White House has said she reviewed the records during the 1992 campaign, when Whitewater questions first arose.
And Foster's handwriting was found on the documents.
Only two of Clinton's prints, on separate pages, were found. A fingerprint of hers was found on a page referring to a phone call she made to an Arkansas regulator of savings and loans. Clinton says she doesn't remember speaking to the regulator, but the regulator does remember it. The regulator says Clinton raised the question of whether the S&L, which was owned by her Whitewater partners, could sell stock.
A print of hers also was found on a page referring to the amount her law firm charged the S&L.
The others whose prints were found were:
Carolyn Huber, a White House aide and a former employee at Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, who found the records.
Mildred C. Alston, Hillary Clinton's former secretary at the law firm who came to Washington to be a special assistant to President Clinton for personal correspondence.
Mark Rolfe, a paralegal at the Washington law firm of David Kendall, the Clintons' lawyer.
Sandra Hatch, a Rose Law Firm filing clerk.
Republicans have accused the White House of obstruction in the failure to turn over the records immediately and had hoped the analysis would shed light on who handled them.
The Republicans also have theorized the records could have been in Foster's office and removed the night the deputy White House counsel died in July 1993 in what has twice been ruled a suicide.
``This FBI fingerprint information raises important questions that the committee will examine in the coming days,'' D'Amato said.
The White House disagreed.
``These results completely undermine the theories that the Republicans have been peddling for a year that members of the White House staff removed documents from Foster's office on the night he died and hid them,'' spokesman Mark Fabiani said.
Fabiani noted that the fingerprints of none of the aides who searched Foster's office the night of his death were found on the records.
Minority Counsel Richard Ben-Veniste said it is significant that the documents do not hold the fingerprints of Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Margaret Williams, or Clinton confidante Susan Thomases. Republicans accused both of secreting documents from investigators.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot)i Hilary Clinton. color.by CNB