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American Morning

Interview of Senators Lieberman, Leahy

Aired February 06, 2002 - 09:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN FINANCIAL ANCHOR: Well, it was worth the wait because now, instead of one senator, we have two. Joining us from Capitol Hill, Vermont Senator Pat Leahy, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and with him, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who is the chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee.

Gentlemen, welcome to "American Morning." It is nice to have you both with us.

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT), CHAIRMAN, GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Good morning.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Good morning.

CAFFERTY: Yesterday, your colleague, Senator Hollings, called for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the Enron case. Is that what is needed here?

LEAHY: Well, a lot of -- lot of people called for it, both on the Republican and Democratic side, but I think it's too early to ask for that.

I think Attorney General Ashcroft did the right thing in recusing himself. The Houston U.S. Attorney's Office did the same thing, but I have confidence in the deputy attorney general, Larry Thompson, in conducting a thorough investigation.

And also, keep in mind a number of congressional committees, some led by Republicans, some led by Democrats, are doing some very searching inquiries here.

LIEBERMAN: Yeah, I agree with Senator Leahy. You know, in terms of the special counsel, which we all become familiar with during the 90's, that statute has expired, but the requirement has been that you have got to find substantial and credible evidence that somebody at the highest level of our government may have committed a crime to appoint a special counsel.

And we're not at that point in any way, so special prosecutor to take it out of the attorney general's office, I think Pat Leahy is right. John Ashcroft has already recused himself. He has got U.S. attorneys in different places working on this. Congress is at work. It's -- with all respect, I think it's an idea that is premature. CAFFERTY: All right, let me ask you this. You're talking about the investigations, and you are each conducting your own down there. Kenneth Lay, the former CEO, backed out of a scheduled appearance before one of the committees on Monday. He had to be subpoenaed. Andy Fastow, the chief financial officer, taking the Fifth Amendment. David Duncan, the auditor from Andersen, taking the Fifth Amendment. Jeff Skilling, former president of Enron, still has the option of taking the Fifth Amendment. There seems to be a trend developing here, gentlemen.

LEAHY: I suspect that they have extremely high priced lawyers who are telling them take the Fifth. I mean, there's a real potential of criminal conduct here. There will certainly be grand juries looking at this. There's a possibility of criminal action, certainly a possibility -- a strong probability of civil action, and they are going to do that. That doesn't mean that we are stymied. There are a lot of people who know about this. There are, also, instances where Congress, especially Senator Lieberman's committee, can give immunity if that is necessary, but it's interesting in Kenneth Lay's part, he did a high-price public relations program with his wife and others, and then all of a sudden, whoops, I don't want to speak.

CAFFERTY: What's your take on that, Senator Lieberman, that none of these high-ranking officials connected with the Enron situation seem to be willing to talk much about what went on there?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I think Pat has got it exactly right. They are being advised by counsel. They have exposure to criminal prosecution, and they're being cautious, but Congress has an obligation, a real responsibility to go forward on this to use subpoena power. We've got -- our committee has 51 subpoenas out now to Enron and Arthur Andersen executives, and to the companies and firms where -- in a week or two, we are going to send out another batch, including requests for information from members of the administration and the executive agencies that are supposed to be the watchdogs to protect the public against the kind of suffering that the Enron employees and other investors have gone through.

I suppose if there's a little bit of good news, we did have two Enron executives before our committee yesterday that we sort of told we would subpoena if we had to, but didn't want to, and they came in, and these are the people who were involved in employee benefits, and it was just a terrible, contrasting story of one woman, an executive, was able to sell her stock for almost over $6 million during the last couple of years, and then the Enron employees just losing their life savings, really devoted to the company, but betrayed by the company last year.

LEAHY: And understand -- understand, too, that the -- in the Congress, we don't prosecute people.

CAFFERTY: I understand that.

LEAHY: And -- oh, I know you do. But I -- understand what we are trying to do, we want to know whether there were loopholes in the law that allowed this to happen, so we can close the loopholes. We probably can't get the money back for all the people who lost it, the pension funds, the widows, the -- everybody else, but what we need to do in the Congress is to make sure there aren't loopholes that allow this to happen again. There's no way you legislate against greed, but you can stop greed from succeeding.

CAFFERTY: Gentlemen, you have a Herculean assignment in front of you. We wish you the best as you pursue your two separate investigations. I thank you both for joining us for a few moments here on "American Morning." Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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