Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Sunday
Enron Materials Destroyed By Arthur Andersen
Aired January 13, 2002 - 15:31 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the latest fallout from the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. As we just mentioned, a "TIME" magazine report says Enron-related materials were destroyed by auditing firm Arthur Andersen. The report says auditors were directed to destroy all but the most basic work papers.
Our senior White House correspondent John King joins us with more on this investigation -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good afternoon to you.
The shredding of those documents will, of course, be not only part of the criminal investigation into Enron, but into the growing congressional investigations as well.
And others focus of the congressional investigations are contact between this company and its chief executives, which gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to political campaigns, including supporting this president. The Congress wants to explore the context to see whether or not the company got any special treatment from the Bush administration.
Some new details today. The Commerce secretary, Don Evans, saying that a few weeks after he spoke to the Enron chief executive, he told the White House chief of staff. Just last week the White House press secretary had said he did not believe word of those phone calls from Enron to members of the Bush Cabinet had been passed on to anyone here at the White House until late last week -- but that new disclosure today from Commerce Secretary Don Evans.
The other man who receive a phone call in the Bush Cabinet was the Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill. He received two: one when he was home on a Sunday in late October, then a week later at the office in early November. But Secretary O'Neill said earlier today he did absolutely nothing wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL O'NEILL, TREASURY SECRETARY: And, you know, we did nothing. I think we did the right thing. We made sure that in our area of responsibility, which is the U.S. and world capital markets, that the problems that were occurring -- that Enron had no spillover effect for the rest of the economy. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The White House says the bottom line of all this will be that a major political supporter of the president asked for help and the answer was no. But some in Congress aren't sure that was the right response. Thousands of shareholders and employees at Enron who had many invested in the stock and in their 401(k) plan lost millions of dollars. Senator Joseph Lieberman is the chairman of one of the committees looking into this. He asked this question: should Secretaries Evans, O'Neill, or anyone else in the federal government have raised their hand and issued a public warning?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: One of the key questions my committee is going to be asking is, where was the federal government? Where were the protective agencies of the government who are supposed to be there to make sure average citizens don't lose their life savings as a result of what a company does?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: But Senator Lieberman making this key point: He says based on everything he knows right now, no one in the Bush Administration did anything improper and the Bush Administration, just like Lieberman, says it's time to look at the government's disclosure laws to try and prevent something like this. Enron saying on the one hand publicly that it was in good shape and that people should buy the stock, while knowing, while its chief executives knew it was in trouble, the Bush Administration says, just like the Congress, it wants to see if the federal rules can be strengthened to prevent that from ever happening again -- Carol.
LIN: John, how are administration officials now characterizing the personal relationship between Enron's chairman and the president?
KING: They say the two are friends dating back many years, although the president used to have a nick name, he used to call him big Kenny. Now he refers to him as Mr. Lay whenever the question comes up here at the White House.
Ken Lay actually has a closer relationship with the President's father and with the vice president than with the president, but if you go back through the long political career of George W. Bush, no one has supported him more from a financial standpoint than the Enron corporation dating all the way back to when George W. Bush ran for Congress.
But the key point, White House officials say, is that they have had no contact about the company's finances since Mr. Bush became president. They believe that's the key point, and they say any investigation will find that to be true.
LIN: Thank you. John King reporting live from the White House this Sunday.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
