WHITEWATER SUMMATIONS AGREE ON LITTLE.

Byline: Pete Yost Associated Press 

Ending a bitterly divisive 14-month investigation, Senate Democrats concluded Tuesday that President and Hillary Rodham Clinton were blameless in Whitewater while Republicans suggested that the first lady hid misdeeds and presidential aides lied.

The special Whitewater Committee issued two reports - one from each party's senators - that disagreed on nearly ever major issue in an event cast in the long shadow of the presidential election.

The panel's 10 Republican senators had relatively little to say about the president. But they suggested that Hillary Clinton was responsible for the disappearance of her law firm billing records, which turned up inside the White House living quarters two years after they were subpoenaed by prosecutors.

``Mrs. Clinton is more likely than any other known individual to have placed the billing records'' in the White House reading room where they were found last August, the GOP report said.

A ``powerful motive,'' the GOP concluded, was fear that the public might learn of the first lady's role as a private attorney advising a fraudulent land venture called Castle Grande.

But the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, decried his Republican colleagues' ``venom . . . directed toward the first lady.''

``The American people deserve to know, and now can take comfort in knowing, that this yearlong investigation shows no misconduct or abuse of power by their president or first lady,'' the Democrats wrote in a dissenting report.

Citing alleged discrepancies, the Republicans referred several presidential aides to Whitewater criminal prosecutors to determine whether they lied in their testimony.

``History will judge these hearings as a revealing insight into the workings of an American presidency that misused its power, circumvented the limits on its authority and attempted to manipulate the truth,'' said committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y.

Democrats said the referrals were nothing more than ``irresponsible claims of possible obstruction of justice.''

Focusing on the first lady and presidential aides, the GOP report offered no broad or stinging criticism of the president's conduct since he took office.

It did suggest that Clinton benefited from confidential information relayed to him by aides who interfered in federal government investigations related to Whitewater.

The report also questioned Clinton's ethical judgment a decade ago, while governor of Arkansas, in giving James McDougal, his and Hillary Clinton's Whitewater partner, personal access to the governor's office, a voice in state appointments and ``valuable state leases'' at a time when McDougal was paying the lion's share of the bills for the private real estate venture.

``The special committee concludes that Gov. Clinton's official and personal dealings with Mr. McDougal raised an apparent, if not an actual, improper conflict of interest,'' the report said.

A large portion of the Republicans' report focused on the first lady's billing records, which detailed her work a decade ago as a private lawyer for the failed Arkansas savings and loan at the center of the Whitewater investigation.

The Republicans suggested that Hillary Clinton may have wanted to conceal her knowledge of Castle Grande, a land development south of Little Rock. It was owned by McDougal and Seth Ward, the father-in-law of her law partner, Webster Hubbell.

As evidence, the Republican cited a last-minute sworn statement by former S&L executive Don Denton, who alleged last week that Hillary Clinton ``summarily dismissed'' his warning in 1986 that a Castle Grande loan transaction might be improper. The Denton-Hillary Clinton conversation is itemized in the billing records.

The billing records were not turned over to investigators until early this year. The White House said an aide to the first lady found them on a table in the White House living quarters.

The evidence strongly suggests that Hillary Clinton and law partner Vincent Foster ``worked together to reconstruct Mrs. Clinton's role in Castle Grande,'' said the Republican report. The evidence, the report added, also ``indicates that Mr. Foster and Mrs. Clinton appreciated the significance of Mrs. Clinton's . . . telephone call to Mr. Denton.''

Foster, who was then deputy White House counsel, killed himself in July 1993.

The GOP report noted that Hillary Clinton ``had ordered the destruction of other documents relating'' to her work for the S&L. ``The billing records were the only documentary evidence available which reflected the true extent of Mrs. Clinton's role with respect to the fraudulent scheme.''

But the Democratic report said, ``The record is clear that Mrs. Clinton was not part of the chain of custody of these documents.''

``It is possible that the billing records were moved into or within the book room inadvertently,'' possibly by construction workers who were working in the area, the Democrats said.

HIGHLIGHTS OF REPORTS Here are highlights from the separate reports issued Tuesday by Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Whitewater Committee.

The Republican report concludes:

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had a ``powerful motive'' to hide her law firm's billing records from Whitewater investigators.

Hillary Clinton either knew ``or consciously avoided the fact'' that loan transactions involving an Arkansas land development called Castle Grande ``potentially violated bank regulations.''

The Clintons took a series of erroneous tax deductions related to Whitewater.

While he was governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton's official and personal dealings with James McDougal raised an apparent, if not an actual, improper conflict of interest.

White House officials engaged in highly improper conduct in handling documents in Vincent Foster's office following his death.

Hillary Clinton was closely involved in the handling of documents in Foster's office following his death.

The White House concealed damaging evidence about Whitewater and Travelgate from career law enforcement officials investigating Foster's death.

Senior administration officials provided inaccurate and incomplete testimony to the Senate.

The Democratic report concludes:

The central question facing the committee is whether Bill Clinton misused the powers of the presidency. ``The answer is a clear and unequivocal `no.' ''

Clinton did not use his position as governor of Arkansas to improperly provide favored treatment to business associates or others.

There is no credible evidence that Hillary Rodham Clinton has engaged in any improper conduct.

Republicans were more interested in scoring political points than in gathering facts.

Regarding Hillary Clinton, ``every act is portrayed in its most sinister light, every failure of recollection is treated as though the standard for human experience is total recall and photographic memory.''

SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

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BOX: HIGHLIGHTS OF REPORTS (SEE TEXT)