VWF and classified documents
- James Norman Internet post, March 19, 1996

I was just leafing through my newly-delivered set of hand-written FBI notes from the Vincent Foster death investigation, pried loose from the Office of Independent Counsel by Chris Ruddy's legal efforts, and came across one type-written page with a particularly curious item. The page was compiled by an apparently unidentified FBI investigator (the top left corner says, in script, merely "His notes," I think.) It lists a number of White House officials who became involved in the notification and handling of Vincent W. Foster's death the night of 7/20/93, including Bill Burton (Assistant White House Chief of Staff), David Watkins, USS(S) UD Lt. Woltz, Craig Livingston (White House Security Chief), Dee Dee Myers, and then...

"Tom Canvitt, USSS Presidential Protection Intelligence 202 435 6600 Was concerned about White House passes, classified docs in vehicle"

I can find no record in either Vol. 1 or Vol. 2 of Senate Banking Committee report that shows Canvitt was interviewed by the FBI. Nor does the committee report appear to include this memo, which also notes with apparent curiousity that Bill Burton expressed intense interest in the serial number on the gun Foster supposedly killed himself with -- asking pointedly about the number twice. Can anyone out there tell me if Canvitt was questioned and if his testimony is a public record anywhere?

Of course, Canvitt's concern could be explained away as routine precautions "just in case" there were classified documents laying around. But in a cursory thumbing through the two-inch stack of notes, I find many many pages of blacked-out redactions, particulary in the testimony of Deborah Gorham, Marsha Scott, Webster Hubbell, William Kennedy, and Joel Klein (another lawyer in the office of White House Counsel). The redactions in Klein's notes -- about three-fourths of his interview -- are nowhere reflected in the published committee report. Were these redactions for lawyerly reasons involving pending legal matters? Or was it due to the national security overlay to Foster's death?

J. Norman