Foster File Search Said Blocked by Ex-Counsel : Senate: Bernard Nussbaum went through the papers and described them to investigators, who did not get to look at them, witnesses tell panel.

WASHINGTON —  Then-White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum was so protective of papers belonging to his assistant, Vincent Foster, that he prevented law enforcement officials from inspecting the office trash during their investigation of Foster’s 1993 suicide, according to testimony Thursday to a Senate committee.

Witnesses told the Senate Whitewater investigating committee how on July 22, 1993, Nussbaum reneged on an agreement to allow law enforcement officials to look at files left behind in Foster’s office after his suicide two days earlier. These officials were looking for some document that would shed light on Foster’s state of mind at the time of his death.

Instead of permitting Justice Department and other law enforcement officials to look at the title pages of the documents, as he had promised, Nussbaum went through the files himself and simply described each of them to investigators who were present.

Nussbaum’s actions so annoyed Justice Department officials that one of them, David Margolis, quipped during the inspection that the White House counsel “might as well mail me the results” of his search of Foster’s office, witnesses said.

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Likewise, witnesses said, Margolis argued that investigators should be permitted to inspect the trash taken from Foster’s office because--by throwing it away--Nussbaum had waived claims to confidentiality. But Nussbaum denied even that request, witnesses said.

Nussbaum’s actions on that day have become a focus of these hearings because Republicans on the panel see his unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement officials as evidence to support allegations that he obstructed justice. Nussbaum is not expected to be called as a witness until next week, at the earliest.

Nevertheless, Justice Department officials emphasized that while they were angry with Nussbaum, they never suspected him of trying to conceal evidence needed in their investigation of the suicide. “I don’t have any indication that there was an attempt to cover up,” said Roger Adams, a Justice Department official.

What angered Adams and other law enforcement officials most was a newspaper article that they read the following day quoting White House aides as saying that the search of Foster’s office had occurred under the “supervision” of the Justice Department. In their view, the Justice Department had not supervised the search.

Law enforcement officials also were furious when Cliff Sloan, Nussbaum’s assistant, accused one FBI agent of trying to peek at the documents when he got up from his seat during the search. As Adams later wrote in a memo, “the remark was [to put it charitably] extremely offensive.”

Thursday’s testimony also served to deepen the mystery about how Nussbaum overlooked 27 scraps of paper at the bottom of Foster’s briefcase when he emptied it of files in front of the law enforcement officials.

When the scraps were discovered four days later, they proved to be part of what is now referred to as “the suicide note.” In the note, Foster wrote that “ruining people is considered sport” in Washington.

After Nussbaum removed the documents from the briefcase, according to witnesses, Margolis asked him: “Did you get everything?” He replied: “I have removed all the files.”

Then after the law enforcement officials left Foster’s office, according to attorney Michael L. Spafford, who was present to represent the Foster family, Sloan told Nussbaum: “There appear to be scraps in the bottom of the briefcase.”

“We will get to all of that later,” Nussbaum replied, according to Spafford.

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Just as Republicans see Nussbaum’s treatment of law enforcement officials as evidence of a cover-up, they also suspect that the White House counsel intentionally prevented investigators from finding the suicide note that day. Their suspicions intensified Thursday after the committee released a copy of an FBI interview with Sloan on Aug. 3, 1993, in which he said that he never examined the briefcase--contradicting Spafford’s testimony.

Adams said that law enforcement officials were looking either for a suicide note or evidence that Foster was the subject of a scandal or an extortion threat.