Bill Clinton: “First of all, the procedures have not been in place. We never had any--if you go back to the facts as we know them and…”

“First of all, the procedures have not been in place. We never had any--if you go back to the facts as we know them and based on what I know, based on what you know, based on what's been reported, we did not have a centralized system for saying, hey, all these issues, before there is any contact, even if all we're doing is responding to somebody else, there needs to be some central vetting point. That is a significant firewall that we have created that did not exist beforehand. Maybe you want to say something else. Mr. Cutler. In the future--and many of these processes have already been put into effect by the Deputy Counsel--in the future, whenever a question arises as to whether a particular meeting should be held or a communication should be made or received, relating to an investigation or an enforcement action concerning what we might call a high political person, someone in the White House or high in one of the Cabinet Departments, it will be the White House Counsel who will after careful reflection decide whether there should be such a meeting or a communication. And he will make a careful record of what happens so that it will be available if questions are raised later on. There are many, many communications between the President and the President's lawyer. After all, the President is the enforcement official of the Executive branch. It is his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. And there are many entirely proper communications with the enforcement authorities about policy, about cases being brought against third parties--about cases being brought, for example, against, let's say, a Republican Member of Congress--where the President might need a heads-up because it may be a big news event. All of those things are perfectly normal and perfectly proper and have always existed. There are other cases where a meeting or a communication, either because no record is made--even though the communication was innocent, nobody can really prove what happened--there are many cases where it is inadvisable to have that kind of communication. And the decision will have to be made, and it will be made by the White House Counsel and the Deputy Counsel as to whether there should be a communication or not.”