Special counsel Robert Fiske will quiz President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton for a second time about their personal involvement in the Whitewater affair.
Fiske on Sunday questioned both under oath about the July 1993 death of deputy counsel Vincent Foster and administration contacts with Treasury regulators about an investigation into a failed Arkansas thrift owned by the Clintons' Whitewater partner.
Within two weeks, Fiske expects to finish his probe into Foster's death.
Fiske, in a rare interview Monday, said he'll question the Clintons about their Whitewater real estate dealings: "Oh, sure. There shouldn't be any doubt about that."
"The Clintons have said if he has additional questions, they'll cooperate," says White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers.
His separate interviews with the Clintons, in the White House Treaty Room, focused only on Foster and the contacts with Treasury officials and did not include "anything relating to Arkansas," Fiske says.
Fiske and his associate counsel, Roderick Lankler, interviewed the president for more than 90 minutes and Hillary Clinton for just under an hour. Present for both sessions: David Kendall, the Clintons' private lawyer, and White House counsel Lloyd Cutler.
A stenographer administered the oaths to the Clintons, whose testimony can be submitted to a grand jury.
Myers says the Clintons did not refuse to answer any questions. "They have chosen not to claim any privileges," she says.
Fiske has told Congress he hopes to finish the Foster and Treasury parts of his probe by the end of June.
Then, Fiske says, "I hope to be in a position to tell them whether I had any objection to hearings."
Congressional Republicans are agitating for quick hearings. Democratic leaders say they won't schedule them until Fiske has completed the initial phase of his work.
Fiske is investigating whether Foster's death was suicide and whether the White House impeded the probe. Police say he killed himself.
Foster did personal legal work for the Clintons and papers related to their Whitewater investment were removed from his office after his death.
The other element of the Washington portion of Fiske's investigation involves the propriety of phone calls made by White House officials to Treasury officials about Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan.
It's unclear whether Fiske will release a detailed report on his findings. Some administration officials believe he'll issue a statement saying he's concluded Foster's death was a suicide and giving Congress the go-ahead for hearings.
"When we've completed the investigation we would have some announcement with respect to the results," Fiske says.
Other presidents have been questioned under oath: Ronald Reagan and then-vice president George Bush about Iran-contra; Jimmy Carter about the business dealings of his budget director Bert Lance; Gerald Ford about his 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon.
Fiske's Little Rock-based investigation into the Clintons' partnership in Whitewater and the land company's links to Madison Guaranty is expected to take several more months.
