Last week, an energized Thompson sparred with former Clinton adviser Harold Ickes over the coffees and other alleged improprieties. Thompson staffers were tipped off about the tapes by an anonymous E-mail message in early September. The Democrats blamed their failure to disclose the tapes earlier on the sheer number of subpoenas with which they are trying to comply. Thompson gets a legal opinion forcing Sandler to discuss the meetings. The Senate committee investigating the campaign finance scandal conducts a deposition of a Gore aide who helped arrange the vice president's visit to a Buddhist temple.
Investigators say they needed the documents before the deposition.
The committee calls Richard Sullivan, the former financial director for the DNC, as the hearing's first witness. The DNC gives the committee 4,000 pages from Sullivan's files. The documents were supposed to have been turned over by April 30. At 5 p.m., after the hearing is over, the administration releases documents describing Ng's visits to the White House. The committee, which has been seeking this information since May, is incensed.