ABC Evening News open - 1977-09-12

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:02] This is the ABC Evening News with Harry

[0:05] Reer and Barbara Walters.

[0:08] >> Good evening. Our top stories tonight. A

[0:10] government banking official concedes the

[0:12] Senate was misled about Bert Lance's

[0:14] record as a banker. The State Department

[0:17] says the Palestinians must be heard at M

[0:19] East peace talks.

[0:21] >> Also, the America's Cup races, the World

[0:23] Series of Yaching, begin tomorrow. We'll

[0:25] look at the two competing boats. And the

[0:27] TV series Soap has aroused a storm of

[0:30] controversy. We'll have a report.

[0:33] The White House said today that three of

[0:34] President Carter's top assistants knew

[0:36] last January, but did not tell the

[0:38] president that Bert Lance and his family

[0:40] had written nearly half a million

[0:42] dollars worth of overdrawn checks. That

[0:44] revelation kept a day of disclosures in

[0:46] the Lance affair. Earlier, a key federal

[0:49] banking official admitted to the Senate

[0:51] Government Affairs Committee that his

[0:52] recommendation last January for Lance's

[0:54] confirmation as budget director was

[0:56] misleading. For that, Dan Courtz was in

[0:58] Washington.

[1:00] The former acting controller of the

[1:02] currency, Robert Bloom, under attack for

[1:04] concealing damaging facts about Lance,

[1:06] told the committee that he reported all

[1:08] he knew to Lance's lawyer and an

[1:10] official of the Carter administration

[1:11] transition team. I believed at all times

[1:14] thereafter

[1:17] that the president-elect and members of

[1:18] the transition team responsible for

[1:21] appointments

[1:22] were aware or should have been aware of

[1:25] the most serious problems known to me at

[1:27] that time in connection with Mr. Lance's

[1:29] personal transactions. Bloom's statement

[1:32] never denied by the men involved poses

[1:34] the question of whether Carter Aids

[1:36] withheld information from the president.

[1:38] What's more, Senator Percy of Illinois

[1:40] warned the land's case is undermining

[1:42] public confidence in the government.

[1:44] >> The general public would feel that what

[1:46] goes on behind closed doors is not

[1:50] fiction but fact.

[1:52] Uh what has gone on and transpired in

[1:55] this case is not the standard that those

[1:58] top careerists adhere to. Earlier,

[2:01] committee staffers got their first look

[2:03] at Justice Department files that show

[2:05] Lance used airplanes owned by his

[2:07] Georgia banks as if the planes belong to

[2:09] him personally. He and his family took

[2:11] vacation trips in the planes, his

[2:13] children were flown to their schools,

[2:15] and Lance took a plain load of Georgia

[2:17] politicians to the Democratic National

[2:19] Convention. Lance admitted he made the

[2:21] trips, but claimed they were all related

[2:23] to getting business for the banks.

[2:25] Meanwhile, the president-elect of the

[2:27] American Banking Association strongly

[2:29] denied that Lance's behavior was typical

[2:31] of all bankers. The answer, I don't know

[2:32] whether Bert Lance has done anything

[2:34] wrong because I don't know for sure what

[2:36] he has done. But I do know that this

[2:39] whole affair is casting a paw over the

[2:41] banking industry. I do know that it may

[2:44] give banking a black eye if it goes

[2:46] unchallenged.

[2:48] The senators will pursue the question of

[2:50] an administration cover up at tomorrow's

[2:52] hearings, but White House correspondent

[2:54] Sam Donaldelsson already has some

[2:56] additional details about who knew what

[2:58] and when. President Carter made a brief

[3:00] appearance at a staff picnic on the

[3:02] White House South Lawn this noon, but

[3:04] reporters were barred from getting

[3:05] anywhere near him to pursue the question

[3:07] of what he knew about Lance's activities

[3:08] and when he learned it. Lance himself

[3:11] could be seen from a distance leaving a

[3:12] cabinet meeting, but that was the extent

[3:14] of his availability on the subject. So,

[3:17] it was left to press secretary Jodi Pal

[3:19] to talk about what was known way back

[3:21] then about Bert Lance. Pal said he

[3:23] couldn't add a thing on the question of

[3:24] what the president knew, but he

[3:26] acknowledged that in early January, he

[3:28] read Lance's FBI report, which contained

[3:31] the information that Lance and his

[3:32] family had overdrawn their bank accounts

[3:34] by a total of about $450,000

[3:37] over a 2-year period. Not only did Pal

[3:40] read the FBI report, but top political

[3:42] aid Hamilton Jordan and White House

[3:44] counsel Robert Lipshoots read it also.

[3:47] Pal said none of them told the

[3:48] president. Pal told reporters that he

[3:51] wasn't alarmed by the overdraft

[3:52] information because none of the

[3:54] officials from the controllers's office

[3:55] and justice department quoted in the FBI

[3:58] report said they were alarmed. They told

[4:00] the FBI that Lance was not going to be

[4:02] prosecuted because he had not intended

[4:04] to defraud anyone and because the

[4:06] practice had been stopped. And one

[4:08] official, Donald Tarlton, the Atlanta

[4:10] director of the controllers's office,

[4:12] told the FBI that such overdraft

[4:14] practices were not uncommon in rural

[4:16] banks. Hamilton Jordan told reporters

[4:19] that Lance's reputation in Georgia had

[4:21] been excellent. Apparently, a lot of

[4:23] other people told the FBI the same

[4:24] thing. For said Jordan, if you read that

[4:27] FBI report 100 times, it would never

[4:30] have raised the question of fitness.

[4:32] Powell and Jordan seem to agree,

[4:33] however, that if the same information

[4:35] had come their way about a stranger,