Spokesmen for the firm say it began shredding to protect confidential client information during the 1992 primary campaigns, when reporters were discovered rummaging through office garbage. In late January, after special counsel Robert Fiske announced the start of his Whitewater investigation, Hedges and another courier, Clayton Lindsey, say they spent an hour shredding documents plainly marked VWF. The only lawyer at the firm with those initials was Vince W. Foster. At a meeting with managing partner Ronald Clark and others a few weeks later, they were informed that they would have to answer FBI questions and testify before the Whitewater grand jury. Hedges says they were told to tell the truth and "not to do anything to protect the firm." But when Hedges informed senior partner Jerry Jones that he would tell the FBI he had shredded Foster documents, Jones replied, "Don't assume they were his documents." According to Hedges, when he answered in turn that he was certain, Jones told him, "Don't assume that they have anything to do with the investigation."