DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: BEHIND THE ABUSE OF POWER ALLEGATIONS
SUBSECTION: GOVERNMENT RESOURCES FOR A POLITICAL PURPOSE
Revised 8/20/99

 

 

USE OF GOVERNMENT RESOURCES/AGENCIES FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES


Lincoln Bedroom v Contributions
Queens Bedroom (overflow from Lincoln Bedroom)
Trade Mission Seats v Contributions
Coffees v Contributions
Fund Raising Calls from White House
White House Legal Office - Personal Defense
Camp David
Air Force One
Kennedy Center
350,000 Name Database
Trips - Lewinsky (Bacon) and Willey

FBI/Travelgate
INS/Pack the Vote 96
Justice/Firing all US Attorneys
Presidential Counsel's Office/Personal Work
IRS
Department of Defense Placements (Lewinsky, Tripp)
Mace v Clinton, once in the White House, Clinton substituted government lawyers for his private lawyers

AP 10/7/98 John Solomon "A Republican-led House subcommittee accused President Clinton and the White House of "theft of government property" Wednesday in transferring data to the Democratic Party for fund-raising purposes. Seeking to gain the attention of impeachment investigators, a stinging report written by Republican congressional staffers detailed evidence they contend conflicts with some of the White House's earlier assertions about the use of a $1.7 million taxpayer-financed database created inside the executive mansion. "The committee issues this report to expose the evidence of the president's possible involvement in the theft of government property and his abuse of power," said the report by the investigative subcommittee of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. The report cites testimony from top Democratic fund-raisers who acknowledged they got names and addresses from the White House database on a regular basis and used them to solicit donations or plan White House events for donors.."

NewsMax.com 10/18/98 Christopher Ruddy ".Former White House Counsel William Kennedy admitted in a Judicial Watch deposition last week that his office was a repository for hundreds of FBI background files, NewsMax.com has learned. According to sources familiar with the videotaped deposition, Kennedy said stacks of FBI files--which he repeatedly referred to as "summaries"-- were all over his office, some lying on his desk and office tables. Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm headed by Larry Klayman, has filed a class action civil rights suit against the Clinton administration for violating the Privacy Act. The Privacy Act makes it unlawful for any government official to improperly obtain or use personal information held in government files. In a stunning acknowledgment, Kennedy said that it was illegal for any White House official to disclose information from personnel or other files kept at the White House.."By admitting to the illegality of what the White House has been doing, Kennedy essentially hung his former colleagues," a lawyer familiar with the case said..Kennedy was said to have appeared visibly shaken on the taped deposition when asked questions about Foster.. Foster died suspiciously in July of 1993 and authorities ruled the death a suicide. Kennedy came under fire in May of 1993 for improperly summoning the FBI to investigate the Travel office. He resigned under a cloud in November 1994.."

NewsMax 10/16/98 Carl Limbacher ".In October 1996, Marsha Scott was identified as the White House operative put in charge of the secret database project. In a Dec. 7, 1993, memo to then-Chief of Staff Mack McLarty, Scott wrote, "Both the President and the First Lady have asked me to make this my top priority." In January 1994, Scott assured Hillary Clinton in writing that the database could be maintained in secrecy. Days later, White House Director of Administration David Watkins issued a confidential briefing paper noting that it would be illegal to use "Big Brother" as a fund-raising tool. "The White House database will be government property and cannot be given to or used by a campaign entity," Watkins wrote. Nevertheless, three years later, the White House revealed that 12 interns and volunteers assigned to work on the database were paid by the Democratic National Committee. Database manager Marsha Scott has been described as Clinton's "hippie girlfriend," based on reports that they dated some 30 years ago.. But NewsMax.com has learned that long before she was linked to Clinton romantically in published accounts, Schiff surfaced in a February 1997 report about the controversial database project. In a story headlined, "Database Revelation Changes White House Intern Policy," the Washington Times catalogued those with access to the secret files: "Previous memos describing the White House database, known by the acronym WHoDB, said the White House social office, the offices of personal correspondence, public liaison, and legislative affairs, and the first lady's operation and Oval Office would have access to the system. ... "Documents showed that several other offices were granted access, such as the domestic policy shop, the White House Office of Women's Initiatives and Outreach, the White House Fellowship Program, and even the West Wing receptionist, Debra Schiff." (Feb. 21, 1997) . And where does Monica Lewinsky fit in? While not serving the president personally, she handled correspondence at the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, which had, according to the aforementioned Washington Times report, access to the secret White House "Big Brother" database.

WorldNetDaily 10/26/98 Joseph Farah ".I have never considered "Sexgate" to be the most important of the many scandals swirling around President Clinton. Personally, I think it pales in comparison and importance to the way our political system and national security have been compromised by Chinese money. I find Monica Lewinsky a far less compelling and significant figure than, say, Vincent Foster, Ron Brown, Jim McDougal, Jerry Parks, or even her intern colleague, Caity Mahoney -- all of whom died under extremely suspicious and unexplained circumstances during this administration. I find it to be amazing that Clinton is permitted by the press, the Congress, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the independent counsel to collect legal-defense trust fund money to defend himself in his various scandals. It is completely illegal for public officials to do this, as Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman has astutely pointed out in his report to Congress. I'm much more repulsed by the way the Clinton administration has politicized every agency of government during its watch -- from the IRS, to the FBI, to the Pentagon -- using them and abusing them to maintain and increase its power over the people.."

www.ConservativeNews.org 10/28/98 ".The Conservative News Service has discovered that the White House and the Democratic National Committee have posted on their respective Internet web sites identical sets of talking points about President Clinton's agenda and how "Congressional Republicans Said 'No.'" At a minimum, it's further evidence of how the Clinton Administration has blurred the lines between politics and official business. At worst, legal experts say it's a violation of federal law."

World Net Daily 11/12/98 Stephan Archer ". Originally, Echelon was designed to spy on the Communist Bloc during the Cold War. However, since the end of the Cold War, the NSA has used it for other questionable purposes that include spying on the citizens of U.S. allies as well as the citizens of other countries, commercial spying, and even domestic spying. In essence, Echelon works through a series of high-tech spy facilities located primarily in five countries: the United States, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Australia. These countries, which are sworn to secrecy about the project in a secret agreement known as UKUSA, all actively take part in this encroachment of privacy into the lives of the people of the world by collecting virtually all fax transmissions, e-mails, and phone calls. Not even cellular phone calls escape the grasp of the Echelon system. "Obviously, we need to have these capabilities," said Wayne Madsen, who worked in the National COMSEC Assessment Center at the NSA's Fort Meade, Maryland, facility back in the 1980s and is currently a senior fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. .Concerning Echelon's inherent intrusion on people's privacy, Patrick Poole, the deputy director for the Center of Technology Policy at the Free Congress Foundation, said, "While we understand the need for the intelligence power embodied by Echelon, the indiscriminate use of Echelon presents major threats to liberty not only to U.S. citizens but to citizens around the world." And this threat is real. The foundation's report states that U.S. leaders have, in fact, already abused this awesome technology. For example, the report states the following: "In September 1993, President Clinton asked the CIA to spy on Japanese auto manufacturers that were designing zero-emission cars and to forward that information to the Big Three U.S. car manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler." "You can assume that all major U.S. corporations are fed items of interest (via Echelon) from time to time to give them a leg up on international competitors," said Madsen..With this kind of abuse of Echelon's power, the question as to whether or not the U.S. government has been using this power for political purposes can be easily raised. This question is seemingly answered in the foundation's report. "The discovery of domestic surveillance targeted at American civilians for reasons of 'unpopular' political affiliation -- or for no probable cause at all -- in violation of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution is regularly impeded by very elaborate and complex legal arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the U.S. government," the report says. When asked if the system has been used by the U.S. government to spy on its citizens, Madsen told WorldNetDaily that he was sure it has been. "I don't believe that the NSA or the current Administration would hesitate to use this system on American citizens for their own agendas," he said. Outraged by this flagrant abuse of power illustrated by our country's elected officials, Poole said, "While the U.S. is the prime mover behind the Echelon system, it's shameful that the European Parliament is the body holding the constitutional debate in regards to Echelon today."."

Journal Tribune Online 1/7/99 Warren Swartz ". Shortly after the election of 1994, which you'll recall swept Republicans into control of both houses of Congress for the first time in a generation, a lawyer named Larry Klayman, who is also the Director of an organization named Judicial Watch, noticed that the size and number of these overseas trade missions was increasing dramatically. He also noted that the people going along on these trips, at your expense, were almost always big contributors to the Democrat party. Typically, a company would contribute, say, $50,000 to the Democrat party, and lo and behold, the very next week that same company's representatives would be invited on an upcoming trade mission! An added incentive was that, ordinarily, Clinton or Gore would address each group before it departed. Now since Judicial Watch's main claim to fame is as a watchdog against government corruption, Director Klayman smelled a rat and accordingly filed a lawsuit requesting a series of related documents from the US Commerce Dept, which was then headed by the former Chairman of the Democrat party, Clinton appointee Ron Brown..In keeping with the Clinton administration's usual modus operandi, the Commerce Dept. immediately began to stonewall, stall, shred, and otherwise engage in tactics that amount to obstruction of justice. The Commerce Dept., meanwhile, mistakenly filed a countersuit requesting that the entire case be thrown out of court. Now, whenever a government agency tries to hide its activities, you have to sense that something is amiss, right? Well, just this past week, District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled against the Commerce Dept's lawsuit and ordered instead that the Judicial Watch lawsuit be allowed to proceed. Washington insiders are viewing the judge's ruling as a disaster for the Clinton administration, as it has become generally accepted that seats on Brown's trade mission flights were sold to businessmen who were also big Democratic party contributors. So in effect, taxpayers paid the bills for the trips, but the Democratic party collected, and kept, the fares involved! And, Judicial Watch thinks that the requested documents, if any survived Commerce's shredding parties, will prove that conclusively.."

CAS Bulletin Board 1/9/99 by Freeper M. Peach ".In a story that is swirling around Washington DC this very minute, an FBI agent has secretly admitted to Congressional investigators that he was ordered to wiretap key witnesses and political adversaries in the Monica Lewinsky investigation. This revelation has "shades of Watergate" according to a high level Congressional investigator. Not only were witnesses wiretapped, but general surveillance was ordered to determine who they were speaking to and what they were saying. According to sources, FBI and private investigators were used to maintain surveillance on phones, cell-phones, and in some case the homes of Congressional Republican leaders. Deep inside Washington DC, people are worried that this may be the kind of evidence that seals Bill Clinton's fate. White House insiders were shocked and concerned that this new blockbuster is just one more in the ongoing series of revelations about just how far Bill Clinton has gone to hold onto his office. Key Senate Democrats are now reviewing the testimony of this investigator and determining whether they can maintain support for Bill Clinton in an everchanging landscape of revelations and turmoil.."

Freepers received this email 1/11/99 from alewis@whitehouse.gov. Posted-Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 20:01:01 -0800 (PST) ..Message-ID: <19990112034337.10890.qmail@list.moveon.org>. To: morgan@dmi.net ..From: alewis@whitehouse.gov .Subject: Let's stop it in the Senate ..The House of Representatives has impeached the President. Now the Senate is pursuing an open-ended trial. We face key economic and foreign policy challenges in the coming year. When will Congress set aside partisanship and address the nation's real interests? I'm participating in an Internet campaign to tell our representatives that we've had enough. The President should receive censure from the Congress and we should all move on. It's time for the public interest to come first, and for our representatives to show real leadership. Will you help? Just go to http://www.moveon.org to sign the petition and take action. It only takes a minute. And then if you send a message on to your friends and colleagues, the ball will keep rolling. It's up to us. Please feel free to forward this message to anyone you think would be interested. Don't send this message indiscriminately. Spam hurts the campaign.."

Judicial Watch Press Release 1/20/99 Larry Klayman ".Reminiscent of the Chinagate and campaign finance scandals, where U.S. taxpayer resources, like seats on trade missions and export licenses for high technology, were sold in exchange for political contributions, Bill Clinton has again used public funds to try to influence his political fate. In an unprecedented use of "pork," Clinton offered "mega- goodies" -- at taxpayer expense-- to virtually every special interest group that might support his continuation in office. As if this were not enough, he again mocked his own wife, by mouthing "I love you" in front of a national TV audience."

Pittsburg Tribune-Review 1/28/99 Bill Sammons (Washington Times) Freeper Cincinatus ". Clinton has said it was "a completely honest bureaucratic snafu" for the White House to gather the 1,000 FBI files, including many on officials from the Reagan and Bush administrations. "Had it been true that it was a bureaucratic snafu, one would surmise that it would have been corrected," Tripp said. "They would have been returned from whence they came, and they certainly would not have continued to request more additional raw FBI data files." ."

WorldNetDaily 2/2/99 Charles Smith ".President Clinton has waged an information war against America. Data accumulated inside the White House has taken prisoners, destroyed lives and provided valuable bounty for criminals. The war is designed to limit freedoms and control political opponents. Recent examples, such as campaigns against Kathleen Willey and Monica Lewinsky, are lurid tips of the White House iceberg. The most fertile ground for information exploited by Clinton is the data stored inside law enforcement computers such as the FBI. The FBI's NCIC system (National Criminal Information Center) is a network of computers erected by all the states that is tied to a central FBI network. It is the federal law enforcement Internet... NCIC has also been used for political crimes. Each and every one of the over 900 files held by the Clinton White House started with a check of the FBI NCIC data base. According to the FBI, the White House inquired for information from the FBI on over 22,000 people during 1993 and 1994.. In 1996, Howard Shapiro, then general counsel for the FBI, went to the White House to recover some of the hundreds of files taken by Clinton operatives Craig Livingstone and Anthony Marceca. According Shapiro's deposition there was the following exchange: "Q. The list of names were in two boxes, is that correct?" "A. Yes. The -- the documents referred to in the list of names were in two boxes." "Q. And the third box contained what kind of documents that you determined were not FBI files?" "A. For instance -- and it would seem to comport with what's on this first page -- various computer runs, various documents. It took us a while, and I'm -- I'm not sure I was ever advised in detail what it was. I was advised that I didn't need to worry about it was because it wasn't FBI information. It was like NCIC computer checks and things like that." The legal counsel for the FBI had no law enforcement experience. Mr. Shapiro did not know NCIC computer information is FBI property so he left the boxes of computer information at the White House. They have never been recovered. In August 1996, I received a letter from the Department of Justice, Margaret R. Owens -- unit chief of the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs. Owens wrote: "Unfortunately, the process of dealing with White House requests for file information was not managed as it should have been. You may be assured that all steps necessary to correct the deficiency have been taken and that the FBI will be more vigilant in the future." However, the Clinton administration has little zeal for being "vigilant." There are no federal laws against government officials who abuse the NCIC system, and President Clinton wants to keep it that way.."

 

The Clintons' failure to understand that publicly paid staff shouldn't be conducting private business is the root cause of much of their trouble. For instance, the late Vincent Foster, deputy White House counsel, was conducting personal business for the president and the first lady despite the fact he was an employee of the American taxpayers. The latest example of presidential confusion on this issue is Clinton's claim that all his conversations with White House counsel Bruce Lindsay, including those of a personal nature dealing with the Monica Lewinsky case, should be protected under executive privilege.

World Net Daily 10/20/98 Paul Chesser ".In another controversial example of using public resources for political purposes, documents defending President Clinton against impeachment have been posted on the White House's Internet website. Upon linking to the White House's home page, Internet "surfers" can instantly link to a "Memorandum Regarding Standards for Impeachment." The memorandum, co-authored by lawyers from Clinton's private legal team and the office of the White House counsel, vigorously defends the president against the threat of impeachment. The document, written prior to the House's vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry, is presented in a two-point format. The president's attorneys first argue that the House Judiciary Committee needs to define what an impeachable offense is before authorizing an inquiry. The counsel's second point is that Clinton's conduct does not constitute an impeachable offense. Once linked to the memorandum, the site provides further access to both of the White House's initial responses to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's impeachment referral. No links presenting Starr's impeachment report are provided. In contrast, the House of Representatives' Internet site links to Starr's referral and both of President Clinton's rebuttals.."

Forbes Magazine 12/10 1998 Thomas Sowell ".In Arkansas, as in Washington, the powers of government were repeatedly used by both Clintons for private benefit. Jim McDougal, who ran Madison Guaranty-and who was a business partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater Development Corporation- was allowed to select individuals that Governor Clinton appointed to the state agency regulating savings and loan associations, such as his own. Then Hillary Clinton, as attorney for Madison Guaranty, appeared before these officials that her husband had appointed. When health officials moved to sanction McDougal for failing to honor repeated agreements and warnings to put adequate sewage facilities in some property he was developing, those officials and their superiors were summoned to the governor's office and told that McDougal was "a friend of mine." Later, three of these health officials were fired. This was a foretaste of a later unexplained furloughing of a trio of federal investigators who insisted on looking into the Whitewater- Madison frauds, despite warnings from their superiors, after the Clintons were in the White House."

House of Representatives 9/11/98 Chris Cox R-CA ". Stephanopoulos, Nation's Bank . Again, this is a White House memo that they prepared secretly inside the White House using taxpayer resources and in the White House counsel's office, which they should not have been doing. That is not appropriate use of taxpayer funds. They have listed all of these scandals that they wanted to inoculate against and spin the press about. The Stephanopoulos-Nation's Bank story was of course what the press widely described as a sweetheart, below market mortgage for George Stephanopoulos, the kind of deal that ordinary Americans could not get..Now there are 39 of these scandals that White House staff--there is a name of a White House staffer right after each one of these, after each one of these scandals, and they were all assigned and presumably are all still working at taxpayer expense on preventing the Congress from getting to know all of the facts in these things.

Washington Weekly 11/9/98 Wesley Phelan ".(following from interview with Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch).".QUESTION: You have recently deposed William Kennedy in the Filegate case [1]. What was his official position? KLAYMAN: His position was Associate White House Counsel. He worked under Bernard Nussbaum. He was parallel to Vince Foster, who was his very close friend. He was in charge of reviewing FBI files and summary reports and raw data, that came to the White House for individuals who were legitimately supposed to be in the clearance process, as either holdover employees or political appointees. And of course, we know his operation supervised Craig Livingstone and Anthony Marceca, who unlawfully obtained more than 1000 FBI files on Republicans. QUESTION: What newsworthy items came out of that deposition? KLAYMAN: Several. First of all, when I asked him if he had had Republican files on his table, he literally choked. When I asked him if he had reviewed the FBI file of James Baker, we got silence for 30 seconds. Then he said, "Which James Baker are you talking about?" I asked him whether he had had meetings in his office with Linda Tripp. He acknowledged that he had two or three such meetings. While he wouldn't answer most questions -- and we are going back to the court to force those answers -- the information we did get was the meetings concerned two secretaries, a Ms. Pond and a Ms. Gorham, who worked for Bernard Nussbaum and Vince Foster. The conversations he had dealt with office procedures and Vince Foster. We believe what was being discussed was removal of information from Foster's office, and that's why we want those answers. The documents removed may include information about the FBI files and other related matters.."

Washington Times/Insight on the News 11/9/98 Paul Rodriguez ".However, it is page 54 of the McIntosh report, prepared by the subcommittee's majority counsel, that contains what may be the most explosive allegations - charges that could further entangle Clinton in impeachment issues before the House Judiciary Committee. Whether Henry Hyde, the Illinois Republican and chairman of that panel, will take up McIntosh's report has yet to be determined, House sources tell Insight. However, it may happen. Here's why. Beginning with the second paragraph, the McIntosh report states: "The committee believes that the president's involvement in the conversion of the White House into a fundraising tool represents an abuse of power. The president is entrusted with the conservation of the White House as a national landmark. The scheme to transfer data from the White House Database and other data sources supported the overall objective of using White House invitations to accomplish political fundraising goals." In yet stronger language, the majority report concludes that "the president and the first lady were involved in the unlawful conversion of government property to the use of the DNC and the Clinton/Gore campaign." Without mincing words, McIntosh added in a prepared statement faxed to Insight: "Our investigation revealed evidence that President Clinton used taxpayer resources to benefit his personal and political interest, not the country's interest. There was systematic abuse of government resources to benefit the president's reelection and brazen attempts by the House to cover it up until after the 1996 election."."

Washington Times/Insight on the News 11/9/98 Paul Rodriguez ".It reads like a prosecutorial memorandum. And like any good crime drama, the narrative carries a punch that knocks the wind out of you. But judge for yourself the opening chapter in the case of the mysterious White House Office Data Base, or WHODB. "The story of the White House Database is one about a White House that disregarded the difference between the official business of the United States government and the political business of reelecting the president. Because the line between official business and campaigning was obliterated, this president and his White House subordinates proceeded to spend at least $1.7 million of government funds on a complex, centralized computer system known as the White House [Office] Database, or 'WHODB.' It was used not just for official purposes; senior White House staff planned and, in fact, used it to advance the campaign fundraising objectives of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). This conversion of government property to the use of the DNC constitutes a theft of government property under 18 U.S.CV. [sec] 641. "Similarly, White House staff, at the president's direction, used other White House resources to translate their new expertise in database development, acquired at government expense, to plan the development and use of databases for the DNC and other political committees in violation of the Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. [sec] 7324, which restricts government employee use of government property for political activities. This, too, represents a theft of government property. "The conversion of the White House Database and other government resources to benefit the DNC and the president's campaign in this way was an integral part of the conversion of the nation's White House into the political fundraising tool of the president and the DNC." So begins the exhaustively detailed 93-page summary report of a two-year probe by Rep. David McIntosh, an Indiana Republican and chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs.."

Yahoo! / Reuters 6/29/99 "...A conservative public interest group is preparing to file suit against first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as she moves toward an anticipated U.S. Senate bid from New York, a source said Monday. Judicial Watch intends to challenge Mrs. Clinton for having traveled in recent months at public expense between Washington and the state of New York, the source said. The group believes she should pay for the trips herself, contending the main purpose of the travel is her political future, not any role as first lady, the source said. ..."

UPI Focus 6/30/99 "...Hillary Rodham Clinton is reportedly using the White House communications director and two staffers working for Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to help prepare a Web site for the July 6 launch of her Senate exploratory committee. A White House spokesman and an aide for Daschle tell the New York Post it is legal for the government employees to help with the first lady's campaign as long as they put in a 40-hour week for their main jobs. The Post reports the Hillary 2000 site is not open to the public yet, although the section for credit card contributions is ready to go. A June 25 memo obtained by the Post says a substantial amount of the Web site should be written by White House communications director Ann Lewis and media consultant Mandy Grunwald...."

Chicago Tribune Robert Novak 7/8/99 "…A filing petition to a federal judge last week raised the possibility that the FBI files case, one of the capital's great all-time mysteries, might yet be broken open--with political implications for Hillary Rodham Clinton. It requests the deposition of a former Clinton White House aide's ex-wife, who claims she observed her husband transferring FBI files into his laptop computer. The June 29 filing by the conservative Judicial Watch asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington to authorize the sworn testimony of Leslie Gail Kennedy, who was married until late 1994 to former White House Associate Counsel William H. Kennedy. The request also quotes Mrs. Kennedy's opinion that Mrs. Clinton was associated with the FBI files. The next day, Judicial Watch also asked Lamberth for a deposition of the first lady on grounds that "she was involved in, if not responsible for, making key decisions that bear on `Filegate.' …Still, the case looked dead until Judicial Watch employee Christopher Farrell interviewed Mrs. Kennedy at her Little Rock home June 11. According to Farrell's court filing, she told him that her ex-husband "brought FBI files from his White House office to their home in Alexandria, Va." She observed him "on several occasions" working for hours, "making entries from the files into a database he maintained on his laptop computer." …"

Washington Post 7/16/99 Juliet Eilperin "…House GOP sources said the committee has acquired documents showing that North, while working at his office computer, contacted the DCCC and offered to provide negative information about Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). Each of these lawmakers has resisted Democratic efforts to more tightly regulate the islands' [Marianas] economy. The Hatch Act prohibits government employees from participating in political activity on the job or using their office for partisan purposes; penalties range from a 30-day suspension to removal from office…."

Roll Call 7/19/99 John Bresnahan "...House Resources Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) plans to seek a contempt citation against Interior Department officials this week for their failure to respond to the subpoena of a department employee alleged to have engaged in partisan political activities while on the job. The Interior Department employee, David North, reportedly tried to dig up political dirt on House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas), House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) because they opposed Clinton administration policy regarding the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Such activities by North, if the allegations are true, would be a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from participating in partisan politics..... The controversy surrounding North stems from a memo he reportedly sent to a senior House Democratic official in late 1997 urging that they work together to find incriminating information..."

World Net Daily 7/23/99 "...The former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate impeachment hearings says President Clinton's targeting of the Western Journalism Center by the Internal Revenue Service as exposed in WorldNetDaily is worse than similar offenses by President Nixon and clearly warrants impeachment.....Asked if Clinton is getting away with misdeeds for which Nixon was charged, Zeifman responded, "Of course!" He said Nixon did not have a team of people routinely forwarding investigation suggestions to the IRS. "There was no systematic plan" under Nixon, he said. "In my opinion, the misconduct of President Clinton and his White House is more egregious by far than the misconduct of the Nixon White House with respect to the misuse of the IRS. We found that in fact there was some misuse of the IRS [by Nixon], but it was not part of an overall systematic plan, as has been the case with the Clinton White House." Zeifman added that Watergate investigators also found misuse of FBI records. Charles Colson, for instance, went to jail for misuse of one FBI file. "Whereas in the Clinton administration there has been regular and systematic abuse," he said. "It's been documented, with Bernie Nussbaum's name, on regular and systematic requests for FBI files. I was a strong proponent of Nixon's impeachment and played a role in drafting the Articles of Impeachment. In my view, everything we said in Article II, Paragraph 1, clearly applies to Clinton on the basis of information already in the public record prior to WorldNetDaily's story." ..."

Washington Post 7/22/99 William Branigin "...A House committee voted along party lines yesterday to step up an investigation into allegations of illegal partisan political activity in the Interior Department, but held off on a threat to hold top officials of the agency in contempt of Congress.... At issue is a dispute between House Republican leaders and the Clinton administration over policy toward the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific facing allegations of labor and human rights violations. ....Young said he had received "serious allegations of illegal actions by employees of the Office of Insular Affairs," the Interior Department bureau that deals with U.S. territories. He said the allegations involve violations of the Hatch Act -- which bars government employees from using their offices for partisan purposes -- and the "misuse of federal resources" in ways that "effectively undermine the democratic process." He said a "partial response" to subpoenas that were served last week "seems to bear out our concerns." ...."

Roll Call 7/26/99 John Bresnahan "...House Resources Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) is threatening to seek a contempt citation against a top Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official over the DCCC's failure to comply with a subpoena. The subpoena, issued two weeks ago, stems from a probe of alleged illegal partisan political activities by an Interior Department employee who was trying to dig up dirt on several top Congressional Republicans. "This a very serious matter," Young wrote in a letter sent late Friday to DCCC Executive Director David Plouffe. "Unless you and the DCCC provide the subpoenaed materials, I intend to issue notice that the full Committee will consider a motion to hold you in contempt of Congress." .... Young is seeking evidence of contacts between North and the DCCC. North sent a former senior DCCC official a memo in October 1997 suggesting they cooperate in finding incriminating information on DeLay, Armey and Rohrabacher and their ties to the Mariana Islands, as well as the American corporations that do business there. ..."

Cincinnati Post 7/28/99 Mike Rudtledge "...Contending that President Clinton didn't do anything ''presidential'' during his visit here Friday evening, Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. plans to send a $6,082.84 bill to the Democratic National Committee, which reaped the proceeds of Clinton's $10,000-per-plate fundraiser. But the DNC has no plans to pay, saying no matter what the reason for the president's travel - ''whether it be for official, political or personal purposes, it is the position of the U.S. government that the President should be provided security at government expense around the clock. The DNC is not responsible for, and does not reimburse any government agency for, these security expenses.'' ..."

Washington Post 8/1/99 Juliet Eilperin "...An Interior Department official conducted political research on a range of Republican lawmakers while on the job, according to documents compiled by the House Resources Committee. Memos retrieved from the computer of David North, public affairs officer of Interior's Insular Affairs Office, detail an elaborate campaign in which North distributed information to Democratic candidates on House Republicans' relationship with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory exempt from federal labor and immigration laws. In one document, for example, North sent the election opponent of Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) a five-page press release criticizing English's ties to Willie Tan, who owns garment factories in the Northern Marianas. "The question is, do the voters of the 21st District want to be represented in Congress by someone with this kind of relationship to Saipan's sweatshop and slot machine king?" the release read. Saipan is one of the islands that make up the Northern Marianas....."This guy was drafting press releases and doing opposition research for Democratic campaigns. That's pretty serious stuff," said the aide, who asked not to be identified. "This is not what public employees are supposed to be doing." ..."

Washington Times 8/3/99 Audrey Hudson "...An Interior Department official told his boss in a secret memo about his covert on-the-job political campaign aimed at unseating House Republican leaders in the 1998 election, according to a document obtained by The Washington Times. In a 1997 memo, David North, policy director for the Office of Insular Affairs, asked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for information on how to assist Democratic candidates, and sent a copy of the memo to his boss, Allen P. Stayman, then director of Insular Affairs. Mr. North and other federal employees are under investigation by the House Resources Committee for using official equipment and time in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat at least four House Republicans and one GOP senator. Mr. North drafted press releases for Democratic candidates, provided derogatory information about Republican members to campaigns and reporters, and wrote letters to the editor for constituents to submit to local newspapers, investigators say...."

Reuters 8/5/99 Ay Harris "...New Hampshire's Republican Party chairman filed an official complaint with the Federal Election Commission Thursday over the release of millions of gallons of water for a canoe trip Vice President Al Gore took on the Connecticut River. Gore took the trip last month with New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen to highlight his support for cleaning up endangered waterways. He declared the Connecticut an ``American Heritage River.'' But the trip turned into an embarrassment when it was revealed that a utility company on the river, Pacific Gas and Electric Inc., had released millions of gallons of water into the river just before the event....``Unless the utility charges the Gore campaign for it, it is a campaign contribution by a corporation and that's illegal.'' Duprey also alleged that the U.S. Secret Service had requested that the water be released into the river. He said he arrived at the $7 million figure because the early release of the water raised the price of generating electricity by that amount...."

Judicial Watch 8/9/99 Larry Klayman "..." Over the years, many liberal pundits and journalists, including Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, have dismissed the myriad of Clinton Administration scandals as not being the equal of Watergate. Ironically, however, even just one Clinton scandal -- which George Stephanopolous admits in his book, All Too Human, has the potential to be the most serious scandal -- surpasses the Nixon-era legacy. In Watergate, men posing as plumbers but acting under the direction of President Nixon's top advisors broke into the Democratic National Committee to conduct political espionage. In Filegate, the Clinton Administration's own "plumbers," acting under the direction of Hillary Rodham Clinton, broke into hundreds, if not thousands, of FBI and other government files. This represents the most widespread violation of constitutionally protected privacy rights in American history. And, as was true of the Nixon scandals, monies (albeit this time at taxpayers' expense) have been paid to key witnesses in Filegate, perhaps to keep them silent." ..."

Albuquerque Journal 8/17/99 Ian Hoffman "…Buffeted by accusations of leaking nuclear secrets, public-affairs staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory began sizing up influential government officials, media and academics as "pro," "con" or "neutral" to the laboratory. In what might be called the strange bedfellows list, the lab rated environmentalists, reporters for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and most Senate Republicans as "cons": Their statements on China's supposed nuclear thefts were bad for LANL and its image. Former Los Alamos scientist Peter Lee, who pleaded guilty in 1997 to divulging classified information to China, is "neutral" in the lab's database: He didn't say anything negative about the lab and espionage. Other "neutrals": Mark Holscher, defense attorney for FBI spy suspect Wen Ho Lee, and U.S. Attorney John J. Kelly, who is leading the Wen Ho Lee investigation. Lab public affairs director Sylvia Brucchi said she ordered subordinates to create the "key players" database in March to help lab executives navigate an increasingly complicated political landscape. Brucchi last week defended the database as a useful opinion-tracking device and said she knew nothing of the pro-con designations. On Friday, following Albuquerque Journal inquiries on the database, Brucchi was suspended with pay, pending an investigation of the creation of the database and her use of extensive outside public-relations consultants. …"

Fox News 8/17/99 AP Chris Roberts "….A list ranking journalists, politicians and others as for, against or neutral in their statements about alleged espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory was never used, the lab's suspended public relations director said Tuesday. The list was created by a well-meaning but naive junior employee, said Sylvia J. Brucchi, who is on paid leave while the incident is being investigated. Los Alamos has been under scrutiny after accusations that nuclear secrets were leaked from the lab. She said the project was only to compile a list of people who were making public statements on the alleged espionage and who were knowledgeable on the subject. Officials from the Energy Department and the University of California, which has operated the lab under a government contract since 1943, condemned any effort to create a list of people for and against the lab….."