[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H11040-H11044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FBI AGENT'S BOOK RAISES CONCERNS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Roth). There being no Member to claim
the minority leader's hour, under the Speaker's announced policy of May
12, 1995, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 60
minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, we had two FBI agents who worked
at the White House, both of whom have retired now, who are very
concerned about the policies of the Clinton administration. I have
talked with both of those individuals, and they have for the most part
corroborated what each other said about what was going at the White
House and it has been very disturbing. As a matter of fact, Gary
Aldrich, one of the two FBI agents who worked at the White House, wrote
a book called ``Unlimited Access'', and it raises a number of serious
issues that I believe should be of concern to the American people. Much
of the information in the book directly relates to matters that have
been the subjects of investigation by the Committee on Government
Reform and Oversight on which I serve. Much of the Aldrich book focuses
on the security problems that he and his colleague Dennis Sculimbrine
directly observed. The background investigation process is very
thorough and probing because we need to ensure that persons working at
the White House do not have character or other problems that would
endanger the President or otherwise jeopardize our national security.
The White House is no doubt very familiar with the book ``Unlimited
Access''. In February, 4 months before the book was published, FBI
general counsel Howard Shapiro gave the White House counsel Jack Quinn
a copy of the manuscript of the book, even though the White House is
supposed to play no role whatsoever in the FBI's prepublication review
of books by former agents.
We were very concerned about that, because Mr. Shapiro was the
assistant counsel to FBI Director Louis Freeh when he was a chief
prosecutor in New York City, and Mr. Freeh was prosecuting some very
high-profile figures, in the Mafia and otherwise. And for Mr. Shapiro
not to know the policies of the FBI and the legal profession was just
beyond me. Nevertheless, he went to the White House with this book, 4
months, to give the White House a heads up on what was going to be in
the book so they could protect their derriere, and we thought that that
was totally out of order.
Recently the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight learned
that the White House attempted to send the manuscript of ``Unlimited
Access'' back to the FBI. John Collingwood, the inspector in charge of
the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, returned the manuscript
back to the White House. In a letter to Jack Quinn dated September 17,
1996 he said, ``Because this is a document in the possession of the
White House, which you have described as responsive to a congressional
subpoena, we believe it would be inappropriate for the FBI to become
involved in this matter.''
I have a copy of this letter I want to submit for the Record, Mr.
Speaker.
U.S. Department of Justice,
Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Washington, DC, September 17, 1996.
Mr. John M. Quinn,
Counsel to the President,
The White House, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Quinn: This is in response to your letter to
Director Freeh, dated September 13, 1996, in which you
enclosed a copy of the manuscript of Gary Aldrich's book.
Although your letter is marked ``By Hand,'' it and the
enclosure were sent by United States Priority Mail and
received by the FBI only today.
We are returning the manuscript to you with this letter.
Because this is a document in the possession of the White
House which you have described as ``responsive'' to a
congressional subpoena, we believe it would be inappropriate
for the FBI to become involved in this matter.
You correctly note that Mr. Aldrich made certain deletions
at the request of the FBI. However, the FBI prepublication
review process should not affect your consideration of the
subpoena. Nothing in the manuscript contains classified
information.
Sincerely,
John E. Collingwood,
Inspector-in-Charge,
Office of Public and Congressional Affairs.
This is very important, because they gave this book to the White
House. The White House then tried to get it back to cover their tracks
and the FBI said, ``Hey, wait a minute, we don't want to be involved in
this,'' and so they were not.
Now, a lot of things were pointed out in this book that I think the
American people ought to know about, Mr. Speaker.
Illegal drug use in the Clinton administration was higher than in the
Bush administration and not confined to minor use of marijuana that was
used in the past. There were cases of several decades of use of
marijuana. Clinton staffers' drug use included hard drugs such as
cocaine, crack, LSD, and methamphetamine. These were people who went to
work at the White House and they had been using hard drugs, cocaine,
crack, LSD and methamphetamine, and those people were involved in
issues of national security, and they had not had background FBI
checks.
According to Mr. Aldrich in his book, he said, if I had to guess,
about 10 percent of the persons coming to the Bush White House had
tried an illegal drug, which was about a third of the national average,
and it was almost always marijuana and only once. Prior use of cocaine
was almost never, on occasion; use of more serious drugs was unheard
of. The illegal drug use was invariably confined to an individual's
college days.
Though the age breakdown in the Bush and Clinton administration was
probably about the same, illegal drug use in the Clinton administration
was much higher and not confined to minor drugs like marijuana.
Generally if marijuana was used, it was not confined to the college
years, either. In fact, a striking number of cases began to emerge in
which the use of marijuana, once started in high school or college,
continued into one's twenties, thirties and sometimes the forties. We
were talking about decades of illegal drug use.
There was another important difference between the Bush and Clinton
staffers. In the Bush administration, more of the younger, post-baby
boom staffers had managed to get through college with no drug use at
all. They were a reflection of the national downward trend in drug use
inspired by Nancy Reagan's much mocked but effective ``just say no''
campaign, but in the Clinton administration it was harder to find young
staffers who had not experimented with marijuana, cocaine, and heavier
drugs. Evidently they just could not say no.
The minority of Bush applicants who experimented and admitted
inhaling did not try to defend their use of illegal drugs. They were
invariably apologetic.
[[Page H11041]]
``Yes, I did smoke marijuana once or twice, I was in college and
everyone was doing it, so I tried it. I stopped using marijuana after I
left college, but I'm ashamed that I ever did it because it was stupid.
I'm sorry agents like you are risking your lives fighting drug
traffickers while I didn't have the guts to stand to peer pressure.''
By contrast, and this is important, Mr. Speaker, the Clinton
staffers, older or younger, made no apology for their illegal drug use,
which was more extensive and included many heavy drugs like cocaine,
crack, LSD, and methamphetamine. Many were actually in your face about
it, using the FBI interview to try to debate me on the merits of making
drugs legal.
Of course, when I asked them how they obtained their drugs, the lies
began. It was a rare Clinton staffer who ever purchased any drugs.
Almost all the Clinton staffers were given drugs by friends or could
not recall who gave them the drugs or used the drugs at a party where
they did not really know anybody there. But the fact is they had an
attitude when they were confronted by the FBI agent there, Mr. Aldrich,
by saying, ``Hey, what's wrong with using drugs,'' in effect.
Clinton staffers often showed no remorse for drug use. They lied
about purchasing drugs, as I just said, and they said someone gave them
drugs. Bill Kennedy did not seem to regard the drug use as a serious
issue. When a case came up involving a staffer who had admitted to
serious illegal drug use over a long time, including recently, Kennedy
said, quote, now this is one of the counsels to the President of the
United States, ``I can hardly fire somebody for being honest with the
FBI, can I?'' The staffer was still working at the White House when
``Unlimited Access'' was written and Mr. Aldrich left the White House.
This is on page 118 of the book ``Unlimited Access.''
There were problems with White House interns, including theft of lap
top computers. There may also have been drug problems. Livingstone, Mr.
Livingstone was in charge of White House security. He is the one we
have heard about with the 900 FBI files being brought to the White
House improperly, and we believe illegally, and I might add at this
point one FBI file was used by Chuck Colson during the
Nixon administration, and he got a 2-year prison sentence. Mr.
Livingstone had 900 and some FBI files, and nothing yet has been done.
Livingstone told the interns, ``And I know that some of you guys are
going to do it but don't get caught.'' Now this is the chief of
security over there. ``I know that some of you guys are going to do it
but don't get caught. I mean, I am not asking you to become a narc or
anything, but go easy on that kind of thing.'' This is a White House
security person in charge of security. Telling them, you know, ``just
don't get caught.'' That is unbelievable. That is on page 37 and 38 of
the book, ``Unlimited Access.''
A White House intern told Craig Livingstone that she wanted to pursue
an FBI career. Livingstone told her that the FBI would investigate her
background thoroughly and she could not hide her past. Livingstone
said, I mean, quote, this is a quote from him, ``I mean, it isn't like
the White House where you can use drugs before and skate past other
indiscretions and still work here.'' In other words, if you are trying
to get a job at the FBI, they are going to really scrutinize you, but
at the White House you are not being scrutinized and you can get around
that sort of thing. That is on page 118 and 119 of Mr. Aldrich's book.
FBI agents who conducted SPIN investigations; that is, the background
check investigations for people wanting to work at the White House,
were the first to see disturbing trends in the administration. Then the
analysts at FBI headquarters saw them. Problems included drugs, bizarre
sexual behavior, failure to pay taxes, failure to honor financial
obligations, severe credit problems, bankruptcy, civil suits, liens,
loan defaults, failure to repay federally funded student loans. These
are people that were working at the White House. That is on pages 125
and 126 in Mr. Aldrich's book. I hope my colleagues will take the time
to read that.
Now regarding the White House Travel Office and the FBI, we had a
Travelgate investigation. The White House did not use Secret Service to
investigate travel office staff because the Secret Service had traveled
with Billy Dale and the Travel Office staff for years and had never
seen the slightest evidence of wrongdoing.
On page 131, and I quote, ``Why didn't they use the Secret Service
then? Because Secret Service agents had been traveling with Billy Dale
and his crew for years and had never seen the slightest evidence of
theft or fraud.''
Yet these people were accused of all kinds of wrongdoing. Their
reputations were besmirched and ruined. They had to spend thousands and
thousands of dollars of legal fees defending themselves and the Secret
Service said there were never anything that they did wrong.
Craig Livingstone said that it was stupid of David Watkins at the
White House to have the FBI investigate the Travel Office staff.
Livingstone said this in a meeting on page 81H in the book, and I want
to read to you what he said:
At the mention of the Travel Office, Livingstone, the chief of
security there, really got going. ``That blanking Watkins,'' he said.
``I told them that Watkins was going to screw everything up.'' He is
talking to Gary Aldrich, the guy, the FBI agent at the White House.
``Gary, I sat in a meeting when it was decided that the Travel Office
guys were going to get fired and that they would be reported to the
FBI.'' So the FBI was supposed to try to make them look bad and to
convince everybody in this country that they were guilty of wrongdoing:
I told them they were nuts. Look, we had heard rumors that
the press was taken care of by the Travel Office guys,
bottles of wine in their rooms, easy customs exams and stuff
like that, but it was stupid of Watkins to suggest that the
FBI be brought into it. There was no wrongdoing.
Now, this is Livingstone working at the Clinton White House saying
this:
There was no wrongdoing, no illegal acts that we could
prove. The only good rumor we had some some reporter brought
in a carpet illegally through customs. A carpet. That was it.
I argued very strongly against bringing in the FBI. It was
wrong. We unnecessarily ruined their reputations. It was
Watkins and Kennedy, Gary. This was their big idea of how to
get rid of them. I told them it was stupid idea that would
never work.
Nevertheless, Mr. Watkins and Mr. Kennedy, the White House counsel,
and some people believe even the First Lady were involved in saying,
``We're got to get those guys out of there so we can put our people
in.'' And so they fired them and they accused them of wrongdoing, they
summarily moved them out of the White House and after they moved them
out of the White House, in an unmarked white van and made them sit in
the back of it, they said that they were guilty of pilfering funds for
the White House Travel Office. They were exonerated in less than about
10 minutes before a jury once the case went to trial, and yet they have
never had their legal expenses paid and they have never received an
apology, to my knowledge, from the White House.
Bill Kennedy said to Aldrich, this is assistant counsel to the
President of the United States, Bill Kennedy said to Aldrich and
Schulimbrine, ``By the way, tomorrow you guys are going to hear about
something you aren't going to like, but you're going to thank me for
keeping you out of it.''
{time} 1115
Aldrich asked Kennedy what he was talking about. Kennedy said, I
can't tell you now. Just read the papers. You are going to thank me for
keeping you out of this thing. Just read the papers. And the next day,
the White House Travel Office people were fired.
At the same time, the announcement was being made that the FBI would
be conducting a criminal investigation of the White House Travel
Office. Evidently the White House was going to FBI headquarters rather
than having Aldrich and Scuimbrene, the agent on site at the white
House, to investigate the travel office. So they went around them to
people they thought they could work with at the White House.
And in our hearings today and in testimony that was sworn deposition
involving Mr. Livingstone, we went through a litany of issues today and
in the past, and we found that Mr. Livingstone and others had indicated
that there were FBI agents who said that they would do favors for the
White house. So they went around
[[Page H11042]]
Sculimbrine and Aldrich, the agents on site there, and went to these
other people. It creates a lot of questions about why they did that,
and were they trying to get their political agenda through by using the
FBI, which could involve some felonies.
Late one night, after the Billy Dale trial, Dennis Sculimbrine talked
to Craig Livingstone in his office. Sculimbrine had been subpoenaed to
testify in Billy Dale's defense. Livingstone said, I don't appreciate
what you did for Billy Dale, Dennis. It wasn't helpful.
Sculimbrine, who is retired from the FBI, said he was subpoenaed. He
had to tell the truth. What else could he do? I mean, he was
subpoenaed, he had to go before the grand jury, and he had to tell the
truth. What else could he do?
Livingstone responded, and I quote:
The truth, Dennis? Don't you know the truth is relative?
Your testimony was your version of the truth. Truth is what
ever you want it to be. And another thing, I don't ever want
to discuss anything related to the FBI or background
investigations with you ever again.
That is on page 134 of the book. I hope my colleagues will read that,
because that is the way to split hairs and to get to your ends by
obfuscating or skirting the truth, so you can get what you want done.
that is what they did, and they fired the White House staff. And
because Mr. Sculimbrine, the FBI agent at the White House, told the
truth, he was criticized severely by Mr. Livingstone.
Associate Counsel William Kennedy asked Aldrich what he thought about
hiring Craig Livingstone in the first place. Mr. Livingstone had been
involved, along with Mr. Marceca, his sidekick there at the office
involving security, they had been involved in the nefarious political
activities, dirty tricks, back in 1984 during the Gary Hart campaign.
They were working for Mondale, and they were trying to get some
information on some labor people who were supporting--I guess they were
working for Hart and trying to get some information on some labor
people supporting his opponent, and the fellow in charge of the
campaign there said that he would not work with these fellows because
they were involved in these dirty tricks, and they were summarily
dismissed.
But anyhow, let me get back to the subject. Associate Counsel William
Kennedy asked FBI agent Aldrich, on the way to the airport when he was
taking him out there to drop him off one day, what he thought about
hiring Craig Livingstone to replace Jane Danehauer, and in particular
asked him what he would think if there were character issues that were
flaws in his background.
Aldrich simply responded that the position should be filled by
someone who is squeaky clean, but Kennedy cut him off and said,
quoting, ``I guess I see your point, but it really doesn't matter. It
is a done deal. Hillary wants him.''
That is on page 36-K.
I will quote exactly what he said:
I responded gingerly, saying that it was a post that should
be filled with someone squeaky clean, and before that, before
Kennedy cut me off. And Kennedy did cut me off and he said, I
see your point, but it doesn't matter, it is a done deal,
Hillary wants him. So they hired Mr. Livingstone, and Mr.
Livingstone was the one that got the 900-some FBI files
unethically and, we believe, illegally.
Beginning after the election, the incoming Clinton administration
stonewalled the FBI's attempts to conduct background investigations and
interviews that were necessary to get clearances for people to go into
the White House.
This is on pages 8 and 9.
But we were already off to a bad start. There were about 70
days between the election and the inauguration, sufficient
time to complete a large number of Spin cases, that is
background investigations. But for some reason there aren't
many cases coming in. All of this chaos was so unnecessary,
and eventually it caused the administration so much trouble
that there seemed to be only 3 possible explanations, all
disturbing: The administration was being managed by people so
disorganized that they could not conform to basic procedures
essential to the administration's own effectiveness; or, key
people in the administration had simply decided the security
procedures were not important and were taking a so what
attitude toward possible scandal, embarrassment or worse; or,
key people in the administration were so actively hostile to
the background investigation process that they wanted to
guarantee we wouldn't have enough time to perform adequate
checks and follow up on allegations.
Now, think about that. These people are working in the White House on
national security issues, and they did not have FBI background checks.
That is unthinkable. Also think about the security of the President
himself.
David Watkins was evasive in his background investigation interview,
in particular, finally telling FBI agent Aldrich to back off because he
was a close personal friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
That is on page 18-M.
He said back off, because I am a friend of Bill and Hillary.
That is on page 18.
FBI agents Aldrich and Sculimbrine made countless complaints and
wrote many memos about the White House's lack of cooperation in
background investigations. This is on pages 28 and 29.
Aldrich and Craig Livingstone were discussing the security problems
at the White House. FBI agent Aldrich suggested they both talk to the
White House counsel, Nussbaum. Livingstone replied Bernie Nussbaum, the
chief counsel to the President? It is not Nussbaum we got to talk to.
We will be talking to Hillary.
That is on pages 82 ad 83. Livingstone went on to say Hillary is the
one to talk to. However, Livingstone never mentions the possible
meeting to Aldrich again. Pages 82 and 83. I hope my colleagues will
take a look at that. Most of this is all in sworn deposition by Mr.
Aldrich.
The media reported that David Watkins, he wouldn't submit to an FBI
background check. The media reported that David Watkins had been
accused of sexual harassment in 1992. It was also reported that the
victim of the harassment was illegally given $37,000 of campaign money
from the Clinton campaign to keep quiet. The media reported that a
document to this effect was crafted by Chris Barney, who is now working
in the White House as a Cabinet secretary, a high level position.
Aldrich approached Barney regarding the matter because he believed it
was relevant to Watkins' background investigation. Barney did not
cooperate, and Aldrich wrote a memo to the FBI spin unit chief, James
Bork, the man who was supposed to make sure they got the background
checks, asking him to call the White House counsel's office to get the
relevant people to submit to interviews. Nothing happened.
Aldrich was later told the case was to be closed without any
interviews. They closed the case with no interviews, never got to the
bottom of the White House, and Watkins was later fired for some of his
nefarious activities. But the fact of the matter is they had evidence
the Clinton for President campaign paid $37,000 to pay this girl off on
a sexual harassment suit, yet the FBI couldn't even conduct a
background check involving Mr. Watkins.
Dee-Dee Myers was uncooperative in filling out forms for her
background investigation. In her position Myers was seeing and hearing
highly classified, very sensitive national security information.
Aldrich wrote a report about this problem and faxed it to headquarters
and his immediate supervisor. The FBI ignored the report. They simply
couldn't get through to the White House and to the President, because
evidently they had gone around Sculimbrine and Mr. Aldrich, the FBI
agents there, and had gone to somebody at the FBI who was willing to
shut off the FBI background checks.
Related security problems. According to an October 1995 General
Accounting Office report, from January 20, 1993 to March of 1994, only
24 employees in the Clinton White House had been cleared to handle
classified documents. The Bush administration had hundreds of people
handling the same volume of classified material. This raises a serious
possibility that Clinton employees without security clearances were
handling classified, secret material, in violation of the law. This is
on page 67 and 68 of this book.
Mr. Aldrich says there was no way they could have handled the
workload. I believe that classified material passed through the hands
of Clinton employees without security clearances. After all, little or
no regard was given to any other security related policy or procedure.
Why would they treat classified documents any differently? Handling
classified material without a
[[Page H11043]]
clearance or allowing classified material to pass through uncleared
personnel is a violation of Federal law and yet it was taking place.
But to think of what it means for national security when just about
anyone can handle classified material? It wouldn't take a KGB genius to
infiltrate the Clinton administration. Apparently most of the White
House documents are freely available to whomever might look at them,
however inadvertently. Accordingly, many of the more than 200
volunteers who worked at the White House, worked for weeks, sometimes
months, with no salary, no benefits and no security clearance to work
at the White House. That is page 25-S.
Mr. Aldrich says, nor did they have any legal right to work in the
White House, review classified material, or do anything else as
government employees, and yet they had them working there.
Now, Vince Foster, before he committed suicide, or was found dead at
Fort Marcy, Foster asked FBI agent Aldrich if all staffers in the West
Wing were required to have FBI security background investigations.
Aldrich said that Mr. Foster did not have a clue. This on page 73.
Clinton had the old phone system replaced, even though it had worked
well. The new phone system cost more than $27 million. It offered
staffers a secret unpublished phone number, a secret phone number, that
even the FBI was not allowed to know about. FBI agent Aldrich was told
please don't call it secret. It makes people around here nervous.
Patsy Thomasson responded with crude language that she would not
furnish this phone list to the FBI. They wanted these phone numbers to
be kept secret. Why would they not want the FBI to know about them?
Maybe some things were going on on the phones that they simply did not
want anybody to find out about. The new phone system was installed
without the usual input or approval from neither the FBI or the Secret
Service. Patsy Thomasson and David Watkins made this decision. This is
on page 46 and 47.
I would like to read a little bit of the dialog that took place.
There was a lady there named Sylvia, who evidently worked with Patsy
Thomasson, and Mr. Aldrich says on page 46, later I met a good friend
in the hallway, a permanent employee who saw Patsy Thomasson
frequently. Gary, there is no secret phone list. Her eyes swiveled to
see if she had been overheard. Sylvia, it sure as hell is secret, if I,
an FBI agent, can't get it.
Well, all right, Gary, but please don't call it secret. It makes
people around here nervous. The next day a very muted and intimidated
Sylvia called me. Gary, I passed your request on to Patsy, Patsy
Thomasson, and you don't want to hear what she said.
Oh, go ahead. Nothing would surprise me anyhow, Mr. Aldrich said.
When I told Patsy you wanted the list, she said screw the FBI, to hell
with the FBI, they are not getting this list.
In addition to making it tougher to reach people, the new phone
system was a security nightmare. The old system was self-contained and
manned 24 hours a day. The new system was computerized and therefore
not self-contained.
In preparation for this book, I interviewed a White House telephone
company official who requested confidentiality. Gary, as you know, the
Secret Service has always had a say in the past on changes to the phone
system. This time they were effectively told to sit down and shut up.
The system was installed without any of the usual input or approval
from the Secret Service.
Oh, come on, you are kidding. What bonehead would cut the Secret
Service out, Aldrich said?
No, I am not kidding, it was Patsy Thomasson and David Watkins who
were the boneheads, Gary.
Aldrich met with Vince Foster and told him that the counsel's office
had blocked the Secret Service from seeing the FBI background reports.
This is important because the Secret Service needs to know if there is
something problematic in an employee's background. This is on page 71
and 65. I want to read this.
Then Foster turned to the question of security as I had anticipated
and hoped that he would. How is the security around here? Not that
good, Mr. Foster. What is the problem? If the FBI knew I were offering
you my opinions on the faults in the White House security, it would
cost me my assignment or even my job.
It is all right, Gary, this is just between you and me. You have my
word on that. Now, tell me what the problems are.
I told him the security process was still stalled and I was seriously
worried about how the Secret Service had been blocked from seeing the
FBI reports. Blocked? Who blocked them? Well, Mr. Foster, it was the
counsel's office. He seemed surprised to hear this. He asked about the
magnitude of the character issues we discovered during our
investigations. I told him they were numerous and serious. I also told
him I was not comfortable about giving him any information about any
particular staff member. After all, many of these persons were his
friends and there were questions of protocol and discretion. Any
negative comments from me about specific individuals could be
misinterpreted or even misused. Foster should simply order copies of
the FBI summaries and read the results and judge for himself.
{time} 2330
And he went on, on page 65:
In the past, the Secret Service had a right to determine
the potential dangerousness of an individual and advise the
counsel's office accordingly. In the past, there has been no
question that the experts, the Secret Service, not the
associate counsel, was the agency responsible for security
and its recommendations carried great weight and were rarely,
if ever, overruled.
To shut the Secret Service out from receiving the spin or
background check reports would change the Secret Service into
a reactive body. Without access to the background
investigations, the Secret Service could not prevent security
problems. It could only react once they had occurred.
In other words, denying the Secret Service access to background
investigations would mortally wound its capacity to protect the
President and everyone else who working in the White House.
Kennedy's problem was that he needed to hire Clinton's appointees
regardless of their character issues that were considered irrelevant by
the group as a whole. The yardstick by which person were selected to
work in the Clinton administration was different from any yardstick
used by the FBI or the Secret Service.
The Clintonites adjusted the White House security system accordingly
and, I might add, to fit their needs. An example of this problem:
Questions raised by Foster's death. What if he had brought a gun to the
White House and shot himself there or shot others? The Secret Service
had never examined his FBI summary. And that is on page 76. And I want
to read that.
At 10 a.m. the next morning, I met a Secret Service buddy
in the hallway of the Old Executive Office Building. We were
both in deep shock. This is after Vince Foster's death. Not
only because we knew Vince Foster but because we understood
the possible ramifications of his death.
What if Foster had shot himself in his office? What if he
had first turned the gun on others? The fact that the Secret
Service had never examined Foster's FBI summary and had no
idea what risk he might pose to others or to other staffers.
I thought the security mess would hit the fan now and we
might be called in front of a Congressional committee in a
major battle between Congress, which had oversight
responsibility, and the White House over the unconscionable
and inexcusable risks that were being taken with the
President's security. And I knew who would get the blame, the
FBI and the Secret Service, not the higher-ups, not the
Bernie Nussbaums and the others in that office who knew how
to cover their tails.
Staffers with temporary I.D. wanted to bring visitors to
the West Wing. Rules prohibit people with temporary passes
from bringing in visitors. Secret Service turned them away,
and the staffers got very angry. Within hours--
Because they were bringing people that should not have been in the
White House.
Within hours, the rule forbidding uncleared staffers from
bringing in visitors was waived.
That is on page 53 of the book.
Temporary pass holders had to go through the metal detectors. They
didn't like this and got the rule rescinded, even though one Clinton
volunteer got caught trying to bring in a pistol. Even though they
tried to bring in a pistol through a metal detector, they got that
waived, that you didn't have to go through the metal detector. That is
absolutely ridiculous.
[[Page H11044]]
That is on page 53 of the book, and I hope my colleagues will read
that as well.
Clinton criticized the Bush administration--this is a
little side issue that I think my colleagues might get a kick
out of. Clinton criticized the Bush administration's use of
limousines, really small dark sedans, but bought new ones to
replace the year-old vehicles.
And that is on page 17 of the book. I hope my colleagues will read
that, because they used that in the campaign.
And as soon as they got into office, they bought all new ones.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. There was an attempt to get retroactive pay.
People showed up at the White House to work in the Clinton White House,
with many not having a job arranged. Later, David Watkins wanted to pay
them retroactively, go back and pay them for the time that they were
volunteers before they were actually hired. He wanted to pay them for
the volunteer work before they were actually hired.
The head of the personnel for the Office of Administration, Phil
Larson, refused and then quit because they were forcing him to
illegally go back and pay people when they were volunteers before they
were hired by the White House.
This is on page 24, and I would like to read to you what it said
there.
It eventually dawned on the Clinton administration that
these people had to be given appointments. David Watkins
called Larson and told him to draw up the appropriate
documents. Larson told him, and Mr. Larson was the head of
personnel for the Office of Administration, Larson hold him,
``It is too late. It is illegal, illegal, to grant
appointments retroactively to pay people. We would have to
create phony documents to do that.''
Watkins did not care whether it was legal or illegal. He
ordered Larson to backdate forms and create whatever
documents were necessary, phony or not, so Clinton staff
members could get paid. Larson refused, and he ultimately
quit because he was under such pressure.
There were transition employees who were double-dipping.
Twenty-five transition office staffers were also put on the
White House payroll and, thus, were doubling-dipping. Some
were caught by a General Accounting Office audit but as late
as September of 1993 had not paid back the money. The White
House said it was too busy to deal with this problem.
This is on page 24 and 25.
These 25 had no problem paying their bills since they were
now collecting two taxpayer financed paychecks. Some were
caught by the GAO audit and were forced to pay back the
money, but as late as September 1993, 9 months after the
Inauguration, they were still refusing to reimburse the
Government and were resisting official notice they had
committed what happened to be fraud against the Government
and a Federal felony.
And, finally, a little footnote. Special agent, FBI agent Dennis
Sculimbrene was waiting to interview Chief of Staff, Mack McLarty. He
overheard a conversation between two of McLarty's assistants to the
effect that Hillary Clinton wanted all of McLarty's ingoing and
outgoing mail to go through her office.
This is on page 92. And he said in his book,
I do not know what she is trying to do. If we route all of
McLarty's incoming and outgoing mail through her office, it's
just going to create another step and delay things even
worse.
Yeah, but Hillary wants to see who's coming in to see Mack
and what he is reading and writing and working on. She wants
to control this office. That's the long and the short of it.
Hillary is trying to be the chief of staff. I guess we should
just get ready for it, since nobody around here seems to know
how to say no to Hillary.
These are just a few of the things that are in this book that are
very disturbing to me, as a Congressman, I believe to the Committee on
Government Reform and Oversight, of which I am a member.
And when we see these things involving national security, the
security of the White House, security of sensitive information, top-
secret information with people looking at them without having proper
clearance, people breaking the law by getting back-pay when they are
not supposed to, and trying to falsify documents, all of these things
are things that we should not tolerate as a Government, and yet nothing
has been done, by my knowledge, to bring any of these people to justice
or to bring these things to a head or a conclusion.
So we are going to continue to pursue this. We are running out of
time in this session of Congress, but the Committee on Government
Reform and Oversight has issued a couple of reports that get to some of
the questions and answers, but more needs to be researched.
No person, no group of persons, no individuals in this country are
above the law. We are a Nation of laws and not of men or women. And
when people break the law, no matter where they are in our society, the
lowest person or the highest person, they should be held accountable.
And toward that end, we must get to the bottom of these questions which
have been raised in Mr. Aldrich's book.
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