[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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