[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 45 (Tuesday, April 11, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2507-S2508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MORE EVIDENCE OF COVERUP

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I understand a lot of people are preparing 
their remarks to address this very significant subject of the marriage 
tax penalty. I know the Senator from Texas has addressed this subject 
many times, as I have, and I intend to do that.
  Regrettably, I want to report to the Senate and to the American 
people something different, which is more evidence of the hypocrisy, 
corruption, and coverup which pervades this administration. Something 
happened last week. At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services 
Committee, we finally got some answers about the ``investigation'' 
concerning the March 1998 incident in which information from Linda 
Tripp's confidential Government security file was deliberately leaked 
to the media.
  Linda Tripp was and still is a Government employee who works out of 
the Pentagon. I understand nobody wants to hear about this. They would 
rather hear warm and fuzzy things. People say they have already heard 
it before, which they have not, but they think they have. They say 
there are only 9 months left in this President's term. Everybody says: 
Shut up; let it go; leave it alone; there is nothing you can do about 
it. They say: Just move on to something else.
  For those concerned about the politics of it, that is probably wise 
counsel, but some of us are less concerned about the politics than we 
are about the truth.
  I wish I did not have to say anything about this subject, but 
somebody has to do it. We are talking about another crime committed in 
this administration. Politicians do not want to make people feel 
uncomfortable. As Henry Ward Beecher said:

       I don't like those cold, precise, perfect people who, in 
     order not to say wrong, say nothing; and in order not to do 
     wrong, do nothing.

  A lot of say nothing and do nothing takes place in this Senate. That 
is why I asked Donald Mancuso, the Pentagon's acting inspector general, 
a series of questions at the hearing last week. His answers revealed 
for the first time a number of things we previously did not know.
  He told us: No. 1, the Pentagon Office of Inspector General completed 
its investigation of this matter in July of 1998. Spokespeople in the 
administration have been implying for the last 20 months that the 
Pentagon itself was still investigating. This is not true. It is just 
another Clinton lie.
  What we have is evidence of a lie, a coverup, and a transparent 
effort to drag it out as long as possible, hoping to run out the clock 
as the administration's time in office winds down.
  No. 2, we learned that the report--this is the report on the leak in 
1998--was given to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, and 
quoting Mancuso:

       We felt we had found sufficient information to warrant 
     consultation with the Department of Justice.

  This means it was a criminal referral. The Pentagon IG obviously 
believed there was sufficient evidence that a crime had been committed.
  No. 3, the inspector general concluded that Pentagon Director of 
Public Affairs Ken Bacon was involved in illegal activity. Quoting 
again Inspector General Mancuso:

       The facts show that information was released by Mr. Bacon 
     and it related to Linda Tripp.

  No. 4, the Justice Department, after a 20-month coverup, quietly told 
the Pentagon in the last 2 weeks it would not prosecute anyone in the 
case.
  We would not even have known about it if it had not been for the fact 
this came out during a hearing. This came out in a hearing that was 
live on C-SPAN. It was a public hearing, a public forum, so no one is 
going to be held legally accountable for what happened.
  Remember, this is the President, who, in November 1992, said he would 
immediately fire anyone who was caught disclosing information from 
confidential Government personnel files.
  All these things were not publicly known previously. I repeat, these 
four new findings we learned for the very first time only last week: 
First, we discovered that the Pentagon Office of Inspector General 
completed its investigation of the matter in July of 1998.
  Second, we learned that the report was given to the Justice 
Department for criminal prosecution.
  Third, we learned that the inspector general concluded that Pentagon 
Director of Public Affairs Ken Bacon was involved in the illegal 
activity.
  Mancuso said:

       The facts show that information was released by Mr. Bacon 
     and it related to Linda Tripp.

  Under the circumstances, releasing this information was clearly a 
criminal act, whether the Justice Department wants to believe this or 
not.
  Fourth, we learned that the Justice Department has been covering up 
the crime for 20 months and only now tells us that no one will be 
prosecuted and no one will be held accountable.
  This would never have come to light if it had not been for this 
hearing.
  This is the same Justice Department that has botched up the 
investigation of the theft of information on the W-88 warhead, that has 
refused to appoint an independent counsel to investigate campaign 
fundraising illegalities, and that continues to cover up vital 
information in defiantly refusing to release the LaBella and Freeh 
memos suggesting that crimes may have been committed in the Chinagate 
scandal.
  All this was ``breaking news'' last week. Did we read about it in the 
New York Times, in the Washington Post, or in the Los Angeles Times, or 
any of those publications? Did we hear about it on ABC, CBS, NBC, or 
CNN? No, we did not. With the noted exception of the Washington Times, 
the mainstream media largely ignored this important story.
  Have we come to the point, 7 years and 3 months into this President's 
term, that the media, that is supposed to be the watchdogs of 
democracy, has given up caring about lawbreaking and abuses by the 
incumbent administration? Is that what this is all about? Are they so 
tired and bored by it all that they cannot report the obvious facts to 
the American people?
  I appeal to the media right now to cover this story, and to cover it 
well. Just tell the truth. Expose the facts. Expose the hypocrisy. Do 
not, by your silence, allow yourselves to become pawns and participants 
in another Clinton coverup.
  This is still America. The truth still matters. Let's look at some 
history. Let's recall a time when the media played a much different 
role than they are playing now. Watergate was 25 years ago, a time 
before the ``death of outrage,'' when the media boasted of its role 
explaining the immense significance of lawbreaking and coverups in high 
places.
  Charles Colson, a guy I happen to know, I say to Senator Byrd--I 
attend a Bible study with him; an outstanding individual; at that time 
he was not so outstanding--was special counsel to President Nixon. He 
went to jail for doing essentially what Ken Bacon did. He released 
information to the media about a Pentagon employee that came from a 
confidential Government file in an attempt to discredit that person.

[[Page S2508]]

 This was a crime then; and it is a crime now.
  What exactly did Colson do? This is what he said he did, in his own 
words. This is going back to 1991:

       I got hold of derogatory FBI reports about Ellsberg and 
     leaked them to the press.

  He said further, in 1976:

       I happily gave an inquiring reporter damaging information . 
     . . compiled from secret FBI dossiers.

  So what happened to Colson?
  In the midst of the media firestorm surrounding Watergate, Colson 
pleaded guilty to the charge that he obstructed justice by 
disseminating to the media derogatory information from a confidential 
FBI file about Daniel Ellsberg.
  Colson was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Gerhard Gesell to a 
prison term of 1 to 3 years and fined $5,000. At the sentencing, Judge 
Gesell deplored Colson's ``deliberate misconduct'' and he lectured him 
to understand that ``Morality is a higher force than expediency.''
  In his book, ``Born Again,'' Colson talked about the significance of 
what he had done. He recalled that Judge Gesell said, in his pretrial 
hearing:

       The whole purpose of this case, beyond its immediate 
     objective, is to direct some attention to the desirability of 
     having a government of law, not a government of men. That is 
     what this is [all] about.

  Colson continued, in his own words:

       It is something I remembered from Civics I in school.

  He said:

       These were the cardinal principles of American government, 
     the real bull-work against man-made tyranny. When a man's 
     constitutional rights are in jeopardy, the violation, even 
     cloaked in the time-honored protective shroud of national 
     security, is simply intolerable.

  Colson served 7 months in jail before the court reduced his sentence 
to time served.
  Now, what did Ken Bacon do?
  Let's go to the Washington Post of May 22, 1998:

       The Pentagon's chief spokesman (Ken Bacon) apologized today 
     for authorizing the release to a reporter of information 
     contained in Linda R. Tripp's 1987 security clearance form, 
     saying, ``In retrospect, I'm sorry the incident occurred.''
       Bacon's remarks came after he acknowledged in a deposition 
     last Friday that he provided the New Yorker writer Jane Mayer 
     with the Tripp information.

  So, in other words, he admitted it. There is no question about 
whether or not he committed this crime. There is no doubt about it, no 
dispute about it.
  Bacon said:

       I'm sorry that I did not check with our lawyers or check 
     with Linda Tripp's lawyers about this.

  Sorry? Sorry didn't cut it for Chuck Colson. Colson committed his 
crime in July of 1971. He admitted his guilt and pleaded guilty on June 
3, 1974, and was sentenced to jail June 21, 1974.
  Bacon committed his crime in March 1998. He admitted what he had done 
in June of 1998. The Pentagon inspector general referred the matter for 
criminal prosecution in July of 1998. So now, 2 years later, in April 
of 2000, the Clinton Justice Department says it is going to take a 
pass, hoping nobody will see or care at this late date.
  Colson went to jail and served time in prison. If there was justice, 
an equal application of the law, Bacon would also go to jail and serve 
time in prison.
  Is this the first time the Clinton administration has been involved 
in lawbreaking and corruption? Hardly. It has almost become a way of 
life: Travelgate, Filegate, Buddhist Temple fundraisers, illegal 
foreign campaign contributions, the compromise of high-technology 
nuclear secrets to China, not to mention perjury and obstruction of 
justice--the list goes on and on.
  Why is any of this important? It is all about a concept that is basic 
to America, a concept as basic as going to church on Sunday. That 
concept is: Equal application of the law.
  Only the media can ultimately protect this fundamental principle by 
informing the people about what is happening. If the people do not 
know, of course, they will not care. The role of the media is critical 
in protecting our liberties. So again, I appeal to the media to cover 
this story, not to cover up this story.
  Does anyone care? I believe the American people care. But they must 
be informed first.
  Let me conclude by recalling the words of Chuck Colson. In writing 
about his own case, he said:

       I pleaded guilty after being told by Watergate prosecutor 
     Leon Jaworski that my conviction would deter such a thing 
     from [ever] happening again.

  So I am here today to tell the American people, it just happened 
again.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.

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