From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: White House Accused of Data Theft Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 10:12:25 -0500 To: believer@telepath.com Source: Washington Post http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19981007/V000584-100798-idx.htm... White House Accused of Data Theft By John Solomon Associated Press Writer Wednesday, October 7, 1998; 7:42 p.m. EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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. ``Richard Sullivan, the DNC finance director, himself testified that he obtained lists of attendance at White House CEO lunches and the White House Economic Conference and that he used those lists to raise money,'' the report states. Originally, presidential aides insisted White House staff and the database were used only for official purposes and none of it was misused for fund raising. Federal law prohibits the use of government resources for fund raising or other political or private purposes. Those who misuse such resources can be charged with stealing government resources. White House officials said Wednesday the DNC was only authorized to use its data for invitation lists, and if information was used for anything else that was inappropriate. ``This White House, like the Bush and Reagan White House, keeps names and addresses of our supporters, and tries to ensure that they are included in White House events,'' spokesman Barry Toiv said. Toiv charged the subcommittee report was ``irresponsible and deceptive and highly partisan'' and excluded ``information that contradicts'' its allegations. The report directly accused Clinton of knowing about and instigating the misuse of federal resources for political purposes. Among the examples it cited were internal White House documents indicating that the president instructed that information he obtained from official White House e-mail or other sources be sent to his political campaign. ``Quite frequently the president will ask that certain names and addresses be added to the supporter file. ... Attached is a list of supporter file information,'' a 1994 White House memo said, asking that the information be forwarded to a separate campaign database Clinton instructed be built in Arkansas. White House officials said there was nothing wrong with Clinton forwarding to his campaign, for example, business cards he had received at the White House and said there was no evidence he sent wholesale portions of government data. The report also cites a document showing Clinton authorized a job description for a top aide, Marsha Scott, that included a responsibility for ``insuring ... supporters were involved in fund-raising activities'' such as the controversial White House coffees. Presidential aides defended Scott's job description, noting political appointees aren't forbidden by law from doing political work provided they don't solicit donations. The subcommittee also referred White House deputy counsel Cheryl Mills to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, alleging that in 1996 she located two subpoenaed documents suggesting that Clinton and his wife, Hillary, sanctioned the use of the White House database for political purposes but withheld them from the committee for months -- until after the 1996 election. It also accused her of lying about aspects of the database to the committee. Ms. Mills has said she did not believe the documents were responsive to the subpoena when she first reviewed them and sought the advice of her superiors who agreed. She denies any effort to mislead investigators. And the top Democrat on the Government Reform committee wrote the Justice Department saying he disagreed with the GOP referral, saying Ms. Mills may have made a mistake but there was no evidence of willful obstruction. The release of the report is part of a broader effort by Republicans in Congress to make public information that they think should be considered in the impeachment inquiry the House is set to approve Thursday. Rep. David McIntosh, R-Ind., said Wednesday it was ``premature'' to predict whether his findings would be incorporated into the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment investigation on the president's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. ``This isn't about sex. This is about abusing his official privilege for personal and political gain,'' McIntosh said. The inquiry into the database, which contained the names of individuals who have contact with the White House or president, has been conducted over the last two years without the same fanfare of higher profile investigations of Ms. Lewinsky, Whitewater, FBI files and the White House travel office firings. Nonetheless, the investigators said they found White House documents with official government data -- including holiday card lists -- at the DNC and the Clinton campaign. White House officials said some of the list were accidentally sent by vendors. © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************