|
The White House FBI files controversy of the Clinton Administration, often referred to as Filegate,〔("'Filegate' Depositions Sought From White House Aides" ), CNN.com, April 1, 1998. Accessed June 5, 2007.〕 arose in June 1996 around improper access in 1993 and 1994 to Federal Bureau of Investigation security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, director of the White House's Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background reports concerning several hundred individuals without asking permission. The revelations provoked a strong political and press reaction because many of the files covered White House employees from previous Republican administrations, including top presidential advisors. Under criticism, Livingstone resigned from his position. Allegations were made that senior White House figures, including First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, may have requested and read the files for political purposes, and that the First Lady had authorized the hiring of the underqualified Livingstone. The matter was investigated by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Whitewater Independent Counsel. In 1998, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr exonerated President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton of any involvement in the matter. In 2000 Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued his final report on Filegate, stating that there was no credible evidence of any criminal activity by any individual in the matter and no credible evidence that senior White House figures or the First Lady had requested the files or had acted improperly or testified improperly regarding Livingstone's hiring. A separate lawsuit on the matter brought by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, lingered on for years and was dismissed by a federal judge in 2010. ==Improper use of files issue== "Filegate" began on June 5, 1996, when Republican Pennsylvania Congressman William F. Clinger, Jr., chair of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, announced that the committee had found during their ongoing "Travelgate" investigations, that FBI background reports on Travelgate figure Billy Dale had been delivered to the White House.〔Robert Ray, ("Final Report of the Independent Counsel ... of the Investigation In Re: Anthony Marceca" ), United States Government Printing Office, March 16, 2000.〕 The following day, the White House delivered to the committee hundreds of other such files related to White House employees of the Reagan Administration and George H. W. Bush Administration〔 for which Craig Livingstone, director of the White House's Office of Personnel Security,〔Eric Pooley, ("Man Behind the Mess" ), ''Time'', June 24, 1996. Accessed June 5, 2007.〕 had improperly requested, and received from the FBI in 1993 and 1994, background reports without asking permission of the subject individuals.〔("Untangling Whitewater" ), ''The Washington Post'' special report, 2000. Accessed June 5, 2007.〕 Estimates ranged from 400 to 700 to 900 unauthorized file disclosures.〔Christopher Lee, ("Flops Are No Fluke in the Annals of Political Payback" ), ''The Washington Post'', September 19, 2005. Accessed June 7, 2007.〕〔("FBI Files Fiasco" ), CNN.com, 1997. Accessed June 5, 2007.〕〔("Documents Suggest Hillary Knew Craig Livingstone" ), CNN.com, July 25, 1997. Accessed June 5, 2007.〕〔("Independent counsel: No evidence to warrant prosecution against first lady in 'filegate'" ), CNN.com, June 3, 2000. Accessed June 5, 2007.〕 The incident caused an intense burst of criticism because many of the files covered White House employees from previous Republican administrations, including top figures such as James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, and Marlin Fitzwater.〔 Initial White House explanations for what had happened varied,〔("Investigation Into the White House and Department of Justice on Security of FBI Background Investigation Files – Interim Report" ), United States House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, September 24, 1996.〕 but generally characterized it as a series of mistakes made without bad intent and offered apologies to those affected.〔〔 President Clinton said that, "It appears to have been a completely honest bureaucratic snafu."〔Brian Knowlton, ("White House Apologizes For Collecting FBI Reports: But Dole Cries Foul, And Republicans Call for Hearings" ), ''The New York Times'', June 10, 1996. Accessed June 12, 2011.〕 But his Republican opponent in the ongoing 1996 presidential election, Senator Bob Dole, compared it the enemies list kept by the Nixon administration.〔 Republicans made other charges, including that the White House was trying to dig up damaging information about Republicans in general〔 and that the file transfer was motivated by a desire to slander Dale and other White House Travel Office officials and thereby justify their dismissal.〔Gerald S. Greenberg, ''Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Independent Counsel Investigations'', Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30735-0. pp 124-125.〕 On June 18, 1996, Attorney General Janet Reno asked the FBI to look into it;〔 FBI Director Louis Freeh acknowledged that both the FBI and especially the White House had committed "egregious violations of privacy"〔〔 (in some cases the background reports contained information about extramarital affairs, trangressions with the law, and medical issues).〔David Stout, ("Starr Questions Hillary Clinton on F.B.I. Files" ), ''The New York Times'', January 15, 1998. Accessed June 16, 2007.〕 On June 21 Reno decided it was a conflict of interest for the U.S. Department of Justice to further investigate the matter, and thus recommended that it be folded into the overall umbrella of the Whitewater investigations, under charge of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.〔〔 In any case, Starr had already begun looking into it.〔Neil A. Lewis, ("Whitewater Counsel Examining Use of F.B.I. to Get G.O.P. Files" ), ''The New York Times'', June 11, 1996. Accessed June 12, 2011.〕 On June 26, 1996, Clinger's Government Reform and Oversight Committee held hearings on the matter.〔George Lardner Jr., Susan Schmidt, ("Livingstone Resigns, Denying Ill Intent" ), ''The Washington Post'', June 27, 1996. Accessed June 7, 2007.〕 Livingstone, who announced his resignation at the start of his testimony that day, and his assistant, Anthony Marceca, insisted during the committee's hearings that the mishandled files were a result of a bureaucratic mixup and that no improper motivations were behind it.〔 They said that when the George H. W. Bush administrative staff left the White House in January 1993, they had taken all the files of the Office of Personnel Security with them for use in the Bush Library, as they were permitted to do under law. The OPS staff were trying to rebuild these records to include those of permanent White House employees who remained to work in the Clinton administration; Marceca, a civilian investigator for the Army, had been hired for this task.〔 In doing so, they received an outdated list from the Secret Service of White House employees, which included many names who were no longer employees. This list was then given to the FBI and the personnel background files returned as a result.〔 Lisa Wetzl, another assistant, testified that she discovered the mistake in mid-1994 and destroyed the request list.〔 Also called to testify were former White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum and former associate counsel William Kennedy III.〔 Livingstone, Nussbaum, and Kennedy all offered apologies to those whose files had been obtained.〔 On September 24, 1996, the Government Reform and Oversight Committee approved, on party lines, an interim report on the affair, blasting the Clinton Administration for a "cavalier approach" towards sensitive security procedures and saving that further investigation was necessary to determine if the events surrounding the files handling were "a blunder, the result of colossal incompetence, or whether they are established to be more serious or even criminal."〔〔George Lardner Jr., ("GOP Slams White House in FBI Files Report" ), ''The Washington Post'', September 25, 1996. Accessed June 9, 2007.〕 The Committee does not seem to have ever issued a final report.〔("House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: Main Page" ), United States Government Printing Office. Accessed June 9, 2007. A search of reports, prints, etc. turns up nothing further related to the Security of FBI Background Files matter.〕 The Senate Judiciary Committee was also involved in investigating the matter, holding hearings beginning June 29, 1996,〔Francis X. Clines, (" Key Witness Asserts His Right to Silence In Inquiry on Files" ), ''The New York Times'', June 29, 1996. Accessed April 6, 2008.〕 and focussing on allegations that White House was engaged in a "dirty tricks" operation reminiscent of the Nixon administration.〔 Looking into accusations that senior White House officials or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton may have inappropriately perused the files, in October 1996 Republican committee chair Orrin Hatch requested that the FBI do a fingerprint analysis of them.〔David Johnston, (" Tests Find No Proof First Lady or Top Aides Touched F.B.I. Files" ), ''The New York Times'', November 3, 1996. Accessed July 15, 2007.〕 On November 3, 1996, the FBI informed the committee that no fingerprints of either the First Lady or any other named senior official were on the files.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「White House FBI files controversy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|