A Vast Right Wing Conspiracy?

The New York Times continued spinning Trousergate yesterday as little more than partisan character assassination. The Times report contained stale news reworded to implicate the Bush-Cheney reelection effort in a campaign of nastiness. In the meantime, the Washington Post and the Daily News actually worked the story and found sources that seem to corroborate the points I outlined in “The Times Spins Sandy Berger.”

- Berger characterized as "inadvertant" his taking classified documents from a secure reading room, not once but twice.

From the Post: "Berger, his attorney Lanny Breuer said, checked his office and realized for the first time that he had walked out -- unintentionally, he says -- with important papers relating to the Clinton administration's efforts to combat terrorism."

- The documents that Berger removed would seem to include all of the existing copies (in draft or final version) of a particular report.

From the Post: "The documents that Berger has acknowledged taking -- some of which remain missing -- are different drafts of a January 2000 "after-action review" of how the government responded to terrorism plots at the turn of the millennium. The document was written by White House anti-terrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke, at Berger's direction when he was in government… Archives employees determined that that draft and all four or five other versions of the millennium memo had disappeared from the files, this source said."

- Berger characterized as "inadvertant" his destruction of certain of those classified documents.

From the Post: "Despite searching his home and office, Berger could not find [the missing documents]."

- Berger knowingly snuck his notes about those classified documents out of the secure reading room in his pant and jacket pockets.

From the Post: "Sources have told The Washington Post, and other news organizations, that Berger was witnessed stuffing papers into his clothing. Through attorneys and spokesmen, Berger has denied doing that."

From the Daily News: "… archives monitors told the FBI that Berger was observed stuffing his socks with handwritten notes about files he reviewed that were going to the 9/11 panel. It is prohibited to make notes about the secret files and leave with them without special approval. "Stuffed socks and pockets is real," the senior law enforcement official said. "The [theft] was reported by the guards.""

- Berger characterized as voluntary, his return of the documents.

From the Post: "As his attorneys tell it, Berger had no idea in October that documents were missing from the Archives, or that archivists suspected him in the disappearance. It was not until two days later, on Saturday, Oct. 4, that he was contacted by Archives employees who said that they were concerned about missing files, from his September and October visits. This call -- in Berger's version of the chronology, which is disputed in essential respects by a government official with knowledge of the investigation -- was made with a tone of concern, but not accusation.

Berger, his attorney Lanny Breuer said, checked his office and realized for the first time that he had walked out -- unintentionally, he says -- with important papers relating to the Clinton administration's efforts to combat terrorism.
Berger alerted Archives employees that evening to what he had found. The classified documents were sensitive enough that employees arrived on a Sunday morning to pick them up.

Several days later, after he had retained Breuer as counsel, Berger volunteered that he had also taken 40 to 50 pages of notes during three visits to the Archives beginning in July, the lawyer said. Berger turned the notes over to the Archives. He has acknowledged through attorneys that he knowingly did not show these papers to Archives officials for review before leaving -- a violation of Archives rules, but not one that he perceived as a serious security lapse.

By then, however, Archives officials had served notice that there were other documents missing. Despite searching his home and office, Berger could not find them. By January, the FBI had been brought in, and Berger found himself in a criminal investigation -- one that he chose not to tell Kerry's campaign about until this week…

… A government official with knowledge of the investigation said Archives employees took action promptly after noticing a missing document in September. This official said an Archives employee called former White House deputy counsel Bruce Lindsey, who is former president Bill Clinton's liaison to the National Archives. The Archives employee said documents were missing and would have to be returned.

Under this version of events -- which Breuer denied -- documents were returned the following day from Berger's office to the Archives. Not included in these papers, the government official said, were any drafts of the document at the center of this week's controversy."

- The National Archives indicates that the documents were missed, that a trap was set, and that he was subsequently caught.

From the Post: "The government source said the Archives employees were deferential toward Berger, given his prominence, but were worried when he returned to view more documents on Oct. 2. They devised a coding system and marked the documents they knew Berger was interested in canvassing, and watched him carefully. They knew he was interested in all the versions of the millennium review, some of which bore handwritten notes from Clinton-era officials who had reviewed them. At one point an Archives employee even handed Berger a coded draft and asked whether he was sure he had seen it."

- The FBI is investigating the matter and has searched Berger's house.

From the Post: "By January, the FBI had been brought in, and Berger found himself in a criminal investigation -- one that he chose not to tell Kerry's campaign about until this week."

I remain baffled as to why a man in Berger’s position would jeopardize his reputation. I can only conclude that the stakes were sufficiently high- that or there really is a vast right-wing conspiracy.

Posted by publius at July 23, 2004 08:01 AM