Washington Times-EDITORIAL • April 11, 2000
Fire Kenneth Bacon
Critics of President Clinton, beware. Anything in your
personnel files can and will be used against you by his
administration, and the Justice Department will be happy to
ignore any violations of your privacy rights along the way.
Last week, Justice officials announced that they would not
prosecute Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon and aide Clifford
Bernath for the illegal release of Linda Tripp's personnel file
to a New Yorker reporter who just happened to be working on a
hostile profile of her. The reporter, Jane Mayer, used the
information to distort a 30-year-old incident involving Mrs.
Tripp, who revealed the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky,
in an attempt to undermine Mrs. Tripp's credibility.
Notwithstanding the fact that releasing the documents was a clear
violation of the law, Justice Department officials said there
"was no direct evidence upon which to pursue any prosecution."
The Three Blind Mice could see the evidence. Even Defense
Secretary William Cohen said Mrs. Tripp's files were "supposed to
be protected by the privacy rules." Let's review the chronology
here. In early 1998, Monicagate manager and former White House
staffer Harold Ickes met with Ms. Mayer and discussed her plans
to write an unfriendly article about Mrs. Tripp. At about the
same time, Mr. Ickes also had dinner with Mr. Bacon. Again the
subject of Mrs. Tripp and her part in the Lewinsky scandal came
up. (For the record, Mr. Bacon is a former journalistic colleague
of Ms. Mayer.) She called Mr. Bacon specifically requesting
confidential files of Mrs. Tripp to substantiate information she
had about her.
Mr. Bacon turned the job over to aide Bernath with
instructions to "help Ms. Mayer get the information she needed as
soon as possible." Questioned by a Department of Defense official
responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the records,
Mr. Bernath assured him the request was for official use only.
Then he turned the records over to Ms. Mayer, it apparently being
an official policy in the Clinton administration to violate
privacy rules whenever it is necessary to embarrass a political
foe. Ms. Mayer then accused Mrs. Tripp of lying by denying that
she had once been arrested in connection with a teen-age prank
her friends played on her, a prank that went terribly awry when
Mrs. Tripp momentarily ended up in legal trouble. In short, the
accusation was false but not easy to refute in the political
hothouse of that time.
Mr. Bacon subsequently announced that he was really, really,
really sorry about what happened; he hadn't meant to violate the
Privacy Act. If only, he said, he had taken the time to consult
the law before disclosing Mrs. Tripp's files he would never have
done it. Right.
Perhaps not coincidentally, President Clinton is also
pleading ignorance of the Privacy Act in connection with his
release of letters from Kathleen Willey after she accused him of
groping her. He just never thought about the law, he said. Last
month, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the
president violated the Privacy Act nonetheless.
Mrs. Tripp has filed suit seeking protection of her privacy
too. She deserves her day in court. In the meantime, Mr. Cohen
must surely understand that if Messrs. Bacon and Bernath are
willing to violate the Privacy Act so casually, then they
represent a continuing threat to the privacy of others. He should
fire them forthwith. Otherwise he risks leaving the impression
that he is comfortable with the idea of allowing lawbreakers to
speak for him.
--end--
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FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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