-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- March 30, 2000 Review & Outlook The 'Crime-Fraud Exception' In a recent scene from "The Sopranos," the popular HBO mafia series, one of Tony Soprano's capos calls him about a murder witness: "Tony, you know that witness who thinks he saw what you and I know didn't happen? Well, he now says he forgot what he thinks he saw." Because of conversations like that, the legal concept of "attorney-client privilege" has what is called the "crime-fraud exception." If you are planning a caper at the Ravenite Social Club, you can't make your conversations immune from inquiry just by having your lawyer in the room. Wednesday Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the "crime-fraud exemption" applied to certain conversations in the White House Counsel's office pertaining to the use of government records to trash the reputation of Kathleen Willey. Indeed, Judge Lamberth ruled that President Clinton personally committed "a criminal violation of the Privacy Act." Ms. Willey, recall, is the former White House aide who went on "60 Minutes" to accuse the President of groping her near the Oval Office after she requested a job promotion. The day that her interview aired in March 1998, senior White House officials held a meeting, with President Clinton on the phone from Camp David. At the White House were Counsel Charles Ruff and deputy counsels Cheryl Mills and Bruce Lindsey. The White House admits that the President concurred with the recommendation that friendly letters Ms. Willey had written him would be released from her employment file. The idea, or "spin," was that the letters would distract attention from Ms. Willey's charges. Now, the Privacy Act is a law passed in 1974 in reaction to the misuse of government files by the Nixon White House. Chuck Colson, a Nixon aide then, went to prison for two years for misusing a single FBI file. Too bad Mr. Colson didn't have the benefit of the legal opinion Clinton mouthpieces were spreading Wednesday, that the Act doesn't apply to the White House. At a press conference Wednesday, the President says the law never crossed his mind. But Judge Lamberth found that plaintiffs in his court established "that the White House and the President were aware that they were subject to the Privacy Act, and yet chose to violate its provisions." The plaintiffs in the suit are individuals contending that their privacy rights were violated when the Clinton White House gathered some 900 FBI files on Republican appointees; they are represented by the conservative activist firm Judicial Watch. Independent Counsel Robert Ray recently reported that there was "no substantial and credible evidence" that senior officials or the First Lady were involved in seeking the files. But he noted that his office "did not investigate alleged violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 because such offenses are excluded from the jurisdiction of an independent counsel." That is to say, criminal violations of the Privacy Act would have to be prosecuted by Janet Reno's see-no-evil Justice Department. The alternative is to seek redress through civil suits like the one in Judge Lamberth's court. Judicial Watch has pressed interrogatories exploring whether the Administration has abused government records in trashing its political opponents. After all, what else was the White House Willey meeting about? James Carville has testified that Mr. Clinton called him after Ms. Willey's interview and said "there was some letters that she had written and his lawyers were considering making them public and what did I think about it?" Terry Good, the director of White House records, testified that he asked his staff to pull the Willey letters after Cheryl Mills told him the President's Counsel wanted the letters. Mr. Clinton himself testified before the grand jury that "when everybody blew it up, I thought we would release." Mrs. Clinton also got into the act. An official Justice Department response in the Filegate case notes that in a phone conversation between Mrs. Clinton and Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal they "agreed the letters should be released." In one of a spate of silly Clinton defenses going on just now, columnist Richard Cohen writes of Mr. Ray's findings, "so much for Filegate," and asks that we and others apologize to the Clintons. Whether files were "ransacked" may yet be established by the Judicial Watch suit, as well as a separate Privacy Act suit filed by Linda Tripp, whose employment records were released by the Pentagon. Whether or not the President initiated the acquisition of FBI files, he clearly sets the tone of the White House, where the smear is a standard tactic. FBI files on former Travel Office chief Billy Dale were specifically sought seven months after he was fired. He was trashed on national television by Clinton lawyers, then indicted on embezzlement charges, but acquitted by a jury in less than two hours. During the impeachment trial, Rep. Lindsey Graham noted that Mr. Clinton told Mr. Blumenthal that Monica Lewinsky was a "stalker-type person" shortly before stories to that effect appeared in the press. Mr. Good also testified that Ms. Mills asked him to pull "anything and everything that we might have in our files relating to Linda Tripp." Now we have the case of the intimidation of potential witnesses in the matter of e-mails that were not delivered in response to subpoenas. Six Northrup-Grumman employees who worked under White House contract testified before Congress that they were ordered not to tell anyone about e-mails discovered missing in a computer error. Betty Lambuth, the on-site Northrup manager, said a White House official told her that if anyone talked "we would lose our jobs, be arrested and put in jail." Many of the e-mails in question were to Vice President Gore's office, and now reportedly also include previously undisclosed e-mails between Monica Lewisky and grand jury witnesses Betty Currie and Ashley Raines during the investigation leading to impeachment. We don't know how long "the Sopranos" will run, but this Administration will last until next January 20. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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