-Caveat Lector-
October 11, 2000
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S SCANDALS
Judge to unseal e-mail documents
Evidence turned over to court as part of Ray's criminal probe
By Paul Sperry
� 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON -- Just when it appeared the Project X e-mail
mini-trial had come to a close -- with President Clinton's top
aide yesterday denying he knew about a trove of unsearched e-mail
during the Lewinsky probe -- the federal judge hearing the civil
case announced he will unseal documents from a related criminal
probe.
Independent counsel Robert Ray and special Justice Department
prosecutor Robert Conrad have been briefing U.S. District Judge
Royce Lamberth on their investigations into obstruction charges
in the e-mail scandal. They've also shared evidence with him.
Lamberth said he'll "unseal" the evidence and release it starting
today. It wasn't immediately clear what information the documents
hold, but sources say it may relate to new clues uncovered by a
federal grand jury.
After recent grand-jury questioning, a former White House lawyer
was forced to file a three-page affidavit to the court revising
her previous claims that the White House had turned over all
e-mail records under subpoena in 1998. She now says she was
"mistaken."
In yesterday's court testimony, White House Chief of Staff John
Podesta acknowledged that the White House has not fully complied
with subpoenas for e-mail records.
He also admitted Clinton misspoke when he asserted to the press
in February -- after news of the missing e-mail broke -- that "we
have complied with every single request."
In fact, Podesta revealed that in briefing Clinton, he and former
White House press secretary Joe Lockhart never told Clinton
they'd fully complied in producing e-mail records under subpoena.
"We never used those terms," Podesta said. "We had produced
thousands of pages of e-mail. That's all I said to him."
Yet right after the Feb. 15 briefing, Clinton assured the press:
"We are in full compliance."
It also seems that Podesta ran into a conflict with Clinton's top
lawyer in 1998, when subpoenas were flying over the Lewinsky
scandal.
A new impeachment book by Washington Post reporter Peter Baker
claims that Podesta was irked that White House Counsel Charles
"Chuck" Ruff was lying to him about various aspects of the case.
"I'm going to kill Chuck," Podesta is quoted as saying.
But Podesta said he has "no recollection" of saying that,
although he did recall "great tension in the White House at that
time."
Both Ruff and Podesta were briefed in June 1998 about the Mail2
server "glitch" that caused thousands of West Wing e-mails under
subpoena to escape a computerized archiving system and go
unsearched. They never informed Congress, independent counsel
Kenneth Starr or Lamberth, then hearing Judicial Watch's Filegate
lawsuit, about the problem.
Computer contractors who discovered the problem say they were
told to keep it secret or face jail. Podesta says he never heard
about the threats at the time, nor did he have any idea how many
e-mails were unrecorded.
He also claims he takes no notes during meetings and doesn't
store notes in his office.
An audit at the time shows a gap of more than 246,000 e-mails,
including 157 of Podesta's incoming messages from March 1997 to
June 1998. The bleeding wasn't fixed until November 1998, even
though it was a simple fix involving a spelling change.
Under questioning by Judicial Watch general counsel Larry
Klayman, Podesta also revealed that he picked the subcontractor
hired in March by the White House to restore and search the
missing e-mails from back-up tapes. His testimony contradicts
earlier statements by a procurement officer that the decision was
given careful deliberation and went through technical channels.
The subcontractor Podesta picked -- SRA International Inc. --
employs two former White House officials involved in records
management, as first revealed by WorldNetDaily.
The head of the prime contractor on the job, ECS Technology, told
WorldNetDaily that White House officials picked SRA for him. ECS,
a minority vendor, was awarded the job without bidding.
"So the goal was to hire SRA through a minority contractor?"
Klayman asked.
"No, the goal was to get the job done," Podesta shot back.
The owner of ECS also told WorldNetDaily that he had little
experience in copying back-up tapes and retrieving lost data and
was looking forward to SRA being a "mentor."
But both contractors have been beset by technical delays in
copying the tapes and producing the missing e-mail, and full
production isn't expected until after Clinton's out of office.
Now the White House is asking Lamberth to let a Defense
Department lab in Maryland have a crack at restoring some of the
data. Klayman objects to the proposal, arguing the Pentagon under
Secretary William Cohen is too political and can't be trusted to
maintain the integrity of the tapes.
Lamberth asked Podesta how it is that a "whole string" of
technical employees knew e-mails hadn't been searched in 1998 and
that the bleeding was allowed to continue, yet the "lawyers"
didn't know and the problem was hushed up "for another two
years."
"It doesn't make sense," Lamberth said.
Podesta simply replied, "No one ever brought it back to my
attention." He says he never followed up to see if the bleeding
had stopped.
Podesta's testimony was cut short by a two-hour limit imposed by
the court and agreed to by Judicial Watch, so as not to unduly
burden such "high-level officials."
As the gaunt, bespectacled Podesta stepped down from the stand
and walked toward the courtroom door, he broke out in a wide grin
as he spotted what seemed to be an old friend among the
spectators. He stopped and gave the man, identified as Washington
Post reporter George Lardner, a hearty handshake.
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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.
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