Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
By DICK MORRIS
"KEN made clear this is a priority."
That's how Clifford Bernath - the man
who released information from Linda
Tripp's secret personnel file - described
the orders from his boss, Ken Bacon, to
pass the damaging information to New
Yorker reporter Jane Mayer.
The Clinton administration said it was
just a mistake by Deputy Assistant
Defense Secretary Bernath acting on
his own. But now, in a deposition before
the conservative group Judicial Watch,
Bernath says he was acting on the
orders of his superior - chief Pentagon
spokesman Ken Bacon. And he has the
contemporaneous notes to prove it.
The disclosure of Bacon's involvement
in what a federal judge has
unequivocally described as a "privacy
violation" thickens the plot.
On whose orders was Bacon acting?
Here's a clue: According to Mark Levin,
president of the Landmark Legal
Foundation, "copies of security
clearance forms for former White
House staffers are, as a matter of
course, kept at the White House." Tripp
is an ex-White House staffer.
The Justice Department has confirmed
that providing Mayer with the
information that Clinton accuser Linda
Tripp had not disclosed her arrest at the
age of 19 on her Pentagon job
application was "a violation of the
Privacy Act." The Pentagon's Lt. Col.
Dick Bridges says the release of such
confidential data won't happen again,
noting that "we've learned our lesson."
So who decided to violate the Privacy
Act? Ken Bacon on his own? Most
unlikely. What are the chances that a
Pentagon press officer would decide,
without consulting his superiors, to
release confidential information on the
president's chief accuser? Somewhere
between slim and none.
Ken Bacon's background indicates that
he's a man the White House can turn to.
He's the one who hired former White
House intern Monica Lewinsky when
the White House needed to move her
out of Clinton's range but still keep her
on the reservation. Bacon hired her to a
$33,000-a-year job, and squirreled her
away in his second floor Pentagon
office with a view of the Potomac River.
He insists that he decided to hire her
"because she had a lot of energy."
Energy or not, White House Deputy
Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman had
bounced Lewinsky out of the White
House for "inappropriate and immature
behavior." She was said to be a poor
speller who couldn't write letters by
herself and was easily flustered by
computers. The Washington Times
reported that her White House work
was deemed "lazy" and that she was
"on the verge of being fired."
Despite these drawbacks, Bacon set
her to "answering and returning phone
calls, scheduling, taking dictation and
transcribing Mr. Cohen's news
conferences during trips abroad,"
according to the Times. Apparently, the
Pentagon is just the place for
"inappropriate and immature behavior"
and an inability to spell or use
computers proved no obstacles to
taking dictation or transcribing news
conferences.
The Pentagon spin on the release of
Tripp's file information has been
consistently inconsistent. At first, Lt.
Col. Bridges told The Post that
"Bernath was under pressure for a
quick answer" to provide to Jane
Mayer. But according to Bernath, Mayer
called on Thursday, and he responded
on Friday afternoon. Since when does
the Pentagon feel under pressure to
provide anything to anyone?
Bernath wrote the "Ken made clear this
is a priority" note on Friday morning. If
Bacon made the decision deliberately
in order to harm Tripp - as Bernath
suggests that he did - he committed a
crime. Will he be disciplined or
discharged? Judicial Watch will likely
subpoena him. If he doesn't take the fall,
we may learn that Bacon checked with
people upstairs at the Pentagon or
across the river at the White House.
While Mayer denies any White House
involvement in feeding her the story, the
likelihood is that White House private
detectives - the "secret police" - dug up
the arrest record in the first place and
fed it to Mayer or to someone who got
to Mayer. It's likely they also suggested
to Mayer that she ask the Pentagon
whether Tripp disclosed the arrest.
They probably knew the answer before
suggesting she ask the question.
The matter of Tripp's file is important
because it establishes an MO for the
White House in the use of files to
discredit people. Remember that Billy
Dale, the dismissed head of the White
House Travel Office, found the contents
of his file used against him seven
months after he was ousted from his
job. Recall, too that Craig Livingstone,
ex-bar bouncer, possessed files on
hundreds of top Republicans - which he
claimed he had as a result of another
bureaucratic mistake.
The White House used the same MO to
deflect the charges against Livingstone
- saying that he acted on his own - that it
used to cover up the release of the
Tripp file - when it blamed on Clifford
Bernath. But Bernath wouldn't, in Web
Hubbell's immortal words, "roll over one
more time."
Bill Clinton is not the sort of person who
would authorize the release of
confidential files to smear people. Nor
would he hire private detectives to
intimidate witnesses. So who did?
Judicial Watch, armed with its
subpoena power, is about to find out.
The White House objected to Judicial
Watch attorney Larry Klayman's plan to
depose four top White House aides.
But U.S. District Court Judge Royce C.
Lamberth told White House attorneys
that he found "troublesome" reports that
White House "secret police" tipped
Mayer to the Tripp records. Noting that
this was "on its face" a privacy violation,
the judge noted that the White House
performance in the Tripp file episode
"sounds very akin to the kind of things"
that Judicial Watch is saying went on
with the FBI files.
Remember, Mr. President: Nixon got in
trouble for his overreaction to his critics.
Rein in your staff.
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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