October 5, 1996

Clinton White House FBI Files Probe Not SNAFU!

Mari Anderson testified to Clinton jokes about the FBI files on Republican opponents in 1993.

by Staff Writers, The Daily Republican Interactive Newspaper

WASHINGTON DESK- The Clinton White House FBI files explanation has been refuted by the sworn testimony of the executive assistant in the White House security office. Mari Anderson, the Clinton-Gore campaign assistant and former White House executive contradicted accounts by president Clinton, and White House Press Secretary, McCurry.

Anderson told Senate investigators this week that "everybody in the office knew" in the fall of 1993 that they were obtaining FBI files on "people who were no longer working there." Anderson explained to Congress how the White House staff had joked about some prominent Republicans still listed as current White House pass holders.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who made her testimony public yesterday, said it seriously challenges the White House assertion that its acquisition of hundreds of confidential FBI background reports on former Reagan and Bush administration officials was "just an innocent bureaucratic snafu."

Anderson's testimony is the first solid dent in the explanations for the collection of files given by Craig Livingstone, the director of the office, and his investigator Anthony B. Marceca. Marceca, who pulled the files, has said he thought everyone whose reports he sought "was properly included on the White House access list" and needed their security files updated. Livingstone has supported Marceca's account, adding that he did not know Marceca was improperly gathering files on Republicans until long after the fact.

Like others who worked in the tiny security office, Anderson testified that she has no evidence that the sensitive information in wrongfully-obtained files was ever misused.

The White House said yesterday accused Hatch of "conducting taxpayer-funded opposition research for the Dole campaign." Mark D. Fabiani, a White House special counsel, said, "There is every indication that the files were sought simply because outdated lists were being used."

The FBI files controversy has been bubbling since early June, touching off a criminal inquiry by Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr, as well as House and Senate investigations.

Marceca, at the outset, said in a sworn statement that "I was not told, and I had no reason to believe" that Secret Service lists he used to pull FBI reports included names of people who should have not have been there.

Anderson told Senate investigators, however, Marceca pointed out to her that the first list he was given was "really old" and even suggested "that maybe we should get a new one."

She said she asked the Secret Service for an updated list of active pass holders in September 1993 but when she picked it up, she saw it still contained the last names Bush and Quayle, as well as former secretary of state James A. Baker III and Bush White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater.

Anderson said she "pointed them out to Craig and Tony and we said, well, obviously we need to go through this list." She said she particularly remembered striking out Baker's and Fitzwater's names with a black magic marker "because there was a big joke that those were the only names I could remember."

Anderson testified she had also marked-out "the Bushes and the Quayles" then handed the FBI files list to Marceca and told him to finish up the job by marking out names of Bush appointees.

Anderson appeared to have been surprised during the deposition when she was informed that Marceca subsequently obtained background reports on Baker and Fitzwater, the two names she testified they had laughed about.

Anderson said Republican files were kept in a special section of the security office vault, on a separate shelf.

Ms. Anderson testified that a six-month gap in the security office log were missing from the copy the White House provided to the committee. She said she distinctly remembered making check-out notations in the loose-leaf log during that six-month period, from March 29, 1994, to Sept. 21, 1994.

Anderson also said that she made entries in the log. But that Livingstone,was not required by the White House to log files out when he took them from the office. She testified to her personal knowledge that Livingstone sometimes took files out of the office to show then-associate White House counsel William Kennedy or others in the counsel's office.

In the matter of the FBI file of Billy Dale, head of White House travel fired in May 1993, Ms. Anderson testified that on the day of the firings Livingstone had 'discussed' the travel workers' security files over the phone with someone Anderson said she could not identify. "Craig was talking on the phone, and he asked—I can't remember if it was me or Lisa, I believe it was me—to go and pull these files, and I gave them to Craig," Anderson said. "That's all I remember."

The records indicate Marceca asked for the FBI report on Dale in December 1993.

Senator Hatch(R) said in his summation aired by C-SPAN Anderson had been trying to evade a committee subpoena but he noted her attorney disputed that; she gave the deposition voluntarily Tuesday. Hatch said it was clear from her deposition that she was 'still very loyal to her colleagues. She was a very reluctant witness.'

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