White House Collected Many More Confidential Files

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 26) -- Capitol Hill aides disclosed that an additional 300 FBI files were obtained by the White House, among them files on former National Security advisor Brent Scowcroft and former CIA Director Robert Gates.

That raises the total number of files improperly collected by the White House office of personnel security to some 700 files, including many prominent Republicans, and the scandal is causing a furor among congressional Republicans.

Led by Rep. William Clinger (R-Penn.), the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee began today to hear testimony from White House security chief Craig Livingstone and Army employee Anthony Marceca on the matter. Also on hand to testify were former White House counsels Bernard Nussbaum and William Kennedy who had oversight responsibility for the security office.

President Bill Clinton, who has kept his distance from the FBI files flap, on Monday indicated he is deeply angered by the affair and, in an ironic twist, is supporting independent Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr's investigation.

In a related development, The Washington Post reported that an FBI agent believed top White House aides had pressured him to provide confidential information in an effort to smear former travel office director Billy Dale and his six longtime travel office colleagues, all of whom were later fired.

Agent Dennis Sculimbrene told Senate Republicans that former White House counsel William Kennedy, deputy White House communication director Jeff Eller and deputy director of presidential personnel Patsy Thomasson had asked him for information, though not actual files.

"These people were prying me for information about the Travel Office and the individuals in the Travel Office," Sculimbrene was quoted in the Post.

Sculimbrene is the first to directly implicate top Clinton officials in the firing of the travel office staff, the incident from which the FBI files flap grew. Though the administration has steadfastly maintained Dale and his colleagues were dismissed for incompetence and wrongdoing, Republicans have long suspected the ousters took place to make jobs available for Clinton friends.

White House Collected Many More Confidential Files

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