White House Personnel Security Head Resigns

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 26) -- In the first major casualty of the FBI files flap, White House personnel security head Craig Livingstone has resigned, and former White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum apologized that the White House improperly collected some 700 FBI reports. (224K AIFF or WAV sound)

Nussbaum and Livingstone appeared at a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing into why the FBI files -- mostly on Republicans -- were obtained. Also appearing before the panel were former associate White House counsel William Kennedy, Army civilian employee Anthony Marceca who gathered many of the reports, and Lisa Wetzl, Marceca's successor.

The witnesses said they had been carrying out a project to update White House clearances, and had accidentally used an out of date list. All said no improper use was made of the information.

"We made a bad mistake here, an innocent mistake I believe," Nussbaum said in an opening statement to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. William Clinger (R-Penn.) who has led the congressional investigation into why some reports were improperly collected by Livingstone's office, which Nussbaum oversaw. "I know I would be agitated if that happened to my file. Each person deserves an apology. I do apologize to each and every one."

"It was an entirely innocent mistake," Livingstone echoed. "As best as I can tell this mistake occurred was because a pass-over list contained the name of former White House pass holders. ... I never sought to obtain any information for any improper purpose whatsoever," Livingstone said.

Republicans were not in a forgiving mood. "Why did the president allow a political operative with a dubious background to hire a fellow political operative with a dubious background to conduct this most sensitive work?" Clinger asked at the hearing's outset.

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn) wanted to know who was responsible for hiring Livingstone, a question no one on the panel seemed able to answer definitively. After repeated questioning, former White House associate counsel William Kennedy said he had control over Livingstone's position. Kennedy, who also had authority over Livingstone's office, made no opening statement but reiterated Nussbaum's apology.

Republicans were also suspicious that Marceca, who gathered most of the files, had taken computer discs containing sensitive information to his home. "I treated them as classified documents," he said. "No one else touched the documents." Marceca testified he didn't realize the list he was working from was out of date.

One Democrat seemed as scathing as Republicans. "I am pleased that you finally saw this was the minimum you should do in accepting a modicum of responsibility," California Democrat Tom Lantos told Livingstone. "With an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours, Admiral Boorda committed suicide when he may have committed a minor mistake. So the fact is, it is a good thing you did it. You should have done this a long time ago." [Bernard Nussbaum]

Most Democrats, however, downplayed the importance of the affair -- "a gigantic goof," Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) called it. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) went further, complaining the hearing were a bogus attempt "to smear President Clinton."

Nussbaum also counterattacked himself: "You stood before the TV cameras," he said to Clinger, "to suggest to the country I was using the FBI to dig up dirt on Billy Dale, that I was making false statements to the FBI that I could be prosecuted for a felony that I was not the paragon of propriety that a White House Counsel should be. Everything you suggested about me Mr. Chairman was a reckless falsehood." (224K WAV sound).

White House Personnel Security Head Resigns

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