Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: 10 cited for censure in file case Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 15:23:03 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD 10 cited for censure in file case \BY Martin Sieff \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES A State Department search of President-elect Bill Clinton's passport files was an attempt to use department records and employees "to influence the outcome of a presidential election," an official report on the affair released yesterday said. But the investigation, carried out under the direction of State Department Inspector General Sherman Funk, found no evidence that anyone above the rank of assistant secretary of state or at the White House ordered or was involved in the search. The report also said there was no evidence of any criminal misconduct, but it did recommend disciplinary measures against up to 10 department officials, both political appointees and civil service officials. "We found no major fraud, no massive corruption, no rogue operations subverting American foreign policy," said a memorandum from Mr. Funk to acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger summarizing the report. "In a broader sense, however, what we did find was more disturbing than any of these. "What we found was an attempt to use the records and employees of a government agency, the U.S. Department of State, to influence the outcome of a presidential election." Mr. Eagleburger, addressing a State Department news conference at which the report was released, said he believed that "whoever is in charge of this building is responsible for what it does." "I offered the president personally my resignation . . .," he said. "He refused to accept it." Mr. Eagleburger said the search of Clinton files - the most extensive ever carried out under the Freedom of Information Act - was "a very heinous activity and shame on the Department of State that it happened." Political appointee Elizabeth Tamposi - who ordered the search, which was carried out Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 - was dismissed last week from her position as assistant secretary of state for consular affairs on Mr. Funk's recommendation, Mr. Eagleburger said. Steven Berry, acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, has also been relieved of his position but will remain on the State Department payroll until the Clinton administration takes office, the acting secretary said. Mr. Funk told reporters he presumed that White House officials knew about the search as early as the evening of Sept. 30, when it began. On that night at 6:30 p.m., Margaret Tutwiler, a senior aide to White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, refused to accept a call from Mrs. Tamposi, the report said. Mrs. Tamposi, 37, told investigators she placed the call to ask how to handle the press should the search become public and to determine whether Mr. Berry was seeking Mr. Clinton's records on behalf of the White House. "My supposition is that there was White House knowledge," Mr. Funk said, though he said there was no evidence of White House involvement in the search of the files. "There is a difference between involvement and knowledge," he said. Mr. Eagleburger said the episode had "put the State Department . . . in the one place it should never be, in the political arena. I will take the appropriate steps to restore the tarnished image of the department. . . . "I resent, I regret the appearance of the State Department being engaged in partisan political activities and I do not consider it a minor matter," Mr. Eagleburger continued. "We have no business being involved in this kind of activity. I am sorry it happened, but now we have to clean it up." The report concluded that a consular affairs team of officials, acting under Mrs. Tamposi's direction, removed Mr. Clinton's passport application files from the Washington National Records Center in Suitland, Md., on the night of Sept. 30 and that at Mrs. Tamposi's instruction one official, Steven Moheban, brought the file to her home that night. Several members of the team were concerned that something had been torn from a 1976 passport application in the file and Mrs. Tamposi wanted to examine it personally, the report said. Mrs. Tamposi called Mr. Berry that same evening. She told the investigators that Mr. Berry had called her two days earlier and discussed White House interest in rumors that Mr. Clinton had inquired in a letter about renouncing his citizenship. Mrs. Tamposi said Mr. Berry had indicated he was working on behalf of his previous boss at the State Department, Janet Mullins, who was then working under Mr. Baker as assistant to the president for political affairs. "Berry's friendship with Janet Mullins . . . was well known and he frequently talked with her about the Clinton FOIA requests and other matters," the Funk memorandum said. Mr. Berry told the inspector-general's investigators that the White House would have been "extremely pleased if information detrimental to Clinton had been discovered prior to the election." But he denied that Miss Mullins or anyone else at the White House orchestrated such an inquiry, and the report found no evidence of it. "If something had been done on a conspiratorial, planned basis, footprints would have been left," Mr. Funk said. "I am convinced there is no sign of a conspiracy, or a cabal." Mr. Funk said the investigation had involved 106 interviews of 69 people, including Mr. Baker, Miss Tutwiler and six other White House employees. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM