Passport Search Tied to Politics : Campaign: State Dept. appointees subverted rules in hunt for damaging information on Clinton, inspector reports. No evidence of White House instigation found.
WASHINGTON — In a stinging report, the State Department’s inspector general concluded Wednesday that overzealous political appointees subverted government regulations in their search through Democrat Bill Clinton’s passport file in an unsuccessful effort to find damaging information that could be used by President Bush’s reelection campaign.
Inspector General Sherman Funk said the White House, which was kept informed of the search, made it clear that it hoped the State Department could substantiate rumors that Clinton, now President-elect, had considered renouncing his citizenship during the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, Funk said there was no evidence to prove that the White House instigated the search.
No disciplinary action was recommended for any official above Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth M. Tamposi, who as chief of consular affairs oversaw the Passport Office. She was fired from her post last week.
No evidence has ever been discovered to support the rumor concerning Clinton, which circulated within political circles as he staked out a large lead over Bush in public opinion polls.
Calling the passport file episode a “heinous activity†and a “shame on the Department of State,†Funk said, “There was indeed an attempt to use the department . . . to influence the outcome of the election.â€
Acting Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, who called a news conference to discuss Funk’s findings, said: “Our reputation has been tarnished.â€
Although there was no indication that Eagleburger played any role in the search, he said he submitted his resignation to President Bush in early October, as soon as he became aware of the violations by his subordinates, who conducted the search. Bush refused to accept the resignation.
Eagleburger said he decided it would be “quixotic†to resign now since he will leave office in eight more weeks with the change of administrations.
Funk’s report said White House political director Janet G. Mullins was aware of the Sept. 30 search of Clinton’s file within hours after it occurred. It said White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, whom Eagleburger succeeded as secretary of state last summer, told investigators that Mullins informed him of the incident on Sept. 30 or Oct. 1. But Funk said there was no evidence that Mullins or Baker “orchestrated†the search.
“There is a difference between involvement and knowledge,†Funk said.
Nevertheless, Funk said he carefully checked out leads that implicated Mullins, Baker and White House communications director Margaret Tutwiler. All three were interviewed twice. He said he concluded that none of the three was directly involved.
A White House spokeswoman Wednesday night would only say: “We’re not making any comment.â€
None of the officials named in Funk’s report could be reached.
Funk’s investigation involved more than 107 interviews and his report ran significantly more than 100 pages. But it seems unlikely that it will end the controversy. The General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress, has launched a parallel investigation, and congressional committees may take up the matter.
Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) said the report “is a beginning--not an end--to the investigation.â€
Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on international relations, said: “We have learned that high officials of the State Department--without compunction--turned their agency into an opposition research arm of the Republican National Committee. This would be wrong in any federal agency but has special gravity with regard to the diplomatic arm of our government.â€
Funk recommended disciplinary action against Steven K. Berry, the department’s congressional liaison officer, Carmen DiPlacido, acting director of the Passport Office, and several lower-ranking employees. He had earlier recommended the firing of Tamposi.
Eagleburger relieved Berry of his duties as acting congressional liaison officer Wednesday but did not remove him from the payroll. The case of DiPlacido was sent to the State Department personnel office for action. DiPlacido is the only career foreign service officer implicated in the scandal.
The report said Berry frequently discussed the Clinton passport matter with Mullins and “Berry said that the White House would have been extremely pleased if information detrimental to Clinton had been discovered prior to the election.â€
Funk added: “There was extensive conversation by senior people (about) what would happen if the Clinton letter--the so-called Clinton letter was found, if it existed. There were many attempts at gaming scenarios by some of these people. And they were very candid in telling us about that.â€
But Funk went on to say: “We have not a scintilla of evidence, not a scintilla of evidence--and, believe me, we tried to find such evidence--that Miss Mullins instructed, suggested or did anything to get Mr. Berry to pass on to Miss Tamposi . . . anything that was improper.â€
The “Clinton letter†to which Funk referred was one in which the President-elect was rumored to have inquired about renouncing his citizenship as part of his efforts while a college student to avoid serving in the military during the Vietnam War. No such letter was found to exist.
Funk confirmed that Tamposi told investigators that Berry had told her that Mullins wanted Clinton’s file searched. However, Funk said, Berry denied invoking the authority of the White House in his conversation with Tamposi, although he said he told Tamposi that members of Congress were interested in the matter. Berry “freely admitted†soliciting a request for an investigation from Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.), the report said.
Tamposi said she refused Berry’s demand to investigate the Clinton file because of White House or congressional interest, although she authorized a search in response to requests from news organizations, which included the Associated Press, the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, under the Freedom of Information Act. Funk concluded that an FOIA search was justified but he said the search, as it was carried out, went far beyond the usual FOIA procedure.
“We found no major fraud, no massive corruption, no rogue operations subverting American foreign policy,†Funk said. “What we did find was bad enough . . . a general inability of the system in the State Department . . . to resist a kind of ad hoc attempt to politicize a process.â€
Funk said officials’ accounts of their actions were not completely consistent.
For example, Tamposi tried to telephone Tutwiler on the evening of Sept. 30, while the search of Clinton’s file was under way, but Tutwiler refused to take the call.
Funk said he “suspected†that Tutwiler refused the call because she knew what Tamposi was doing--but Tutwiler told investigators she had “no knowledge†of Tamposi’s role.
The report minimized the significance of searches of the passport records of Clinton’s mother, Virginia Kelley, and independent presidential candidate Ross Perot. Funk said Kelley’s file was “briefly cross-checked on the off chance that it might contain her son’s alleged letter.â€
He said the Perot file was picked up only to keep it secure. He said the records were not searched “with the hope of finding anything of political use.â€
Funk also said Tamposi and DiPlacido, at different times, took the Clinton file home. He criticized both for exercising bad judgment but he said there was no indication that the file was tampered with.
Funk also said that, as a result of the investigation, he discovered a so-called “Alpha file†of individuals who considered renouncing their citizenship. He said the file was left over from an earlier era when the government routinely refused passports to people deemed to be subversive.
He said the file now contains 1,555 names, all of them military deserters.
Eagleburger said he intends to close the file and dispose of the records.
Times staff writer Doyle McManus contributed to this story.
Passport Case at a Glance
At the time of the search, President Bush was making an issue of Clinton’s character and opposition to the Vietnam War. The passport files could have been used in an effort to substantiate rumors that Clinton had considered renouncing his citizenship to avoid military service in Vietnam. Clinton has denied the rumors and no evidence has ever been found to support them. Wednesday’s report found the White House was not linked to the search of the passport records.
The Basic Facts of the Case
1. On Sept. 30, three mid-level State Department employees visited the National Records Center in Maryland after its normal closing hour and combed through Clinton’s passport records.
2. The next day, the same officials searched the records of Clinton’s mother, Virginia Kelley.
3. Two weeks later, they sifted through the file of independent presidential candidate Ross Perot.
The Report Found . . .
The search of Clinton’s files was in response to media requests. It was legal and in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act. The requests should have been treated routinely but were conducted with “unprecedented scope, urgency, thoroughness†in apparent hopes of finding damaging information on Clinton.
The search was spurred by congressional correspondence and, at least in some part, by partisan hopes among middle-level state department officials to derail the Clinton campaign.
The Bush campaign was not involved.
The State Department “had begun to slide down a slippery slope†that could have influenced the Nov. 3 election. “What we did find was bad enough: not a carefully thought-out conspiratorial plan but, rather, a general inability of the system in the State Department . . . to resist a kind of ad hoc attempt to politicize a process.â€
The search of records on Perot did not appear to have been politically motivated.
In a summary, Inspector General Sherman Funk said, “We found no major fraud, no massive corruption, no rogue operations subverting American foreign policy.â€
Source: Times staff and wire reports
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
