(AP) Sandy Berger anwsers questions in the White House briefing room in this Thursday, March 25, 1999... Full Image
Posted on 04/01/2005 5:44:33 AM PST by Liz
(AP) Sandy Berger anwsers questions in the White House briefing room in this Thursday, March 25, 1999... Full Image
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former national security adviser Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified documents from the National Archives, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Berger, who served in the Clinton administration, will enter the plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, said Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra.
The plea agreement, if accepted by a judge, ends a bizarre episode in which the man who once had access to the government's most sensitive intelligence was accused of sneaking documents out of the Archives in his clothing.
The Bush administration disclosed the investigation days before the Sept. 11 commission issued its final report. Democrats claimed the White House was using Berger to deflect attention from the harsh report, with its potential for damaging Bush's re-election prospects.
Berger previously acknowledged he removed from the National Archives copies of documents about the government's anti-terror efforts and notes that he took on those documents.
He said he was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He called the episode "an honest mistake," and denied criminal wrongdoing.
Berger and his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, have said Berger knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket and pants and he inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio.
He returned most of the documents, but still missing are some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration.
"Mr. Berger has cooperated fully with the Department of Justice and is pleased that a resolution appears very near," Breuer said Thursday.
The charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.
However, a federal law enforcement official said a plea agreement calls for Berger to serve no jail time but to pay a $10,000 fine, surrender his security clearance for three years and cooperate with investigators. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the pending court proceeding. A judge must approve the agreement.
Security clearance allows access to classified government materials.
The Associated Press first reported in July that the Justice Department was investigating Berger for incidents at the Archives the previous fall. The disclosure prompted Berger to step down as an adviser to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Former President Clinton was among Democrats who questioned the timing of the disclosure of the Berger probe, three days before the release of the final Sept. 11 commission report. The commission, writing just three months before the 2004 presidential election, detailed failures of both the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Leaders of the Sept. 11 commission said they were able to get every key document needed to complete their report.
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On the Net:
Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov
Probably saving them to force Hillary (gag) to appoint him as her 2008 campaign's Ntl Security advisor.
It is time to put them all in jail.
Now they just have to go after Hitlery for te 900 FBI files she left fingerprints and pizza sauce all over. "Oh but there is no evidence she took them" Yes, the fingerprints were planted. They knocked out Hitlery and placed her fingers all over them.
Yeah.....watta set-up----poor, poor Hitlery (gag).
A misdemeanor? That's it?!! So help me, I can't figure out "why" any prosecutor worth his or her salt can't make a case over what is clearly a felony theft and destruction of classified materials?
Somebody's got to monitor this pant-load's bank account.
He ain't taking the fall for the rest of his life unless he's got some serious coin coming his way.
We wish-----but they keep getting away with murder---even undermining US ntl security is overlooked. God knows what these people got away with when they were in power.
"However, a federal law enforcement official said a plea agreement calls for Berger to serve no jail time but to pay a $10,000 fine, surrender his security clearance for three years and cooperate with investigators. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the pending court proceeding. A judge must approve the agreement."
There was an INVESTIGATION going ON!
NO jail time? A fine? Taking away his security clearance for 3 yrs? Why don't they just slap his hand and get it over with? A judge that agrees to this deal shuold be investigated himself.
....Leaders of the Sept. 11 commission said they were able to get every key document needed to complete their report.....
What a bunch of BS!
How do they know they got everything they needed when they didn't get to see what they may have been looking for?
Did Gorelick tell them what they needed, or was it the Jersey Girls?
"...a federal law enforcement official said a plea agreement calls for Berger to serve no jail time but to pay a $10,000 fine, surrender his security clearance for three years and cooperate with investigators."
No F'n WAY!
Had I done that, I'd be clapped in irons and lost my clearance for ever!
Such BS.
Berger and his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, have said Berger knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket and pants and he inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio.
He returned most of the documents, but still missing are some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration.
"God knows what these people got away with when they were in power."
Well, actually God does know, LOL! I'm appauled at this slap on the wrist as well. If a Rep had pulled this, he'd have been hung before sundown the same day he was caught!
Man, I LOATHE those Clintons and all their minions. They are evil. Why isn't that more obvious to the masses? Grrrrr!
Do we know they were actually destroyed? If I were to cling to the rational world, theft of these documents, given their nature, might warrant the death penalty. Letting him off with a wrist slap is a Bizarro world decision.
So he gets a slap on the wrist and a free pass again pilfer the National Archives.
Pantload Berger, Clinton's national security advisor, admitted taking up to 50 documents — marked "Code Word," the highest security classification — from the National Archives.
Berger stuffed handwritten notes he'd made from the documents down his socks and pants without submitting them for the mandatory Ntl Archives review. Then he took original classified documents out of the archives. When officials demanded their return, he said some of them had been destroyed.
Berger says everything was inadvertent, the result of sloppiness. Instead of being outraged at this breach of ntl security, Democrats laughed the whole thing off as "typical Sandy."
Typical Sandy? Is this what this lowlife was known for in
the Clinton WH? Taking classified documents? If so, what did he do with them? Remember this was before 9/11.
If just about any other human being did what Berger did it would be a felony with a minimum of 10 years prison time!
Mr.Obvious has a few questions to aks.
It figures that KKKlinton would appoint a national security advisor who would knowingly steal and destroy classified docments, then lie about it until shown the photographic evidence. Then claim he has cooperated fully. It also figures that a media whore like Andrea Mitchell dismisses the story by saying that Berger had done a good job as National Security advisor. BTW, Berger was perhaps the worst NSA in the last 50 years.
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