Posted on 04/02/2005 7:19:04 AM PST by tomball
WASHINGTON -- Sandy Berger, who was President Bill Clinton's top national security aide, pleaded guilty Friday to taking classified documents from the National Archives and cutting them up with scissors.
Rather than the ''honest mistake'' he described last summer, Berger acknowledged to U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson that he intentionally took and destroyed three copies of the same document dealing with terror threats during the 2000 millennium celebration.
''Guilty, your honor,'' Berger responded when asked how he pleaded.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.
However, under his plea agreement, Berger would serve no jail time but instead pay a $10,000 fine, surrender his security clearance for three years and cooperate with investigators.
The court appearance was the culmination of 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.
The Bush administration disclosed the investigation in July, just days before the Sept. 11 commission issued its final report. Democrats claimed the White House was using Berger to deflect attention from the harsh findings.
After news of the probe surfaced, Berger acknowledged he left the National Archives on two occasions in 2003 with 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 commission investigating Sept. 11. He called the episode ''an honest mistake'' and denied criminal wrongdoing.
However, under his plea agreement, Berger would serve no jail time but instead pay a $10,000 fine, surrender his security clearance for three years....
What is wrong with this picture???
........and cooperate with investigators.
On WHAT, exactly? That's the $64,000 question.
He made an honest mistake, as compared to what, a dishonest mistake? A mistake means it is unintentional. To call it an honest mistake is to say you had intention. Nobody goes around and says "You know, I am going to make a mistake but I am going to do it honestly."
They didn't give him jailtime because THEN he could not have gotten his security clearance back. What a crock.
Innocence (Terri) pays the ultimate price for the crime of disability
and Burgler virtually walks.
vaudine
Wrist slap.
As I've said elsewhere:
Someone's gotta keep close tabs on Burgler's bank account.
No way that's he's going to take the fall for the rest of his life without some serious coins coming his way.
Bubba's legacy, my ass!
sandy the berglar wasn't EVEN spanked. so much for having a Republican administration.
Why not forever? Gubmint a$$holes!
Loss of security clearance for 3 years.
He'll get it back just in time to serve in the PIAPS administration.
He honestly, mistakenly smuggled secret documents out of the National Archives in his clothing, and then mistakenly, innocently shredded them at home.
He's also said, "I deeply regret my actions". Well, he obviously doesn't, he's smug that he got away with it. He's lucky I don't have anything to do with this case, though, or he would regret it.
What no one seems to be asking is: Why are there several copies of an original document in the National Archives and why would he want to see them if they were simply copies?
The truth is that each of these copies probably had personal comments written on them by Clinton or his staff that might be political dynamite. That's why he destroyed several of them.
I'm sure the MSM (and the Justice Department) knows this but they simply don't report all the facts and leave it looking like there was minimal harm done.
On WHAT, exactly? That's the $64,000 question.
Sounds very much like Webster Hubbel's plea agreement.
Didn't Hubbel do jail time?
No jail... only $10k... gets his security clearance back in three years...
This nation has lost it's collective mind.
Martha went to jail but Sandy doesn't? Something is REALLY wrong here.
Agreed...
Your honor, I will take the fall, I mean Guilty.
Another lard-ass POS from the "cabinet that looks like America."
Not enough time, fine money and should never have security clearance again. But, looks like Republicans have taking to patterning themselves after the democrats, too bad. Making deals with the democrats will not pay of, they will not live up to their end of the bargain. Of course I guess the prosocuter could be a Democrat. Maybe the judge is also.
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