- **EXCLUSIVE DETAILS**
A congressional subcommittee has written a blistering report that will
level new charges against the president and first lady, accusing them of
taking part in the 'theft of government property.'
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- The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained
the report, soon to be released on, where else, the Internet [ http://www.house.gov/reform/neg/reports/whodb/whodb.htm
] -- and the more than 500 pages of back up material outlining the committee's
findings in the White House Database project.
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- The subcommittee's findings become the
obsession of key players on The Hill over the weekend and was moving under
the media radar in scandal-fatigued Washington.
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- "No one here wants another scandal,"
one lawmaker told the DRUDGE REPORT in Washington.
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- It was not known late Sunday if the Database
findings will be incorporated into the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment
investigation.
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- The story involves a White House computer
database allegedly used as a political fundraising tool.
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- The report charges that "White House
personnel took government data and transferred it to the Democratic National
Committee to assist in campaign fundraising."
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- The database, which cost 1.7 million
in tax dollars, included records of people who attended White House social
events, meetings and other functions as well as the White House Christmas
card list.
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- An investigative subcommittee of the
House Government Reform and Oversight Committee has gathered hundreds of
documents and conducted dozens of depositions that it says shows a trail
of unlawful activity -- a trail that leads to the president and his wife!
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- "The pattern of evidence obtained
by the committee implicates the president and theFirst Lady in the possible
theft of government property," the report states in its opening summary.
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- Concluding its two year investigation
into the White House Database, the subcommittee charges that "the
president's involvement in the plan to convert government property to the
DNC and the ultimate accomplishment of that plan motivated the White House
to mount an extraordinary effort to delay and impede the investigation."
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- Deputy Counsel to the President Cheryl
Mills [a Harold Ickes recruit] has been hit with a charge of "lying
to the committee and obstructing the investigation by withholding documents."
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- The Mills matter has been referred to
the Department of Justice for investigation.
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- The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a confidential
secret memo from the woman who was co-ordinating the computer project,
Marsha Scott, the memo was given to the First Lady and White House big
shots Bruce Lindsey and Harold Ickes.
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- The First Lady, in her own handwriting,
notes on the memo outlining the computer database and sharing its information
with the DNC: "This sounds promising, please advise."
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- Another Scott memo states: "This
is the president's idea and it's a good one."
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- [The committee report states that Hillary
Clinton "actually received a demonstration of the Database."]
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- It has been learned that White House
staffer Scott walked out of a deposition exploring the matter.
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- One Scott memo sent to Hillary Clinton
and Bruce Lindsey on January 26, 1994 -- marked "confidential"
-- reveals that Scott was concerned about the loyalty of those who would
work on the Database project.
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- Scott wrote:
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- "Another unanticipated obstacle
has been the recent downsizing efforts throughout the EOP [Executive Office
of the President] which resulted in the removal of... the young, computer
enthusiasts who kept up with the cutting edge technologies. When they were
let go we were left for the most part with an older, certainly less enthusiastic
groups whose allegiance is, in my opinion, highly questionable."
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- A deputy White House lawyer had warned
all involved in the project that data from the computer may be provided
to sources outside of the federal government "only for authorized
purposes."
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- David Watkins, then assistant to the
president, said in an eyes only "privileged and confidential"
memo: "The White House Database will be government property and can
not be used by a campaign entity."
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- The report accuses the White House of
sharing files from the database with the DNC and the Clinton/Gore reelection
campaign -- even using White House staffers to transfer the information.
The trail from White House to DNC is detailed in hundreds of pages of documents
and testimony.
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- The report's summary concludes:
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- "The committee has obtained evidence
that Deputy Counsel to the President Cheryl Mills perjured herself and
obstructed the investigation to prevent Congress and the American public
from finding out that the president and the First Lady were involved in
the unlawful conversion of government property; the president and the first
lady were involved in the unlawful conversion of governments property to
the use of the DNC and the Clinton/Gore campaign; and numerous other individuals,
including Erskine Bowles and Marsha Scott were also involved in the unlawful
conversion of government property to the use of the DNC and the campaign
through the diversion of data and resources."
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- The WASHINGTON POST has taken a pass
on the report, it has been learned.
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