THIS IS THE RELEVANT STATUTE, 18 U.S.C. 793 (f), governing Berger's behavior:

Instapundit ^ | 7/20/04

[Brian Mosely]

I BELIEVE THAT THIS IS THE RELEVANT STATUTE, 18 U.S.C. 793 (f), governing Berger's behavior:

Sec. 793. - Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information

(f)

Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense,

(1)

through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or

(2)

having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer -

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

(Via reader David Radulski.) I'm no expert in this area of the law (I teach National Security Law, but don't spend much time on these sorts of questions), but this would seem to rule out "inadvertence" as a defense. The legalities of this are the least important part from my perspective -- I'm far more concerned with what the Hell he was thinking -- but this may be useful. And if readers with more expertise think this statute isn't applicable for some reason, please let me know. Berger's statements in this story sound like an admission that he's violated this statute:

"In the course of reviewing over several days thousands of pages of documents on behalf of the Clinton administration in connection with requests by the Sept. 11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives," Berger said.

"When I was informed by the Archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded," he said.

Gross negligence? Sounds like it to me. But again, I'm not an expert. In fact, this almost makes me wonder why he hasn't been charged -- though the decision to charge someone, even someone admittedly guilty, is always a matter of discretion, and criminal charges against a former National Security Adviser are a rather big deal. It's easy to understand why the Justice Department might be reluctant to bring such charges even if it's satisfied that all the elements of the crime are present.

posted at 09:18 PM by Glenn Reynolds

[Bahbah]

Good points, both of you.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The bigger question is why did he do it? Why would he risk ten years in prison? To whitewash the clintoon legacy? Not likely unless Hitlery had his among the 900 FBI files. Was there something in there that would damage the 'Rat party or some highly placed person int he DNC so badly that 10 years in prison was an acceptable price? Did he provide the documents to Kerry and other Kerry haters?

WHAT DID KERRY KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?

[bboop]

He "'inadvertently' stuck it in his pants?????" The man's a liar and deserves to be in jail, BIG TIME. I'm glad he resigned from Kerry's campaign, too. I hope there is a HUGE uproar over this.

[ArmyBratproud]

Glad I saw this thread.
Good post.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Exactly, this is the very bad for the Rats.

I jus thad a revelation. Is this Hitlery sabotaging Kerry for her 2008 run?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Is this how Hitlery is sabotaging Kerry's campaign so that she can run in 2008?

[Tennessean4Bush]

This is a joke, right? Tell me he wasn't stuffing national security documents in his socks.

[GOPJ]

bump

[nw_arizona_granny]

This is an interesting opinion/thought on this clinton creep.

[nunya bidness]

Why didn't Hannity take your call today?

[kayak]

bttt

[Wil H]

He "'inadvertently' stuck it in his pants?????" The man's a liar and deserves to be in jail..

There are (at least) two crimes here..

1 the original theft

2 Lying to federal investigators

Hmmm, didn't someone just get jail time this week for lying to Federal investigators?

[Common Tator]

This is a not a good place for Kerry to be...

The majority of the public will tend to put lotsa Ketchup on a fried Berger!

[88keys]

Yes. And speaking of "national secrets", what the heck is going on at Los Alamos?!

[maica]

This is a joke, right? Tell me he wasn't stuffing national security documents in his socks.

%%%%%


Questions are raging about why Berger did this; what exactly was taken; who did he risk prison for...

I haven't yet read or heard this comment about the Clinton crowd. They all had COMPLETE disdain for National Security during their entire 8 years in office. Berger's wilful 'pilfering' (to use Dennis Hastert's word) was just normal practice in handling classified material for that gang.

The "sloppiness" that Berger references was in forgetting that Clintonistas were no longer in charge. Actual rules were actually being followed during the Bush Administration.

Very sloppy mistake, Sandy.

[Just mythoughts]

"(2)


having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer -"


Wonder why bjclinton is laughing, since he sent Sandy the Burglar over to check out the documents?????

[BILL_C]

Wonder why bjclinton is laughing, since he sent Sandy the Burglar over to check out the documents?????

---

Bill Clinton is laughing because it is his only defense. This is serious and he doesn't want it to grow into turning on a real 9-11 commission because it will expose one of his biggest lies.

Some of the headlines are trying to pass this off as insignificant. They may get away with it, but this is a small roadsign that points to a much bigger fish.

The fish is Clinton. The smug #$#@@ thinks he's got away with it but the heat might be turned back up.

Let's try and add some more wood to the fire.

[Just mythoughts]

"Bill Clinton is laughing because it is his only defense. This is serious and he doesn't want it to grow into turning on a real 9-11 commission because it will expose one of his biggest lies.

Some of the headlines are trying to pass this off as insignificant. They may get away with it, but this is a small roadsign that points to a much bigger fish.

The fish is Clinton. The smug #$#@@ thinks he's got away with it but the heat might be turned back up.

Let's try and add some more wood to the fire."


bjclinton making this a joking matter over a sloppy man is the same as taunting the DOJ to nail his sorry behind.

This man is one perverted revolting human, and I totally reject anything attempt by this low life bunch to downplay stuffing classified documents on one's person as innocent.

Seems the statute is very clear that any person with knowledge of stolen documents is culpable.

[Walkingfeather]

bet your wrong... that is 10 years per offense. He will get hard time.