Posted on 03/31/2005 4:30:05 PM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON, March 31 - Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge and give up his security clearance for three years after removing classified material from a government archive, the Justice Department and associates of Mr. Berger said today.
A well-respected figure in foreign policy circles for many years, Mr. Berger has also agreed to pay a $10,000 fine as part of an agreement reached with the Justice Department in recent days after months of quiet negotiations, the associates said.
He is expected to enter his plea Friday afternoon in Federal District Court here, capping an embarrassing episode that reverberated in last year's presidential campaign.
Mr. Berger had been a senior policy adviser to Senator John F. Kerry's presidential bid - and initially was mentioned as a possible secretary of state if Mr. Kerry were to win. But he was forced to quit the campaign abruptly last July after accusations first surfaced that he had inappropriately removed classified material from a secure reading room at the National Archives, and the case became a political tempest.
The material involved a classified assessment of terrorist threats in 2000, which Mr. Berger was reviewing in his role as the Clinton administration's point person in providing material to the Sept. 11 commission. Officials with the archives and the Sept. 11 commission ultimately determined that despite the incident, the commission had access to all the material needed in its work.
When the issue first surfaced last year, Mr. Berger insisted that he had removed the classified material inadvertently.
But in the plea agreement reached with prosecutors, he is expected to admit that he intentionally removed copies of five classified documents, destroyed three of them, and misled staff members at the National Archives when confronted about it, according to an associate of Mr. Berger who is involved in his defense but who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plea has not yet been made formal in court.
The Justice Department, without discussing details of the plea agreement, acknowledged that Mr. Berger had agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.
Mr. Berger, 59, was unavailable for comment this evening. In a statement, his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, said Mr. Berger "has cooperated fully with the Department of Justice and is pleased that a resolution appears very near."
"He accepts complete responsibility for his actions, and regrets the mistakes he made during his review of documents at the National Archives," Mr. Breuer said, adding that Mr. Berger "looks forward to putting this episode behind him very soon and continuing his career of public and private service to this country."
It is unclear what long-term impact the case will have on Mr. Berger's once-flourishing career in government.
While the plea agreement requires Mr. Berger to give up his secret security clearance for three years, it also allows him to have his clearance reviewed and restored within that time if the government were to ask him to serve on a panel or in another position with access to sensitive material, associates said.
But some political analysts said the case against him - which Republican leaders seized on last year in accusing him of imperiling national security - may have made him unemployable in government in the short term. He is currently chairman of a global business strategy firm.
The criminal charge stems from Mr. Berger's removal of documents from the National Archives on two separate occasions during his review of material for the Sept. 11 commission.
On Sept. 2, 2003, during an hours-long review of documents, Mr. Berger took a copy of a lengthy White House "after action" report that he had commissioned to assess the government's performance in responding to the so-called "millennium" terrorist threat prior to the 2000 new year, and he placed the document in his suit pocket, the associate said. A month later, during another session at the archive, he removed four more copies of other versions of the report, the associate said.
Mr. Berger's intent in removing the documents, the associate said, was to be able to compare the different versions of the 2000 report side by side and trace changes.
"He was just too tired and wasn't able to focus enough, and he felt like he needed to look at the documents in his home or his office to line them up," the associate said. "He now admits that was a real mistake, which he regrets."
Mr. Berger admits compounding the mistake after removing the second set of documents on Oct, 2, 2003, the associate said. In comparing the versions of the report at his office later that day, he realized that several were essentially the same, and he cut three copies into small pieces with a scissors, the associate said. He also admitted improperly removing handwritten notes he took at the archives, the associate said.
Two days later, staff members at the National Archives - who had grown suspicious about Mr. Berger's possible removal of documents - confronted him, and he now admits to misleading the archive about what had happened. He indicated that the removal was inadvertent and, while he returned the two remaining copies of the report to the archive, he said nothing about the three copies he had destroyed, the associate said.
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SANDY BERGER =
The CLINTONS' Communist China Washington, D.C. Lobbyist
The CLINTONS' NSA Advisor that helped them deny 3 Offers from the Sudan during the 1990's to give us OSAMA bin LADEN on a Silver Platter before this Terrorist Enemy could hit us hard on American Soil.
The CLINTONS' NSA Advisor that "Guarauntee'd" to the American People on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that the CLINTONS' allowing our Space Satellite launches in Communist China would "NEVER" result in the loss of our precious missile technology secrets to them, just before it did.
The Enemy is now Within...
and always has been.
.
No kidding...if it was any average person on the street they'd be someones play thing in the shower room in the state pen...
Nothing to see here, move along now.
Not conspiratorial....aware.
Republicans cave again. What a bunch of wusses. They outta be ashamed of themselves.
I responded to your ping before reading the NY Times article above.
Whoo boy, they sure did heap as much praise on Berger as they could.
This story does have some information I had not heard, such as the removal of his security clearance for 3 years.
I also had heard in the Williams report that Berger will plead guilty to two counts, the Times appears to say he'll enter a plea on one count.
We shall see tomorrow who is more accurate. Williams said the court appearance is set for 1:30pm tomorrow.
WASHINGTON, March 31 - Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge and give up his security clearance for three years after removing classified material from a government archive, the Justice Department and associates of Mr. Berger said today.
bump
Politics is a criminal brotherhood. They protect their own, irregardless of party labels. If you do not believe me, review the historical record of this nation's greatest show trial, otherwise known as the Clinton impeachment.
The NY Slimes has a more in depth look at this event.
"and he placed the document in his suit pocket, the associate said. A month later, during another session at the archive, he removed four more copies of other versions of the report, the associate said."
Notably the manner of secreting the "four more copies" is absent. Must be the pants/socks incidents.
Our Republican Leaders are the ones letting him off.
No jail time?
In comparing the versions of the report at his office later that day, he realized that several were essentially the same, and he cut three copies into small pieces with a scissors, the associate said.
A few comments are in order.
1) why not just sneak them back in and return them?
2) what with all the sensitive correspondence someone like Berger would handle on a daily basis, are we to believe that Sandy Berger doesn't have a personal-sized paper shredder at home? Of all people, Berger would know that cutting a document up with scissors is an invitation for a jigsaw puzzle champion to piece it back together. He knows it is not a viable means of disposing of a document. Hell, burning it would have been better. Why scissors?
3) if I had to guess, Berger was probably blackmailed into stealing the documents, the three "destroyed" copies probably are in Beijing or somewhere similar by now.
4) am I the only one to suspect that in return for this slap on the wrist, Berger had to cooperate more than just saying he did it and was sorry? If he was let off the hook this easy in return for nothing, the Justice Department is insane. I'm hoping beyond hope that Berger was flipped and had to rat out whoever put him up to this in the first place.
His pleading guilty shows this was NOT 'just a mistake' because he was 'tired'. You don't lose security clearance and pay a $100K fine if that's all it was.
Me TOO!!!
whoops...make that $10K. FNC just said it was $100K but the article says $10K. :o)
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