FBI files, travel office case dog Clinton
June 23, 1996
(CNN) -- A political tug of war continued Sunday over hundreds of FBI background files improperly obtained by the Clinton administration. The president's staff insists there was no misuse of information, but skeptical Republicans aren't convinced.
Vice President Al Gore repeated the administration's promise to prevent access to such files in the future.
Hatch
The White House conducted what appears to be "a definite effort to find dirt on Republicans," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, charged Sunday. "Now, whether that's true or not, I don't know. That's why we have to do this investigation."
An investigation of the episode has been added to the portfolio of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who already is conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into the president's financial and campaign dealings during his tenure as Arkansas governor.
Avoiding the issues
In a live interview on CNN's "Late Edition," Gore defended the White House's handling of the files and said a policy will soon be in place to prevent anyone there from having access to FBI materials.
"We are going to make sure new guidelines are further adhered to so something like this never happens again," Gore said from his farm in Carthage, Tennessee.
Gore
"To the limits of my knowledge," the files did not wind up in the White House for political purposes, the vice president said. "I was sure it was some kind of bureaucratic foul-up . . . We still don't know what happened, but the wrong procedures were used."
In a separate interview on CBS' Face The Nation, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said it was "inexcusable" that White House personnel requested background files on people who worked in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But Panetta said there's no evidence that the files were misused.
Both he and Gore criticized Republicans for attacking the White House.
"They can't talk about the real matters facing America. They're out of ideas . . . so they want to bring up all of these other matters and try to pretend that these are the matters of primary concern to the American people. They're not," Gore said.
Referring to Bob Dole, GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting, Panetta said: "He ought to be talking about the issues that effect the future."
But Hatch, also interviewed on CBS, said Republicans supported Starr's investigation. "We're going to continue to follow this until we find out what those answers are."
Gingrich wants files
Gingrich
The administration also was being pressed by Republicans on another front. House Speaker Newt Gingrich Saturday renewed his threat to have White House officials declared in contempt of Congress if they don't turn over 2,000 pages of travel office files.
"These people cannot continue to stonewall, obstruct, delay and lie. And they need to turn over those 2,000 pages by next Wednesday," Gingrich said. The White House has claimed executive privilege over the papers, which have been subpoenaed by a House committee.
The committee is investigating the firing of seven travel office employees early in the Clinton administration and how the administration reacted to earlier inquiries into those dismissals.