White House Links Dead Aide To Hiring of Ex-Security Chief
By ROBERT D. HERSHEY JR.JULY 1, 1996
The White House said today that the initial decision to hire Craig Livingstone as the head of the office that handled F.B.I. background checks was made by Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in 1993.
Appearing today on the ABC News program “This Week,” George Stephanopoulos, a senior adviser to the President, gave the Administration’s first account of how Mr. Livingstone had been hired.
Mr. Stephanopoulos said Mr. Livingstone, who resigned last week as head of the White House security office in the face of blistering bipartisan criticism about his role in obtaining the files, had later been approved for the post by William F. Kennedy 3d, another White House lawyer with special responsibility for security.
Ever since the disclosure earlier this month that the White House security office under Mr. Livingstone improperly obtained hundreds of files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Congressional Republicans have been pressing to determine how he got his job.
Last week Mr. Livingstone told a House panel that he did not know who had made the decision, and the White House said it was not sure and could not ask for fear of interfering with the investigation of the episode by the Whitewater independent counsel, Kenneth W. Starr.
Mr. Stephanopoulos said today that Mr. Livingstone had been hired by the counsel’s office. He said that Mr. Livingstone found out about the White House opening from Christine Varney, the Cabinet secretary, after he had worked on the planning of Mr. Clinton’s inauguration, although Mr. Stephanopoulos said he did not know whether Ms. Varney had recommended him.
Then, Mr. Stephanopoulos said, Mr. Livingstone met jointly with Mr. Foster and Cheryl Mills, an associate White House counsel, before “Vince decided to put him in the security office on a temporary basis.”
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https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/124146575/
GOP Fund Probers Assailed - Demos Allege Bankrupt Tactics
Tulsa World (OK) (Published as Tulsa World) - November 8, 1997
EXCERPTS
Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa. “We are chasing fanciful goblins. “ At the hearing, a White House lawyer conceded for the second time in two days that she did not turn over a document later deemed relevant to a House subcommittee’s investigation of a White House computer database.
“You were splitting hairs in order not to comply,” Burton told Deputy White House Counsel Cheryl Mills.
Mills said that in September 1996, she saw the June 28, 1994, memo written by presidential aide Marsha Scott, titled “Recommendation for Design of New Database. “ Scott was charged with setting up the White House database, known as WhoDB.
Mills said she did not turn the memo over to the committee because she believed it referred to another database.
(snip)
Mills was repeatedly questioned about why it took her office seven months to find the videotapes that had been sought by congressional investigators.
Mills said she did not know of videotapes of coffees that Clinton had for donors until they were discovered last month.
“How many times have you been asked that question? “ queried Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
“I have been asked that question at least 35 times,” Mills replied.