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ReRelease of Tripp's personnel file won't be prosecuted
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer

April 7, 2000
Web posted at: 9:55 a.m. EDT (1355 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon and another Defense Department employee didn't intend to break the law when they released information from Linda Tripp's personnel file, the Justice Department said in declining to prosecute them.

The department's decision disclosed Thursday prompted complaints from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., that the Clinton administration is engaging in a "cover-up."

In the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998, Bacon and Clifford Bernath were involved in informing The New Yorker magazine that Tripp stated on a security clearance form she never had been arrested.

In fact, Tripp was arrested for grand larceny as a teen-ager, a charge later reduced to loitering in an incident Tripp's lawyers called a youthful prank. Lawyers for Tripp, whose secret tape recordings of Lewinsky launched the probe that resulted in President Clinton's impeachment, was part of a pattern by the president's supporters to attack his political enemies. Tripp is suing the Clinton administration for releasing the information.

Justice Department spokeswoman Chris Watney said the criminal division's public integrity section concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bacon and Bernath had the required willful intent and knowledge to violate the Privacy Act.

Bacon's lawyer, Bill Murphy, suggested the Pentagon information about Tripp was properly disclosed to a reporter under the Freedom of Information Act.

"In short, FOIA trumps the Privacy Act" in this instance, said Murphy. Bacon has said that he regretted answering a reporter's question about Tripp and not checking with Pentagon lawyers before doing so.

Inhofe, the Republican senator, said no one is being held accountable for a violation of Tripp's privacy.

"What does it say to citizens who want to serve in government that their most private confidential personnel file can be leaked to the press in clear violation of the law, the perpetrators can be caught, and yet nothing is done?" Inhofe asked.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the IG's tentative findings in the matter have been provided to Bacon and Bernath, and they have 14 days to provide comment before the report is made final. The report goes to Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Last week, a federal judge found Clinton engaged in a criminal violation of the Privacy Act when he released letters from presidential accuser Kathleen Willey. The president's supporters said the warmly worded letters, released during the Lewinsky scandal, undermined Willey's contention that Clinton had made an unwanted sexual advance against her. The White House is appealing that ruling.