U.S. Reps. Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry, both of North Carolina, joined 16 other legislators last week to ask U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to administer a lie detector test to a Clinton administration official who stole confidential government papers.
The congressmen signed and sent a letter to Gonzales last Monday, requesting that the Justice Department give a polygraph examination to former National Security Advisor Samuel Berger, who pleaded guilty in April 2005 for the unauthorized removal and destruction of classified documents from the National Archives, a misdemeanor.
Berger reviewed Archives materials before he testified before the 9/11 Commission in late 2003. The commission asked Berger to explain internal Clinton administration discussions and actions about terrorist threats in the United States.
Berger reached a plea deal with the Attorney General’s Office that cost him a $50,000 fine, two years’ probation, and 100 hours of community service. But the agreement also called for him to voluntarily submit to a polygraph test, “upon request by the United States.”
Two weeks ago the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which includes Foxx, R-5th, and McHenry, R-10th, released a report questioning the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into Berger’s behavior.
“The Report paints the Department of Justice as remarkably incurious about all of Mr. Berger’s visits to the Archives,” the legislators wrote in their letter. “While Mr. Berger was prosecuted for taking documents he admitted to taking, questions remain about what other documents he may have removed.”
Those doubts spurred the representatives’ request for the lie detector test.
“Based on the Government Reform Committee’s report, we’re requesting a polygraph test because it is critical that lawmakers know the full extent of his crimes,” McHenry said. “This is an issue of national security and it is vital that the full story comes to light.”
An Archives inspector’s report, released in December 2006, showed that Berger removed more documents from the Archives, hid them under a trailer in a nearby construction area, and later retrieved them and took them to his own office.
The members of Congress, led by Reform Committee Ranking Republican Rep. Thomas Davis III of Virginia, noted that Berger visited the Archives four times in advance of inquiries into the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Berger admitted taking documents on three of the visits.
“Officials from the 9/11 Commission told Committee staff they now have deep concerns about the materials Mr. Berger had access to,” the legislators wrote to Gonzales.
“It is extraordinarily important that the Justice Department avail itself of its rights under the Plea Agreement and administer a polygraph examination to Mr. Berger to question him about the extent of his thievery. This may be the only way for anyone to know whether Mr. Berger denied the 9/11 Commission and the public the complete account of the Clinton Administration’s actions or inactions during the lead-up to the terrorist attacks on the United States.”
Foxx criticized what she believed was an insufficient punishment for Berger’s crime.
“The probability that documents were destroyed and stolen to prevent their review by the 9/11 Commission is extremely disturbing,” she said in a statement.
“Justice must be served in this matter. Without the full disclosure of historically relevant documents, the 9/11 Commission’s report may very well be missing critical information. The actions of Mr. Berger are an injustice to our nation and to the American people.”
Paul Chesser ([email protected]) is associate editor of Carolina Journal.