Larry Klayman’s Judicial Watch will be asking the court to sanction former White House aide George Stephanopoulos for his uncooperative and mocking attitude during a deposition in the group’s “Filegate” lawsuit.
In spite of Stephanopoulos’ ridicule of the proceedings, Klayman was able to establish several important facts. First, Stephanopoulos did not search his files for documents pursuant to the subpoena. Judicial Watch will be seeking court sanctions for that failure. Second, Stephanopoulos confirmed the accuracy of his statement on the ABC program “This Week” Feb. 8, that White House allies were talking about a long-term “Ellen Rometsch strategy.” The statement referred to former East German spy Ellen Rometsch, with whom John F. Kennedy reportedly had an affair.
When members of Congress considered investigating the matter, FBI Director Hoover threatened to destroy their reputations by using information contained in their FBI files. The implication of Stephanopoulos’ statement was that the White House and its allies will attempt to destroy the reputation of anyone perceived to be a threat to the survival of the Clinton administration. Judicial Watch is seeking to determine if the White House and its allies are using confidential FBI files in furtherance of that strategy.
Stephanopoulos defined what he meant by “White House ally” generally, but he refused to define it in the context of his statement on ABC. In refusing to answer he cited a journalistic privilege which, Judicial Watch will argue, has no basis in law, and would not apply to him if it did. Stephanopoulos left the administration to accept a position as a commentator for ABC News.
James Carville was a somewhat more cooperative witness than Stephanopoulos. Before the deposition, Carville and his attorney told the court he had made reservations to fly to South America on March 15, the day before the deposition was scheduled. But the tickets he submitted in evidence showed that the flight was, in fact, scheduled for the evening of March 16. The court said in response, “Carville (and his attorney) sought to mislead the court from the outset and to delay this deposition.” Following that reprimand Carville apparently thought it best to cooperate.
Carville brought his own videographer to record the deposition. About two hours into the proceedings Klayman discovered that the videographer had the camera trained on him and his notes, instead of the deponent. Klayman suspected that the tape revealed the work product of his client, which turned out to be the case. Judicial Watch will be seeking sanctions for this invasion of privacy, which, ironically, occurred within the context of an invasion of privacy lawsuit. Klayman was able to establish during the deposition that Carville has a file on Judicial Watch, and that he had talked to people in the White House about Judicial Watch.
“It’s obvious that Carville and others are doing research on any entity they consider to be an adversary of this administration,” said Klayman.
Judicial Watch, the government watchdog organization headed by Larry Klayman, is representing several White House employees of the Reagan and Bush administrations whose confidential FBI files were improperly obtained by the White House. The White House and FBI are being sued under the federal Privacy Act, while the individual defendants — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bernard Nussbaum, Craig Livingstone, and Anthony Marceca — are being sued for the common law tort of invasion of privacy. The federal suit, which is currently in the discovery phase, seeks $90 million in damages.
To prevail in the suit, Judicial Watch must prove that the files were turned over in a grossly negligent fashion and/or intentionally.
George Stephanopoulos began his deposition with the comment, “Unbelievable.” The tone of his comments became more derisive and supercilious from there. On page nine of the deposition Klayman stated, “Let the record reflect that apparently there is a lot of laughing around the table. I didn’t mean to be funny.” Stephanopoulos replied, “You don’t have to try.” A bit later Stephanopoulos stated that Klayman’s actions in bringing the case and deposing him were “frivolous, partisan and prejudicial,” and that Klayman was, in his opinion, “not an honorable attorney, (but) a partisan attorney . . . looking to raise money for your organization.”
Stephanopoulos offered various other opinions on Klayman, including a conjecture that he was unable to read, that he was wasting everyone’s time, and finally “you just don’t listen, do you?”
Judicial Watch deposed White House aide Paul Begala was deposed on March 3; George Stephanopoulos on March 9; Terry Lenzner on March 13; and James Carville on March 16.
For a lengthy interview with Larry Klayman on the Filegate depositions and transcriptes of the proceedings, see the Washington Weekly at http://www.federal.com.
