A new report in the Senate suggests the House of Representatives may
have been hasty to impeach Clinton on charges limited to the Monica
Lewinsky sex scandal and raises accusations of political abuse of the
Internal Revenue Service, misuse of FBI files, illegal fund-raising
activities and more.
The 4,000-page interim report was delivered to all members of the
U.S. Senate last week by Judicial Watch, Inc., a non-partisan public
interest government watchdog group. In the report, Judicial Watch
presents evidence that President Clinton may have been involved in
bribery, treason, and other high crimes and misdemeanors in what has
become known as Chinagate and Filegate.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the report could bring
the harder issues of Clinton’s presidency to the forefront.
“They (senators) won’t have an excuse to say there’s nothing else out
there. We’ve put it right in front of them,” he said.
Because the House Judiciary Committee focused entirely on matters
surrounding the Lewinsky sex scandal and ignored evidence that links
Clinton with the Chinagate and Filegate scandals, Judicial Watch
believes that those who have been pushing for a Senate trial may be
losing footing.
“In effect, by rushing the impeachment proceedings and keeping it
limited to try to placate Democrats, Hyde sowed the seeds of defeat into
obtaining justice for the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the
president,” said Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman.
Fitton added that many Republicans aren’t in a hurry to go after
Clinton on the issues surrounding Chinagate and Filegate because further
investigations into these matters would uncover illegal activities among
some high-profile Republican donors as well.
In a letter that accompanied the interim report, Judicial Watch
stated that it had uncovered new evidence that suggests that the
president was involved in the Filegate scandal. In sworn testimony on
Dec. 14, 1998, key witness Linda Tripp indicated that former members of
Congress, high-level Bush administration officials, and other so-called
“enemies” of President Clinton had their FBI files illegally obtained
and misused.
Tripp had testified that the data from what she was told to be FBI
files was to be uploaded on to White House computers so that the
information could be shared with the Democratic National Committee.
Judicial Watch said the person who requested this to be done was Hillary
Clinton.
Also included with the interim report was a list of dead persons
associated with the Clinton administration, prepared by WorldNetdaily
contributing editor David Bresnahan for his book, “Cover Up.” The list
was left on Tripp’s chair by Monica Lewinsky, according to Tripp’s
Filegate testimony. Tripp considered the list to be a threat.
More evidence pointing toward the president’s involvement in
Chinagate came last week when Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Clinton
administration had likely destroyed and suppressed documents and
potential evidence of wrongdoing.
The initial lawsuit that led to the ruling was filed by Judicial
Watch after it met obstacles in obtaining documents from the Department
of Commerce through the Freedom of Information Act. Among the destroyed
or “lost” documents include those that were shredded in former Secretary
of Commerce Ron Brown’s office following his death April 6, 1996. The
court documents say that several Commerce employees said in depositions
that the documents were never even searched following Judicial Watch’s
FOIA requests before being destroyed.
Court documents also said that John Huang, former Democratic National
Committee fund-raiser and former deputy assistant secretary for
international economic policy at Commerce, may have — upon leaving the
agency — removed important documents in an effort to hide them from
Judicial Watch. However, Huang claimed he was little more than a “budget
clerk.”
Because the court ruled in favor of Judicial Watch in this matter,
Commerce has been ordered to perform a rigorously monitored new search
of all documents that may be links to Chinagate.
Fitton said that the court’s decision has far-reaching implications
for the president.
“What this shows is that the issues of perjury and obstruction of
justice are not limited to the Lewinsky affair,” Fitton said.
