E-mail probe gets delayed

Although due to respond yesterday to allegations that White House e-mails
relating to "filegate" were wrongfully withheld, Justice Department
attorneys defending the White House were granted a private hearing to
discuss a stay of the case while a new criminal investigation begins -- an
investigation at least one lawmaker calls "a sham."

Judicial Watch, a non-profit legal
foundation, filed a civil suit several years ago against the administration
for improperly obtaining 900 FBI files on former Republican administration
staff. The $90 million suit led to the disclosure of thousands of missing
e-mails pertaining to the files, as well as many other scandals of the
Clinton administration.

During yesterday's hearing, Justice Department lawyers requested the case
be delayed until after the department's separate criminal investigation into
the matter is concluded.

Saying he would not grant "an open-ended, indefinite stay" of the civil
case, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth scheduled a private meeting with
the parties next Thursday to discuss the request.

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Larry Klayman,
president of Judicial Watch, argued that "even a stay of one day would be
inappropriate," because the Justice Department is hiding the e-mails "to get
past the next election," according to an Associated Press report.

The criminal probe, announced Thursday, will focus on the missing e-mails
and allegations by some contract employees that they were threatened with
arrest if they discussed the computer problem publicly.

The announcement came after the Clinton administration said computer
errors made it impossible to search thousands of White House e-mails covered
by subpoenas from congressional officials and grand juries.

Many of the
e-mails reportedly hidden from investigators were Vice President Al Gore's
messages dealing with campaign fund raising.

According to Matt Drudge, editor of the Drudge Report, the New York Times will print excerpts this
weekend of White House counsel Beth Nolan's statement that reveals her
predecessor, Charles Ruff, has been aware of the computer problem for years.

"As Mr. Ruff understood the technical problem at the time, he did not
think that the error had an effect on previous searches or that it might
affect future searches of e-mail records," states Nolan, according to
Drudge. "As a result, Ruff had no reason to believe there was any need to
notify investigative bodies of this error."

But the administration denies it is using delaying tactics to keep the
case from exploding during Vice President Al Gore's bid for the White House.

"The allegation that our strategy is to delay is false," Justice
Department lawyer James Gilligan told the Associated Press.

At least one federal lawmaker says the criminal probe into the crash of
White House computers is, itself, a "sham investigation" with the sole
purpose of delaying current court proceedings.

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Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga.

"Once again, the Department of Justice is hiding the truth from the
American people by belatedly opening a sham investigation at the precise
moment when outside investigators are starting to uncover the truth about
misconduct in the Clinton White House," said
Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga. "The administration now promising an inquiry is
the same administration that obstructed several investigations by refusing
to turn over potentially tens of thousands of e-mails uncovered in 1998, and
threatening outside contractors with jail time if they did not cooperate."

"This investigation will not uncover a single new fact," the former
impeachment manager continued. "Instead, it will be used as a shield to
block successful work by Judicial Watch and the Government Reform Committee
to uncover the truth about White House efforts to obstruct justice."

"It is truly saddening to again see our once-great Department of Justice
being politically manipulated," he concluded.

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