WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors will not recommend jail time for former national security adviser Sandy Berger.
The charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine, but under a plea agreement, he will be fined only $10,000 and lose his security clearance for three years.
Berger pleaded guilty today to sneaking classified documents out of the National Archives then cutting up some of them with scissors.
Last summer he called it an “honest mistake,” but today he acknowledged to U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson that he intentionally took and deliberately destroyed three copies of the same document dealing with terror threats during the 2000 millennium celebration.
Berger then lied to Archives staff when told the documents were missing.
Robinson did not ask Berger why he cut up the documents and did not respond to reporters, saying only, “It was a mistake and it was wrong.”
The former Clinton administration official was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Berger and his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, have said Berger knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket and pants and inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio. He returned some of the highly classified national security documents, but others still are missing.
FBI agents searched his home and office after he voluntarily returned some documents. But some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration’s handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration were found to be missing.
The materials related to a 2000 report on how government reacted to the terror threat prior to the millennium celebrations.
Berger, who had served as national security adviser to John Kerry’s campaign, was reported in July to be under investigation for removing the documents and handwritten notes from a secure reading room at the National Archives. The investigation forced Berger to step down from Kerry’s campaign.
Berger also has acknowledged that he destroyed some documents, but he insists it was by accident.
“I deeply regret the sloppiness involved, but I had no intention of withholding documents from the commission, and to the contrary, to my knowledge, every document requested by the commission from the Clinton administration was produced,” Berger said in a statement last summer.
The after-action review of the millennium celebration conflicts with Berger’s testimony before the 9-11 commission, prompting some Republicans to charge Berger stole the documents to protect the Clinton administration.
Berger told the 9-11 panel the administration’s efforts “thwarted” terrorist attacks, but the documents indicate many missed opportunities and an apparent element of luck.
The investigation began last spring when archives staffers ran a sting operation after they reported seeing Berger sneak out classified documents in his pants and socks.
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