House
Report:
White House Obstructed
Justice
During Congressional Probe
WASHINGTON — The
White House mismanaged hundreds of thousands of potentially incriminating e-mails sought
under subpoena, according to a committee report approved Thursday morning by the House
Committee on Government Reform.
"The report presents compelling
evidence of gross incompetence and obstruction of congressional and criminal
investigations. We are continuing our work to ensure that the American people have faith
in their government," said Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the committee.
The report concluded that senior White
House officials obstructed congressional and criminal investigators by failing to comply
with outstanding subpoenas because they had been made aware that there was a problem with
White House e-mails being improperly archived, failed to remedy it, and subsequently
threatened non-political computer contractors into concealing the problem.
The report was the result of a
seven-month probe which began in March 2000. That problem resulted in the White House's
failure to produce to Congress, the Justice Department and the Office of the Independent
Counsel many e-mails potentially responsive to outstanding subpoenas.
Many of the e-mails that have just
recently been recovered have provided new evidence in the campaign finance investigation
being conducted by the Committee.
"If senior White House personnel
were aware of [the White House's e-mail problems] and ... failed to take effective
measures to recover the withheld information — or inform those with outstanding
document requests — then the e-mail matter can fairly be called the most significant
obstruction of Congressional investigations in U.S. history," according to the
report.
"[T]he e-mail problem affects
almost every investigation of the Administration" the report said.
Fox News contacted the White House
press office for comment, but has not yet received a reply.
The White House first discovered that
there was a problem at critical periods during two recent investigations: the inquiry that
led to the impeachment of President Clinton, and the Justice Department's investigation
into efforts by China and other foreign entities to influence U.S. elections.
"[I]t is hard to understate the
potential impact of learning about a second — and perhaps equally serious —
problem at the time of the looming impeachment crisis," the report notes.
