The Clinton White House acknowledged Friday it sought and received more than 300 FBI files, including those of House Speaker Newt Gingrich's press secretary, former Bush chief of staff James A. Baker III and other prominent Republicans.
Republicans immediately denounced the White House, saying President Clinton's aides misused the FBI to get information on political enemies. A top GOP leader suggested hearings were in order.White House spokesman Mark Fabiani called it "an innocent bureaucratic mistake" and said there was no indication anyone reviewed the FBI background material.
But among the unanswered questions were who at the White House knew the files had been gathered and why they were kept at the White House rather than returned to the FBI after the error was discovered by a low-level White House employee sometime early in 1994.
The files - some 330 in all, almost all of them former employees of Republican administrations - were stored in the White House security office's vault in late 1993 and early 1994, the White House said.
"It may take a hearing to determine if these were 330 innocent mistakes," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. "Such a chilling abuse of power would scare anyone who has ever registered to vote."
The matter came up after Rep. William Clinger, R-Pa., revealed on Wednesday that the WhiteHouse had obtained the FBI file of fired travel office chief Billy Dale in January 1994, seven months after he was fired. Clinger, whose committee is investigating the firing of Dale and other travel office workers, suggested Clinton presidential aides were trying to dig up dirt on the ex-travel office chief.Then, on Friday, private Washington lawyer Randall Turk said an Army employee detailed to the White House had asked for Dale's FBI file among hundreds of others because the Bush administration had removed all background rec-ords when it left office.
Turk represents Craig Livingstone, the head of the White House personnel security office, which was assigned the task of creating new files for all White House employees held over from prior administrations.
Relying on a Secret Service list of White House passholders that was apparently out of date, the Army detailee got the FBI records of many presidential aides from Republican administrations who no longer worked at the White House, Turk said. Among them were records on Baker and ex-press secretary Marlin Fitzwater.
After Turk made his disclosure, the White House released its list. The names went up only through the letter "g," which was as far through the alphabet as the Army detailee got before the process was corrected.
One of the FBI files the White House obtained was Gingrich's press secretary, Tony Blankley, who had been deputy director of planning and evaluation in the Reagan White House.
"This is the kind of systematic abuse of a constitutional protection that people have been saying elevated Watergate over White-water," Blankley said Friday. "Now we have a systematic attempt to use the FBI against their enemies."
Fabiani said, "What we have
here is obviously an innocent bureaucratic mistake.
"Instead of attacking, Clinger and Speaker Gingrich should be apologizing. The bottom line is that Mr. Dale's file was not singled out and Mr. Clinger's charges to the contrary have been proved wrong and irresponsible," Fabiana said.
Clinger, he said, "was too sudden to judge, too quick to accuse."
Clinger said, "After several days of changing and conflicting stories regarding the Billy Dale FBI rec-ords, the White House's latest explanation raises more questions than it answers."
It's not the first time the Clinton administration has gotten in hot water over confidential files of employees from a Republican administration.
About the same time the White House was getting the FBI files, two low-level Clinton appointees at the State Department were being fired for having searched the files of 160 Bush administration appointees in the department.
Other prominent figures from Republican administrations whose FBI files were sent to the White House include:
-Former White House counsel Arthur Culvahouse, who worked in both the Reagan and Bush administrations.
-Former White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein.
-Former press secretary James Brady.
-GOP political operative David Carney.
-Former Republican National Committee communications director B. Jay Cooper.
The Army detailee - whom Turk and the White House declined to identify - started at the top of the alphabet and made it through the middle of the letter "g" before the detailee's successor in the job raised questions, White House officials said.
Turk's discovery provides a "completely innocent explanation" for the incident and "these election-year allegations disappear one after another," said Fabiani.
Turk said he began interviewing former White House employees about the matter when Clinger made his allegation.
"We made these inquiries to ascertain what in fact had happened," said Turk. He said he had interviewed the Army detailee.