IT HAS BECOME increasingly apparent that FBI officials are concerned that the campaign finance scandal will reach the upper levels of the White House with President Clinton himself a possible target.
That's the simple explanation for FBI Director Louis Freeh's decision to keep the White House and those close to it uninformed about the progress of the investigation, including refusing to brief Secretary of State Madeline Albright about the Chinese money connection before she was to meet with Chinese officials.Earlier the FBI warned agents on the National Security Council not to inform the president that there was concern that the Chinese had bought into the 1996 presidential campaign. The FBI, however, had warned several members of Congress about possible Chinese plans to make what would be illegal contributions to U.S. election campaigns.
The decision not to brief Albright may have strained relations between Freeh and the president nearly to the breaking point. But it was a correct decision.
The FBI had been accused of being too eager to please the White House. It turned over sensitive personnel files of former Republican White House staffers and tipped off presidential aides about documents subpoenaed by congressional investigators.
While that criticism made Freeh jumpy about how to respond to the president or his aides, it would not have been enough to stop him from keeping the president abreast of developments unless he was concerned that it would compromise the inquiry.
The wisdom of Freeh's action became evident last week when it was revealed that the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton had firsthand knowledge about the payment of what investigators suspect was hush money to Hillary Clinton's former law partner and good friend Webster Hubbell.
The current White House chief of staff, Erskine Bowles, and his boss at the time, Mack McLarty, both helped line up jobs for Hubbell after he was forced to resign from the Justice Department and was facing stiff charges of having bilked his former law partners. He ultimately was convicted but has refused to cooperate with the special prosecutor after receiving an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 in commissions from Clinton partisans and friends.
Hubbell, as few others, was in a position to have intimate details about Hillary Clinton's dealings in the Whitewater scandal.
White House aides concede they told the Clintons of their activities, which the president contends was just an effort to help an old friend down on his luck. No one knew how serious the charges were against Hubbell, Clinton contended. And right on cue, Hubbell now says he lied to everyone about how much trouble he was in. Balderdash! The president knew exactly how serious the charges were. His wife, after all, was one of those bilked by her former partner. Where was the White House counsel when this was going on? Any lawyer who didn't warn his boss in the strongest terms to stay away from this man should be disbarred for cheating his client. Clearly, the counsels weren't informed.
The lack of subtlety here is amazing. The effort to make sure Hubbell stayed on the reservation was blatant. It was either born out of stupidity or arrogance and since most everyone agrees that the Clintons aren't stupid, the latter applies.
So Freeh's decision to play his cards close to the vest when it comes to the White House is not only correct, it is what any prudent lawyer would do when it appears that the boss is in some trouble and can't really be trusted.