It was time for Sandy Berger to pay the piper for stealing and destroying classified documents, and pay is what he did. A fine:
A judge on Thursday ordered Sandy Berger, President Clinton’s national security adviser, to pay a $50,000 fine for illegally taking classified documents from the National Archives.
The punishment handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson exceeded the $10,000 fine recommended by government lawyers. Under the deal, Berger avoids prison time but he must surrender access to classified government materials for three years.
“The court finds the fine is inadequate because it doesn’t reflect the seriousness of the offense,” Robinson said, as a grim-faced Berger stood silently.
Earlier in the hearing, Berger expressed remorse for his crime, which he described as a lapse of judgment that came while he was preparing to testify before the Sept. 11 commission.
“I let considerations of personal convenience override clear rules of handling classified material,” Berger said. “I believe this lapse, serious as it is, does not reflect the character of myself.”
“In this case, I failed. I will not again,” he said.
The sentencing capped a bizarre sequence of events in which Berger admitted to sneaking classified documents out of the Archives in his suit, later destroying some of them in his office and then lying about it.
Fair sentence?
Steve
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
More partisan sniping…
Anderson
I can’t evaluate the sentence without a clear notion of what he did. Do we know exactly what he destroyed?
Rick
I think Rove blackmailed Berger into stealing the Clinton admin’s famous magic Nawlins levee bulk-up plans, which called for completion NLT 8/25/05.
I smell a Bush cover-up!
Cordially…
ppGaz
Without looking it all up, IIRC he took, and destroyed, copies of documents, not the documents themselves.
Perhaps someone will look up the case facts and confirm that.
I’m too busy with my electron microscope, trying to find any relevance to this story in the first place …..
BumperStickerist
The man should be in prison.
If for no other reason than Berger, a former National Security Adviser, shredded the classified documents using scissors rather than a $20 Fellowes personal use document shredder or simply burning the papers in the fireplace or, hell, a metal wastebasket.
scissors?
jeesh.
ps. I held TS-SCI clearance while in the USAF and during the occasional midshift pulled classified doc destruction duty.
So I say again … scissors?
Orogeny
Shouldn’t the article have actually said: “Berger admitted to sneaking COPIES OF classified documents out of the Archives in his suit”?
What Berger did was stupid and arrogant. The fine is probably appropriate punishment. But it was never the breach of national security that a lot of folks on the right made it out to be. Even the WSJ admitted that no original documents were taken or destroyed.
capelza
You know, the little I know about this case I lost interest in when someone on some board I was at went off about Sandy Berger stuffing classified notes in his socks…and was using Ann Coulter as his “source”.
The whole thing is weird. My understnanding is that he took copies and not originals, which doesn’t make it any more excusable, but just more inexplicable.
For what it’s worth , I don’t lose sleep over Taft of OH either, coingate included.
ThomasD
Lost his security clearance for three years? So, basically, he won’t be able to serve as long as Bush remains president.
That’s good, I was worried he might end up with a slap on the wrist and return ticket to a government job…
John Cole
Yeah. And I am the partisan hack and apologist.
A.) I think they were not necessarily copies, but earlier drafts of the document, with handwriting and other bits of info on them from persons within the White House. I may be wrong.
B.) Even if they were just ‘copies,’ BErger still did precisely what the article says- he sneaked classified documents out and destroyed them. The information contained on the documents were no less secret because they were xeroxed.
I am surprised he did not get a permanent revocation of his security clearance and probation.
Ben
Berger should be in jail… any one of us would be for a similar crime.
Orogeny
John,
Sheesh! I never said anything about you or your post. I was talking about the article quoted in the post. Never intended to infer that you were a hack, political or otherwise. To distinction between copies and originals seems important since one of the right’s talking points has been that Berger took the docs to prevent the commission from getting access to them.
You asked whether the sentence was fair and I responded to your question…no insult intended. In retrospect, I tend to agree with your last sentence, especially about the clearance revocation. I’m just not sure how sensitive the info on the copies that he took actually was.
Vladi G
You are.
Drafts are still original materials. No original materials were missing, according to archives officials.
Orogeny
Sorry, should read “The distinction between copies…”
Defense Guy
He should have gotten jail time. I am sure strings were pulled to ensure this light sentence. The most egregious part is that the he is still eligible for a clearance at some point in the future. Unbelievable.
John S.
I love all the faux-ourage over this.
Yes, Sandy Berger committed a crime. Yes, he should be sentenced to the full extent that the law allows.
But to hear people bemoaning the “egregious” misjustice, and how “strings” were pulled for him to get off light just sounds ludicorus against the backdrop of so many other shadowy government officials that have committed far more serious crimes, and walked away scot free.
Oh, that awful Sandy Beger stuffing classified documents down his pants…he should get the death penalty.
Anderson
Okay, assuming that they were copies & that no original material, including marginalia, were destroyed …
… then $50K & no jail time sounds okay, but he should lose his security clearance for life.
Admittedly, this last is partly b/c Berger did so much to keep us from nailing Osama’s ass before 9/11, and I’d rather he weren’t in any future Dem administrations.
Defense Guy
Yes John S
How dare we give this individual case the individual attention it deserves. After all children are still starving in Africa.
Jeff Maier
Berger should be in jail… any one of us would be for a similar crime.
I think it really depends upon the circumstances. I worked in the national security apparatus for years and classified documents were routinely mishandled, left exposed, carried off without permission, shown to ex-employees without need to know or proper clearance, etc. When folks were caught, and it was handled officially, it was usually administrative reprimands and punishments unless codeword TS stuff was involved and then security clearances were usually yanked for good.
Mike S
Agreed.
Paul L.
Introducing the ppGaz test.
If a story reflects badly on liberals/democrats, it is not important/interesting/relevance.
Champ Chelsea
If Berger were a Republican, there would’ve at least been a government Commission, and 100 NYT articles calling for his beheading as a traitor.
Mike S
No he wouldn’t. This administration would have given him a medal of freedom.
pmm
Color me ignorant, but I don’t understand how his plea deal could involve his security clearance. That should be issued/revoked based on the reliability of the person, not some deal. I know the rules are different for folks at that level, but since the whole point of a security clearance is to identify personnel who can/should be trusted with sensitive materials, isn’t violating that trust sufficient reason to deny them a security clearance indefinitely? He’s a danger to national security for 3 years, but in 4 years he’ll be trustworthy again? Shouldn’t he at a minimum be required to undergo the examination again before he gets it back?
Nikki
Thousands of people are dead along the Gulf of Mexico, many due to government inaction. Even Justice Rehnquist’s death and funeral held less importance than this.
Nikki
Actually, I believe he won’t be able to apply for a security clearance until after 3 years. He definitely will have to go through the process again and may be denied in the future.
jahyarain
if Berger were a republican he WOULD be a traitor
(just playin’ gop, you know i Love you)
crg
I still don’t understand this one. Has he ever said what he was hoping to accomplish?
Paul L.
Can I use the same standard for importance of this story?
Five New Indictments in DeLay Investigation
John Cole
Vladi G.- Thanks.
CRG- I have no idea what he was trying to do, either. Maybe now that the sentencing is over he will explain himself.
Steve
These two paragraphs appear to contract each other.
On its face, the notion that any of us would be in jail for a similar crime sounds about as plausible as the claim that there would be a grand jury convened if any of us lied about sex at a deposition in a civil case. Absent some actual danger to national security, probation and a fine seems appropriate to me.
Steve
Contradict, not contract, naturally.
John S.
No, Defense Guy, focus all your attention on this relatively miniscule breach of national security – which unlike much larger threats, has actually been dealt with in an appropriate fashion – and pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain…
If you only had a brain.
Steven
In all honesty, if he did stuff the documents down his pants, we should all be glad he destroyed them.
Kimmitt
If they really were copies, that sounds a little light but in the right ballpark.
Defense Guy
Yes, If I only had a brain then I might understand that a former NSA destroying secret documents is not a small issue. How silly of me.
Still working on the list of insults? I don’t think Wopner is on anymore sadly.
Steve S
It’s funny. Some guy(or gal) outs a undercover CIA agent, and they should be given a Medal of Freedom.
Another guy incidently destroys copies of documents which causes no harm, and they ought to be in jail.
You moonbats just crack me up!
Pb
I’d just like to know why he destroyed copies of documents… did he think he was destroying the only copies? Or what about Cole’s theory, that they might have had some (extra) incriminating information written on them?
Because as it stands, it just doesn’t make sense. I do think that if he actually had destroyed anything irrevocably, then he should have gotten jail time. But he didn’t, so WTF? Maybe they fined him extra for stupidity.
ppGaz
Orientation: Moonbat, left. Wingnut, right.
Potatohead, any clueless politician, right or left.
Vladi G
Theory: He wanted to review the documents before testifying in front of the commission. He didn’t want to do it at the archives (hey, I like to work from home, too). He took copies home. He realized that he wasn’t supposed to do that, and so instead of taking them back, he destroyed them. He got caught, he hadn’t yet destroyed all of them, and so he handed over what he hadn’t yet destroyed. Not particularly implausible.
Or what about not?
“no original materials are missing and nothing Mr. Berger reviewed was withheld from the [9-11] commission,”
Vladi G
Oops, hit post too soon:
Only if he had written the incriminating information on them AFTER he had removed the COPIES.
Bob
Being that I live in 49er country and things will be slow around here, I bought Madden 2006. How do you control the strength and accuracy of the kickoffs? I haven’t figured that out yet.
So what should be done with all the administration guys who are a part of the Plame exposure.
Gary Farber
“Fair sentence”?
I gave my opinion here, but I’m waiting as I have since day one for someone to answer my question.
RIchard Aubrey
Fair? I suppose it depends on the usual punishment for this sort of thing.
The problem is that we don’t know what he was actually trying to do. His story sounds so absurd that believing anythind else is easier. Nobody can be that stupid.
Now, if you want to say, yes, Berger can, then we have a whole new subject. Like his drivers license. You want this moron on the road? What if he goes back as a GS1 to paint fences. Can we trust him not to cause some kind of problem with his paintbrush?
One speculation is that the archivists, looking at Hillary’s chances and Billy Dale’s fate, decided that discretion was in order. Hence the nicey-nicey.
The hardest thing to believe is Berger’s story.
But, if true, we still don’t know the usual punishments.
I gather the fine end of it is $10k and the judge decided that was inadequate (probably believes in the progressive income tax). But I don’t know anything about jail time.
pleonastic piranha
i think he should have his security clearance permanently revoked. and i am not happy that so many white collar crimes culminate in fines, which privileges people with money. i like to see more prison sentences for them.
other than that, i can’t get excited about this. in the grand scheme of things, he is a mere cockroach.
(for the record, i’ve been called a bush-hater; in case somebody wants to claim all of us excuse liberal misfits.)
DougJ
I’m surprised he didn’t get a harsher sentence given this administration’s zero tolerance for the leaking of classified information.
John S.
Then I’m sure you lay awake at night tormented over the fact that a CIA operative was outed by someone in the White House.
I’m curious, which do you find more egregious?
And before you hoist up your strawman, I do think Berger committed a crime.
KC
Original materials usually includes original drafts of documents, some of which could be copies of original documents. Yesterday, I reviewed drafts of a public records bill at the University Archives at the CSU Stanislaus library. Within the materials, were copies of drafts of the bill, some with writing on them. All of it was original material though since it was a product of the original author and housed in his collection. I promise, if the librarian had caught me taking any one of those draft copies, I’d have been kicked out of the library immediately.
Also, what Berger did was wrong. He deserves to pay the steep fine he is paying. I’m not so sure about jail time though. I know the State Archives here in California promises to prosecute theives, but I’d bet as long as you didn’t steal the constitution, you’d get off with a steep fine.
tBone
Excellent snark. Carry on.
Stormy70
Yes, this was masterful. Washington protects their own.
Nikki
Sure. That story didn’t interest me either.
Slartibartfast
Ok, let’s just be clear, here: a copy of a classified document is itself a classified document. There are two separate issues here (or more, but let’s just look at these two, shall we?): the unauthorized removal of a classified document from its proper repository (the Archives, in this case), a possible unauthorized destruction of information, and the destruction of a classified document through other than authorized means (shred or burn using approved equipment and procedures). Clearly Berger did the first and third of these; the second is possible but there’s probably insufficient evidence.
I’m guessing he got a stiffer than mandatory sentence because he, of all people, ought to have known better. I do think he should have his clearance revoked in perpetuity for the collossal stupidity of his actions, though.
Gary, “putting documents in his coat and pants” is probably just awkward wording that led to people saying he stuffed them in his pants. Absent a more detailed report (possibly with photos) I think we can’t say anything else about it.
Boronx
Fair sentence? Who knows. The story is so fucked up that it’s obviously only the tip of an iceberg.
DougJ
I don’t have the energy, but what with the Jeff Gannon story not so long ago, I think there’s an 8.5″ cut joke in here somewhere. Maybe someone else can “tease it out”, as they like to say.
DougJ
The strange thing is: there was nothing in those papers Berger couldn’t have found out by looking in Who’s Who.
Jess
I’m just amazed to hear someone in politics admit that he screwed up and deserves his punishment–how refreshing! Haven’t seen that very often lately, have we?
Jim Allen
For a member of the Clinton administration, the sentence is light, probably, but fair enough.
If he’d been a member of the Bush administration, a promotion or a medal would have been in order.
Shygetz
I think he got off easy (and I’m usually a lickspittle Democrat apologist). I think that permanent loss of security clearance and house arrest or community service would be more fitting. I hate fining rich people.
TallDave
This just shows Democrats still don’t “get it” when it comes to national defense. Where are the denunciations of a crime far worse than Watergate?
I hereby sentence the Democratic Party to another ten years of not being taken seriously on defense.
TallDave
Jim Allen,
Ha. If it were a member of either Bush Admin, there would be impeachment hearings and constant hammering by the the press.
DougJ
You’re right, Tall Dave. The Bush administration would never do something like this. The only logical thing to do here is to grant Bush a third terms in lieu of a prison sentence for Berger.
Jim Allen
Impeachment hearings? I’m not too clear on how Berger would be eligible for impeachment. Care to explain where that appears in the Constitution?
And hammering by what press? Faux News?
Do me a favor, TallDave, check outside the window and give us a weather report from your planet.
p.lukasiak
This was obviously a case of “no harm, no foul”, and Berger is paying this ridiculous fine solely to set an example. That Berger accepts this punishment demonstrates that he is far more concerned with National Security than anyone in the Bush administration—he is allowing himself to be used as an example.
I mean, seriously….there were tons of stories about Iraq’s (supposed) WMDs that were based on classified information—-yet, as far as I know, not one person in the Bush administration has been questioned about the numerous breeches of national security that these journalistic efforts represented.