He Should Have Been Jailed
This is a disgrace. Not just the fact that he stole classified documents, but that the justice system let him get away with it.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former national security adviser Sandy Berger removed classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 and hid them under a construction trailer, the Archives inspector general reported Wednesday.
The report was issued more than a year after Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removal of the documents.
Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that when Berger was confronted by Archives officials about the missing documents, he said it was possible he threw them in his office trash.
The report said that when Archives employees first suspected that Berger – who had been President Clinton's national security adviser – was removing classified documents from the Archives in the fall of 2003, they failed to notify any law enforcement agency.
Berger, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents, was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years…..
…."Mr. Berger said he placed the documents under a trailer in an accessible construction area outside Archives 1 (the main Archives building)."
Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.
If someone of "lesser" stature did this, how many years in Federal prison would they still be serving?
If someone of "lesser" stature did this, how many years in Federal prison would they still be serving?
UPDATE: Others: Captain's Quarters, Riehl World View, The Political Pit Bull, The Astute Bloggers, Power Line, UrbanGrounds, Daily Pundit,
By Sissy Willis, December 20, 2006 @ 5:23 pm
Clinton aide Paul Begala’s “Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kind of cool” comes to mind:
“We were all laughing about it“
By daveinboca, December 20, 2006 @ 11:56 pm
The documents this serial eff-up stole had the original comments and may have inculcated Berger in a recommendation he wished to consign to an Orwellian “memory hole.”
The American political elites are self-policing, when it comes to the mainstream media which bends over to protect the Clintonistas, and in this case the Archives’ deference to a scofflaw and scoundrel like Berger proves that point.
No need for a cover-up. This will just be another instance of the MSM ignoring an infraction on the left while it literally makes a federal case out of the non-event of the Plame-Wilson contretemps.
By Ted Goldman, December 22, 2006 @ 1:46 pm
It is quite surprising that this Republican administration has let Sandy Berger off with a slap on the wrist.
On the other hand, since Attorney general Gonzalez failed to act against the NY Times for revealing secrets, why should anyone fear the Republicans?
Santa Monica Ted