08/13/2022
From: Roger Williams
Remember when Sandy Berger got caught trying to smuggle documents out of the National Archives in his pants? Very different how that was handled.
Cato’s Ted Galen Carpenter remembered it recently:
Evidence emerged that in 2000 Berger had illegally removed classified documents on two separate occasions from the National Archives — reportedly by stuffing them down his pants before exiting a secure reading room. After months of negotiations with federal prosecutors, he entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified material. It was, to put it mildly, an extremely generous offer by the government, since Berger’s theft of highly classified materials was so brazen.
Treating such a violation of law as a mere misdemeanor was the operational definition of a “sweetheart deal,” but the penalty phase of the plea bargain was even worse. Not only did Berger avoid having to serve any jail time, the penalties he did experience was little more than a cynical joke. He had to pay a $50,000 fine and relinquish his security clearance for three years. The court also sentenced him to one hundred hours of community service. Someone with Berger’s economic means probably could pay $50,000 out of the family’s petty cash account.
The National Security State Shields One of Its Own Miscreants–Again, Cato, February 1, 2021
What was that about anyway? I think the Clintons told him to do it to cover up their mishandling of Bin Laden. Ann Coulter agrees — she wrote in 2014:
Bill Clinton’s masterful handling of foreign policy was such a catastrophe that he had to deploy his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, to steal classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 to avoid their discovery by the 9/11 commission.
He needn’t have bothered, it’s not like the press reports any Dem scandal. I think this was back when the press had a smidgen of integrity. I wonder how many times that is done? A Democratic administration just destroys all record of its misdeeds.
Up in Alaska, up-and-coming young Dem pol’s wife ran over and killed a local Native man. No news story, police never checked her phone to see if she was texting & driving. The wife, Mara Kimmel, was/is huge local immigration enthusiast activist and is now ACLU of Alaska’s Executive Director. [The Berkowitz story that’s never been told, by Suzanne Downing, MustReadAlaska, May 11, 2018].
See earlier letters from the same reader.
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