clinton slapped by judge

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

a rare challenge to clinton's executive power & lies by the judicial
branch. see the book "secret life of bill clinton" by ambrose
evans pritchard for more excellent info about the true state of
our union.

------- Forwarded Message

Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 11:40:40
To: believer@telepath.com
From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: White House to Pay for Cover-Up

>From the Washington Times:

White House to pay for health care lies

By Paul Bedard
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The White House and lawyers defending first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton lied in an effort to keep internal working
papers used to develop President Clinton's universal health
care plan in 1993 secret, a federal judge said Thursday.

   Using blunt language in a written order, U.S. District Judge
Royce C. Lamberth also accused administration officials at "the
highest levels of government" of engaging in a "cover-up" and
pressuring the Justice Department to defend its "dishonest"
actions.

   "It is clear that the decisions here were made at the highest
levels of government and the government itself is -- and should
be --accountable when its officials run amok," Judge Lamberth
wrote.

   "It seems that some government officials never learn that the
cover-up can be worse than the underlying conduct," he
added, ordering the government to pay legal fees of $285,864
to the doctors trade group that sued the White House in
February 1993 to open up the first lady's health care planning
meetings to the public.

   The White House has said taxpayers will pay the bill. "We
don't have any comment," White House spokesman Barry Toiv
said Thursday.

   Justice Department spokesman Bert Brandenburg said,
"The government has consistently maintained 
that sanctions are not appropriate.

   "We disagree with Judge Lamberth's conclusion but we
take his opinion seriously. We are reviewing the decision and
considering what action is appropriate," Mr. Brandenburg said.

   "We're pleased at this point to have any reimbursement, but
the money was never the issue," said Kathryn Serkes,
spokeswoman for the Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons, the group that brought the initial suit against Mrs.
Clinton and her health care task force.

   "What's important are the conclusions that the judge
reached. Without using the president or first lady's name, he
points a finger squarely at them," she said.

   The doctors group filed suit to open up closed meetings of
Mrs. Clinton's Health Care Task Force. They maintained the
first lady was violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act,
which requires that any federal advisory panel that includes a
nongovernment worker must always meet in the open.

   The association said Mrs. Clinton was not an employee of
the government, but an appeals court determined that Mrs.
Clinton was a de facto federal employee and thus allowed her
group to meet privately.

   The doctors group then tried to open up secret meetings of
Mrs. Clinton's larger "working group," which numbered
between 600 and 1,000, but Judge Lamberth temporarily
blocked that plan when Clinton health care adviser Ira
Magaziner said the panel included "only federal government
employees."

   But Mr. Magaziner's March 3, 1993, statement was
"actually false," said the judge, who expressed anger that the
White House and Justice Department never moved to correct
the fabrication.

   Judge Lamberth relied upon Mr. Magaziner's statement in
refusing to open up the working group's meetings as required
by the law. In fact, the group included hundreds of
nongovernmental members and representatives of
special-interest groups who would have profited if the Clintons'
universal health care proposal was approved. The proposal
never came to a vote in Congress.

   The legal effort to open the meetings was eventually
rendered moot after the White House turned over the working
group's internal documents.

   In addition to revealing the special interests involved in
drawing up the Clinton plan, the documents released over time
by the White House showed that private-sector members of
the group were still trying to complete ethics and
conflict-of-interest forms long after their employment had
begun.

   In his decision Thursday, the judge gave the doctors group
credit for giving the public a window on the development of the
administration's massive health care bill.

   "All of these working group documents would be safely
tucked away in the National Archives had it not been for this
litigation. It is only because of this litigation that they are now
available for inspection by the public," he wrote.

   Judge Lamberth subsequently sought a perjury investigation
of Mr. Magaziner, but the Justice Department said it wouldn't
prosecute the White House aide who oversaw the drafting of
the 1,400-page national health bill. He is currently Mr.
Clinton's top adviser on policies dealing with the Internet.

   In Thursday's action, Judge Lamberth said that Mr.
Magaziner's misleading statements in March 1993 were part of
a cover-up organized by the first lady's attorneys, including
Deputy White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr., who died
four months later in an apparent suicide, and Associate
Attorney General Webster L. Hubbell.

   In his just-published book, Mr. Hubbell writes that Mr.
Foster committed suicide in part because of the pressure Mrs.
Clinton put on him to defend her in the case. Mr. Hubbell
himself would later resign his post under pressure and plead
guilty to stealing from the Little Rock law firm where he, the
first lady and Mr. Foster all once worked.

   "It is clear that Mr. Magaziner relied upon the advice of
White House attorneys -- including Vincent Foster ... and
Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell," said the judge.

   The judge said the "most outrageous conduct by the
government" in the case was the administration's failure to
correct Mr. Magaziner's misstatement. "That was a
determination not made individually by Mr. Magaziner, but by
the government through its counsel," he said.

   "There were no rogue lawyers here misleading this court. ...
The executive branch of the government, working in tandem,
was dishonest with this court and the government must now
face the consequences of its misconduct."

   He also expressed shock that the Justice Department
"succumbed to pressure from White House attorneys" to use
false excuses and "strained interpretations" to defend the
actions of Mr. Magaziner.

   "Acting dishonestly, as the government did in this case, is ...
acting in bad faith," he said.

Copyright � 1997 News World Communications, Inc.
     


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