Limited Screening For Clinton Visitors

Partly reversing itself, the White House said Sunday evening that the backgrounds of the hundreds of visitors who saw the president at small gatherings arranged by the Democratic National Committee were reviewed by Secret Service officials to see if the visitors might pose a security threat to Clinton.

But the more general issue of the appropriateness of each guest was never reviewed, according to a statement issued Sunday evening by Lanny Davis, the special White House counsel.

Thus, the check would not have prevented a felon from visiting the president unless the felon had been listed on government computer records as posing a possible threat to the president.