Gop Report Suggests ‘Hit List’
A House Republican report issued Tuesday said the White House may have tried to develop a political “hit list” by obtaining FBI background files, a charge Democrats called an unfounded election-time smear.
The GOP members of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee stressed it is an “interim” report that will be revised if the Republicans keep control of Congress.
“Yes - maybe like in November,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.
Democrats, meanwhile, said the evidence points to White House bungling in the acquisition of hundreds of files on Republicans who worked in previous administrations. Democrats said if they regain Congress after the Nov. 5 elections, they will not permit the kinds of accusations they claim mar the Republican report.
“What you end up with are reports that have no credibility and are nothing more than election-year rhetoric,” said Rep. Cardiss Collins, D-Ill., the committee’s ranking Democratic.
The GOP report further accused the White House of trying to politicize the FBI and called for the resignation of FBI General Counsel Howard Shapiro over discussions he had with Clinton administration officials during the files investigation. Shapiro called the talks a mistake, but not a politically motivated one.
The government reform committee, which last week blasted the White House over the 1993 travel office firings, learned about the FBI files as part of the so-called “Travelgate” probe.
The files contain detailed personal and financial histories.
“This leads to the possibility that the Clinton administration was attempting to prepare a political ‘hit list’ or ‘enemies list’ with the most sensitive and private information possible,” the report said.
But Rep. William Clinger, R-Pa., chairman of the government oversight committee, acknowledged during a Tuesday hearing that “we have yet to determine” if the acquisition was due to incompetence “or if darker motives were involved.”
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., responded: “The majority is more interested in scoring political points than in finding the truth.”