White House Failed To Report Error Official Misled Congress In ‘94, But Truth Came Only Last Week

The White House discovered in 1995 that its former chief of administration had given inaccurate testimony to Congress but failed to correct the matter with House members until last week, documents show.

The White House is calling the incorrect testimony an honest mistake and says its failure to promptly correct the matter when it was discovered was due to “inadvertence and the press of business,” according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Then-director of White House administration Patsy Thomasson told a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in March 1994 she was unaware of any volunteers working at the White House who were being paid by outside entities.

But last month, the White House disclosed that a handful of volunteers who worked at the White House during President Clinton’s first term actually had been compensated by the Democratic National Committee.

The White House says it believes the practice of having volunteers paid by outside sources was legal, but it has moved to stop it anyway in the aftermath of the uproar over Democratic fund-raising practices.

Thomasson, a longtime Arkansas friend of Clinton, now works in the personnel office. She emerged as a key figure during the Whitewater investigation because she was one of four people to search the office of the late deputy counsel Vincent Foster on the night of his suicide.