Republican Says Hillary Clinton Approved Misuse Of Database

Already beset with questions about campaign fund raising, the Clinton administration found itself in a dispute Monday night with a House Republican over the use of White House computer data.

Rep. David McIntosh, R-Ind., asserted Monday that a 1994 memorandum bearing a handwritten notation by Hillary Rodham Clinton shows that she approved of an effort to transfer information from a White House database to the Democratic National Committee for political purposes.

But the White House insisted that the 1994 memo referred not to the main White House database but to another one that was never even developed exactly as the memorandum had envisioned.

The distinction is crucial because McIntosh heads the House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee, which has been investigating allegations that White House officials may have improperly used the White House database as a source for potential political donors to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign.

The White House has said the database - essentially a list of names and addresses - is used for inviting people to White House events, sending holiday cards and other similar purposes.

Using that database for political purposes - as some critics have suggested was the case - would have violated ethics rules and laws barring the use of government assets for campaigning.

McIntosh said in a statement Monday that the 1994 memorandum, which came from a White House aide, Marsha Scott, demonstrated that the database “was designed from the start as a tool to aid the president’s re-election.”

He noted that it bore what appeared to be Hillary Clinton’s endorsement: “This sounds promising. Please advise. H.R.C.”

McIntosh added, “It troubles me deeply that Mrs. Clinton, who is a very bright lawyer, saw no problem with using taxpayer funds to aid the political operations of DNC,” a reference to the Democratic National Committee.

The memorandum seems to suggest that information on an old Clinton-Gore campaign database could be “dumped into the new system and made available, when deemed necessary, to the DNC or other entities we choose to work with for political purposes.”

The memorandum was sent to Harold Ickes, then the White House deputy chief of staff, and Bruce Lindsey, a White House lawyer and Clinton friend, as well as to Mrs. Clinton on June 28, 1994. It was turned over to congressional investigators a week ago and made public Monday by McIntosh.

A White House spokesman, Barry Toiv, said Monday night that McIntosh was “flat-out wrong” about the facts. As for the 1994 memorandum, in which Scott talks about the need for a flexible, user-friendly database of names, Toiv said, “It seems pretty clear to me she isn’t talking about the White House database.”

Earlier estimates have put the number of names on the list at 350,000. Toiv said Monday night the actual number was closer to 230,000.