Berger withdraws as adviser to Kerry
WASHINGTON - Former national security adviser Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger withdrew Tuesday as an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry after the disclosure that he was being investigated for the mishandling of classified documents from his years in the Clinton administration.
Berger’s lawyer acknowledged that the FBI was looking into an episode last year when his client removed copies of highly classified documents from the National Archives while preparing to testify before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The unauthorized documents included hand-written notes that Berger had taken while reviewing materials at the archives, and what his lawyer said were copies of drafts of a secret Clinton administration analysis of its handling of a terrorist bombing plot surrounding the millennium celebration.
Berger returned most of the materials after National Archives officials complained, although one or more versions of the draft report could not be located, and were probably thrown away, attorney Lanny Breuer said. Breuer ascribed the episode to inadvertence and “sloppiness.”
Berger is “a workaholic … but not the most organized person,” Breuer said. “He was reviewing thousands of documents at the request of the government. He was doing it alone. It was hard work.”
In a statement released late Monday, Berger had said, “When I was informed by the archives that there were documents missing I immediately returned everything I had, except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded.”
The spectacle of a seasoned national-security expert running afoul of procedures for handling highly classified materials struck many observers as highly unusual. Breuer also acknowledged that Berger had walked out of the archives with some of the classified notes in the pockets of his pants and coat.
But the disclosure of an FBI investigation into a Kerry adviser as the Sept. 11 commission prepared to issue its final report Thursday, and immediate attacks on Berger by Republican leaders, underscored the political dimensions to the case.
And the speed with which Berger parted ways with the Kerry campaign pointed out how the investigation threatened to become a political problem for the presumptive Democratic nominee a week before his nominating convention in Boston.
“Mr. Berger does not want any issue surrounding the 9-11 commission to be used for partisan purposes,” Breuer said.
In a statement released Tuesday, Kerry called Berger “my friend,” adding, “He has tirelessly served this nation with honor and distinction. I respect his decision to step aside as an adviser to the campaign until this matter is resolved objectively and fairly.”
Berger, an unpaid adviser to Kerry’s campaign, spoke with the Massachusetts senator’s aides several times a week, and with the candidate several times a month. He has been considered a possible secretary of state in a Kerry administration.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he was ” profoundly troubled ” by the allegations, and said he found Berger’s explanation suspicious. He also questioned whether it was part of an attempt to conceal important information from the commission.
“What information could be so embarrassing that a man with decades of experience in handling classified documents would risk being caught pilfering our nation’s most sensitive secrets?” Hastert asked. “Did these documents detail simple negligence or did they contain something more sinister?”