An irritated President Clinton said Monday that he should have been told that the FBI informed two National Security Council aides last year that China was trying to influence U.S. congressional elections and then allegedly swore both aides to secrecy.
By the end of the day, the controversy had developed into an extraordinary public feud, with the FBI contradicting the president, saying in a statement that it didn’t ask the two staff members to keep the information secret.
The White House quickly countered that the FBI did what it denied.
“The White House considers the FBI statement to be in error,” Clinton’s press secretary, Mike McCurry, said, in a sharp rebuff to the law enforcement agency conducting an investigation into possible fundraising violations in the 1996 election.
The White House-FBI clash added another strange twist to an already bizarre fundraising controversy, reflecting growing tension between the two institutions.
White House aides suggested that FBI Director Louis Freeh might have improperly kept the president unaware that a foreign power was illegally trying to influence U.S. elections.
As to whether Freeh should step down, a White House spokesman said “it’s not at that stage.” In the current climate, it could be politically damaging for the president to put any pressure on Freeh to step down while the FBI is investigating White House fundraising.
After Clinton said he was not told about the June 3, 1996, briefing to the two NSC staffers, the FBI issued a statement late in the day that its agents did not tell the two staffers to keep the information from the president.
The statement said senior FBI officials briefed two senior NSC staff members, one of whom was an FBI agent detailed to the NSC, “about the possible covert activities of a foreign government in the United States.”
“The FBI placed no restriction whatsoever on the dissemination up the chain of command at the NSC on any information provided to the NSC senior staff by the FBI during the June 3, 1996, briefing,” the statement said.
But McCurry said the White House counsel’s interviews with the two staff members indicated that they were “adamant” in recalling that they were urged not to disseminate information outside the room where they were briefed.
The Washington Post said at least six members of Congress were told about the investigation into suspected improper Chinese influence in last year’s congressional races; ABC News said as many as 30 members were informed.
How the White House did not pick up such information in a capital where reports and rumors fly swiftly was one of the biggest mysteries. Clinton insisted he did not know until just three weeks ago.
At a press conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Clinton made it clear that he was unhappy that he was denied information about China’s alleged attempts to funnel money into congressional elections.
“It didn’t happen,” Clinton said. “It should have happened. It was a mistake. The president should know.”
Had he known, Clinton said, he would have directed the National Security Council and his chief of staff to look into the evidence about alleged improper influence by the Chinese and then to recommend actions.
Asked why he didn’t seem angry, the president said, “Well, what I seem and what I feel may be two different things.”
The FBI also reportedly is investigating whether China illegally funneled money into the presidential campaign. The FBI investigation reportedly centers on allegations that the Chinese contributions were “laundered” by Asian sources contributing to the Clinton campaign.
The Chinese government denied that it tried to influence U.S. elections.
The FBI-NSC story began to emerge in January. After a newspaper column item appeared that China may have tried to influence the elections, one of the NSC staffers told an NSC lawyer who in turn told a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, but the information was not forwarded to the president.
Only when a Washington Post story appeared in mid-February did the White House find out about the charges and the FBI investigation, Clinton said.
“I absolutely did not know it was done,” the president said. He said that National Security Adviser Samuel Berger is reviewing the episode with his counsel’s office to see “what, if any, action is appropriate and what should have been done.” But he said he has not called Freeh to find out why he was not told about the investigation.
Clinton did not ask Freeh about the allegations because he might be charged with trying to impede the investigation, McCurry said.
White House officials said it is customary for such important information to be passed up the chain of command and called it bizarre, extraordinary and possibly disloyal that Clinton would not have been told, either by the NSC staffers or by Freeh himself.
The FBI statement claimed that it was following “long-established procedure” in disseminating sensitive information to the NSC and disavowed any effort to keep the information from reaching higher levels at the White House. “The purpose of the briefing was to inform the NSC of the information the FBI received.”
McCurry said the two NSC staffers who had been briefed by the FBI were involved in intelligence matters. One of them was detailed from the FBI and the other from another agency, McCurry said.
Even more disturbing from the White House point of view was that several members of Congress, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both California Democrats, were briefed about alleged Chinese attempts to funnel money into congressional elections while the White House was not.
Boxer said she, like Feinstein, received a classified FBI briefing and was told “to be on the alert for any Chinese nationals or representatives of the Chinese government contacting her office in an effort to influence United States foreign policy.”
Feinstein said she received a 10-minute briefing warning her to be on guard for Chinese contributions, but added “there were no specifics about who or how or what to look for,” she said.
