Berger Will Plead Guilty

WaPo reported Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a former White House national security adviser, plans to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, and will acknowledge intentionally removing and destroying copies of a classified document about the Clinton administration's record on terrorism.

Berger's plea agreement, which was described yesterday by his advisers and was confirmed by Justice Department officials, will have one of former president Bill Clinton's most influential advisers and one of the Democratic Party's leading foreign policy advisers in a federal court this afternoon....

The terms of Berger's agreement required him to acknowledge to the Justice Department the circumstances of the episode. Rather than misplacing or unintentionally throwing away three of the five copies he took from the archives, as the former national security adviser earlier maintained, he shredded them with a pair of scissors late one evening at the downtown offices of his international consulting business.

The document, written by former National Security Council terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke, was an "after-action review" prepared in early 2000 detailing the administration's actions to thwart terrorist attacks during the millennium celebration. It contained considerable discussion about the administration's awareness of the rising threat of attacks on U.S. soil.

Archives officials have said previously that Berger had copies only, and that no original documents were lost. It remains unclear whether Berger knew that, or why he destroyed three versions of a document but left two other versions intact. Officials have said the five versions were largely similar, but contained slight variations as the after-action report moved around different agencies of the executive branch.

Why let him plea bargain? He should be in prison.

CQ blogged He should face obstruction of justice and contempt of Congress just for this action alone, both felonies. The Post, meanwhile, insists on calling these "copies". They were not exact copies; each memo started off as a copy of an original draft by Richard Clarke, but the memos had handwritten notes from each recipient as comments, requests for revision, and suggestions for possible action. Each document was unique, and their destruction by Mr. Scissors means that we will never know what some did with Clarke's information. All we know is that it must have reflected badly on Berger, Clinton, or both. Otherwise, why would Berger destroy them?

This is a travesty. If a lower-level cleared worker had done a fraction of what Berger did in this case, he would face years in prison. Berger gets off with a fine that any of his well-connected friends will wind up underwriting, a gracious gesture of gratitude for pulling their chestnuts out of the fire.

Michelle Malkin blogged Why would Berger destroy documents if they were merely copies of originals retained by Archives?

Expert blogged Not surprised, but very disappointed. Berger should be behind bars, and should never receive national security clearance ever again. I don't see why the Justice Department accepted a plea to begin with. Berger was obviously guilty, and they were never going to see those missing documents again. So what did the government get out of this?

Soliloquy blogged It was not inadvertent

mhking blogged I fully expect Berger to get away without spending a single day in jail. Plus some of the pilfered docs that Berger swiped are still missing. Mission accomplished.

La Shawn blogged As I wrote back in July 2004, Samuel “Sandy” Berger Won’t Go To Jail…

Duffy blogged This scandal -- described in the Times as an "embarrassing episode" -- is clearly a case of CYA. Berger absconded with documents that must have proved embarrassing to the Clinton administration; no other explanation makes sense.

Richie Rich blogged Good luck in your new career, Mr. Berger - it ain't going to be security...

OTB blogged I was willing to give Berger the benefit of the doubt on this given his long record of public service when it appeared to be an impulsive grab. Now, it's rather clear that he purposefully stole the documents and deliberately destroyed them. Had this been a young staff sergeant or GS-7, he would be doing hard time in prison. This is a shameful episode.

One of Glenn Reynolds' readers wants to know why Martha Stewart went to jail and Berger isn't.