In 2004 when former Clinton advisor Sandy Berger was accused of taking papers from the National Archives the Right was indignant, yet today there doesn't seem to be much of a concern about Republican lawyers taking papers to prevent them being reviewed by the public.
According to the Washington Post, a newly released report from the National Archives inspector general's office shows that federal investigators failed in their first attempt to nail down what happened to the file, which became a flashpoint in Roberts' otherwise smooth confirmation process.
The Post added that the lawyers working for the White House were allowed to bring personal belongings with them into the room while they worked, investigators wrote. The lawyers also were left alone in the office with the records for as long as 30 minutes while they participated in conference calls with the White House, the report said. All of which is unusual.
Berger was fined $50,000 by a federal judge for illegally taking classified documents dealing with the terror threats during the 2000 millennium celebration out of the National Archives. And the Republican lawyers? The Post points out that the White House has declined to reveal the identities of the lawyers who conducted the document review, and their names and those of archives officials were redacted in the inspector general's report.
In addition, in the Roberts case, officials had to try to figure out what was in the missing papers. In the Berger case, he returned copies of the papers he took.
So in both cases people take papers from the National Archives that they weren't supposed to. One gets fined. The others? The White House says that there’s no evidence that anybody reviewing the files engaged in wrongdoing.
Maybe they were just smarter about taking and destroying the paper trail.
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