| For Immediate Release Sep 10, 2001 |
Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 |
Bush White House Covering Up for Clinton Administration? Bush Spokesman Ari Fleischer Takes Page from Clinton Smear Machine in Attacking Republican Congressional Chairman Bush Administration Position Part of Broader Policy to Keep Information from the American People (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today threw its support behind Congressman Dan Burton’s efforts to obtain certain Clinton-era documents concerning Janet Reno’s handling of the Chinagate investigations and FBI/mob corruption. The Bush White House is threatening to assert executive privilege over the Clinton Justice Department documents, including the famous “LaBella memo,” which involved the recommendation of Justice official Charles LaBella to Janet Reno that she appoint an independent counsel to investigate Clinton-Gore fundraising abuses. In a swipe at Congressman Burton last week that could have been issued by Clinton political hack Lanny Davis, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer attacked Congress, criticizing its “fishing expeditions and endless investigations.” “The Bush White House is not above the law. Judicial Watch spent eight years litigating against the Clinton gang on issues such as executive privilege. It is a shame to see the Bush White House contemplating obstructionist legal positions that even Janet Reno dared not take. (In its own litigation, Judicial Watch has seen little difference between the stances taken by the by the Bush Administration and those of the Clinton Administration.) There is no absolute right by any government official to keep documents from the American public. In the case of the ‘LaBella Memo,’ there is a public interest in finding out what when on in a Reno Justice Department that looked the other way as a millions of dollars in Chinese communist money went into the Clintons’ campaign and legal defense accounts,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman. “One would be naive to think that the Bush gang is standing on principle. To release the documents on Clinton-Gore illegal fundraising would add to mounting public pressure on the Bush Justice Department to investigate Clinton-Gore. This is something President Bush, because of naked politics, does not want to do. And of course it would also mean that Republican fundraising practices would also come under scrutiny,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “From Republican fundraising to the Vice President’s Energy Task Force, the Bush Administration has tried to deny the American people access to vital information. Judicial Watch will not sit idly by allow these Nixon-era tactics to prevail,” Klayman added. | |